Former President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan

Dr Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, one time Niger State Governor and former Chairman, Northern Governors Forum, has explained what happened that Dr. Goodluck Jonathan lost the 2015 election and Muhammadu Buhari won. The northern governors, nothwithstanding their parties (Peoples Democratic Party, PDP or All Progressives Congress, APC), refused to support the incumbent then, Jonathan.
Reason: Jonathan, according to Aliyu, reneged on the promise he made to the Governors that he would only contest for one term to complete the eight years of his late principal, Umaru Yar’Adua.
He was quoted by The Nation that following the sudden passage of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua on May 5, 2010, the leadership of the then governing Peoples Democratic Party along with the state governors under the flagship of the party had series of meetings on the presidency and the future of the party.
In his words: “All the governors in the north under the PDP supported the then Vice President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to complete the remaining years of Yar’Adua’s tenure and to contest the next presidential election as a sole candidate of our great party.
“However, midway, President Goodluck Jonathan insisted to run for the office in 2015 against the grain of our earlier agreement.
“Since this was against the grain of our earlier agreement in the party, and which we the governors in the north felt the North would have been shortchanged if Jonathan had succeeded, we rose stoutly to insist on the agreement we all had.
“On that premise, we opposed Jonathan. But all along, Goodluck Jonathan had enjoyed every support from the governors in the north and the entire region.”
He added: “As Chairman of the 19 Northern States Governors Forum, the task was on my shoulders to voice out the position of the North which stood disadvantaged by the demise of Alhaji Musa Yar’Adua and the insistence that Jonathan should run for the office of president in 2015.

“We acted in good spirit and argued our points based on principle and on the subsisting agreement we had with Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. That agreement was written and accepted by all.”