The Northern Youth Leaders Forum, has said the security problems facing the country was a result of Jonathan's refusal to honor a one term agreement between him and Northern powers who insist that the North must complete late Yar Adua's tenure, which was cut short by his unfortunate demise in 2010.
The group which is a coalition of northern socio-political groups, said the North had to resort to playing dirty to ensure Jonathan pays the price for not honoring the agreement by deciding to run for a second term in office, in 2015.
The NLYF Chairman, Elliot Afiyo, said this while speaking with journalists in Yola on Saturday.
Afiyo said though the coalition had been championing rotational presidency, it had now changed its mind as the country needed to look beyond the regions to get a President capable of dealing with the current security challenges.
According to him, a “coalition or cabal is behind the current security situation being faced by the country.”
The NLYF chairman said, “With what is going on in this country, we need to bring anybody from anywhere in this country to deal with the situation.
“If you flash back to the Jonathan regime, you will observe that Jonathan was ready and willing to deal with the security situation, but some people, especially from the North (undermined him) – we have evidence. A coalition or cabal benefitting from the insecurity is causing the insecurity in this country. And you need somebody with a lion heart to deal with it. That is why we threw the presidency open.”
He added, “If Jonathan had agreed on that one term, we wouldn’t have been having all these insecurity (challenges) that we are having.”
Former Governor of Niger State, Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, admitted that the entire North worked against Jonathan in 2015, for failing to honor a secret agreement reached by all the Northern States Governors, an agreement he claimed was made in good faith.
Aliyu who at the time, was Chairman of the Northern States Governors Forum, said they had to secretly work against the former President, when it became clear that Jonathan was determined to seek reelection, which goes against their earlier agreement.
He said after they had supported Jonathan to complete late president Umaru Yar’Adua’s tenure and contested in 2011, the former president insisted to run for the office in 2015 against the grain of their earlier agreement.
“Following the sudden passage of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua on May 5th, 2010, the leadership of the then governing Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) along with the state governors under the flagship of the party had series of meetings on the presidency and the future of our great party.
“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,” Aliyu said in a statement on Friday.
Aliyu, who was reacting to comments that he worked against Jonathan’s reelection in 2015, insisted it was not his decision but that of the northern governors forum, which he was then then chairman.
Aliyu said that since Jonathan’s quest to contest in 2015 was against an earlier agreement in the party, and which the governors in the North felt their region would been shortchanged if Jonathan had succeeded, they rose stoutly to insist on the enforcement of the agreement.
“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.
“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,” Aliyu said, adding that they didn’t oppose Jonathan but were opposed to his insistence for a second term in office in beyond 2015.
“The North would have lost out completely,” Aliyu said of what would have happened if Jonathan had succeeded in 2015.
“It is, therefore, wrong for anyone to erroneously say that I, Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu had opposed Goodluck Jonathan,” the former governor added