United States invited 12 northern governors to determine Jonathan removal - Babangida

A new vista has opened in the alleged conspiracy of the US in the electoral defeat of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Jonathan has blamed former US President Barack Obama for his defeat in the 2015 presidential election.

He said Obama was desperate to have him removed,  and he alleged that the former US president went as far as turning world leaders against him and sending warships into the Gulf of Guinea in the days preceding the election.

In an advance copy of ‘Against the Run of Play’, a book written by Segun Adeniyi, a renowned journalist, Babangida Aliyu, former Niger state governor and ex-chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, gave a hint of possible US involvement in the electoral trouncing of Jonathan.

He said the Obama administration invited 12 northern governors to the US to ascertain their level of commitment to removing Jonathan.

Although, Aliyu said he had no proof of this, he expressed the belief that the reason for their invitation to the US was deeper than discussing the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria.

“I have no proof of course, but I think the idea was to ascertain what the disposition of the north would be to the idea of another term for President Jonathan,” he told Adeniyi.

“That was my reading of the situation. I believe it was all about the 2015 election for which the Americans had resolved not to support Jonathan. They just wanted to size us up for the level of commitment to regime change.”

Aliyu said in one of the sessions, Murtala Nyako, former Adamawa state governor, accused Jonathan of sponsoring Boko Haram with the intent of destroying the north.

He added that Nyako’s accusation signalled to the Americans that the north was not in support Jonathan’s re-election bid.

He also said that if Jonathan had declined to re-contest and had allowed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to field a young candidate from the north, President Muhammadu Buhari would have pulled out of the race.

“If Jonathan had been clever enough to say he would not run and had stuck with the PDP zoning formula by supporting a young northern candidate, I am most certain Buhari would have shelved his ambition to contest in 2015, knowing there was no way he would win,” he said.

The book, which details how Jonathan lost the 2015 election, will be launched on Friday.

Adeniyi, the author, is the editorial board chairman of THISDAY.