Former President Goodluck Jonathan has revealed that his former boss, the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, intended for him to take over the country’s leadership while he was on a medical trip abroad.
However, his efforts were thwarted when a close presidential aide allegedly refused to submit the required letter to the National Assembly for ratification.
Jonathan made this disclosure in a recent interview with the Rainbow Book Club, detailing the tense political climate that followed President Yar’Adua’s prolonged absence in 2009 due to ill health
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Jonathan, who was the Vice President at the time, eventually became Acting President and later President in 2010.
“When Yar’Adua was going for the medical checkup, a letter was written… But the person who the letter was handed over to—I will not mention the name to you now—one of Yar’Adua’s aides refused to submit the letter,” Jonathan explained.
He added that Yar’Adua became too ill to control the situation, leaving Nigeria in a constitutional “limbo” where “the president was not available, and we had no acting president.”
Jonathan also shed light on the delicate power-balancing act in Nigeria, which involves religious and regional dynamics.
He noted that since Yar’Adua, a Northern Muslim, had taken over from a Southern Christian (Obasanjo), many believed he should complete his eight-year term before power returned to the South. “That is why even to allow me to act was an issue,” he said.
He clarified that while he could perform some executive duties as Vice President, he lacked the full authority of a Commander-in-Chief. “There was no Commander-in-Chief. That was lacking, and no country allows that gap,” he stressed, comparing it to the American system, where a President hands over power for even minor medical procedures.
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Jonathan credited the National Assembly with ultimately resolving the crisis through the ‘Doctrine of Necessity,’ which allowed him to formally act as President.
He recalled the tense atmosphere, filled with rumors of a coup, and revealed that his own people advised him to leave the presidential residence for his safety.
He refused, saying, “If anybody wants to kill me, it is better you kill me in the State House so that Nigerians will know I was assassinated there and that I had not committed any offence.”
He added humorously, “If I had decided to go and stay in a guest house, they could have gone to kill me there and Nigerians would now say some Indian girl brought apple to kill me—and I would not want those kinds of stories.”
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