Jonathan Accuses Northern Cabal of Blocking Power Transfe

DDM News

Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has revealed that a key aide to the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua deliberately withheld a handover letter intended for the National Assembly in 2010, an action he says triggered a major constitutional crisis in the country.

In a widely circulated interview with the Rainbow Book Club on Saturday, June 28, 2025, Jonathan stated that President Yar’Adua had drafted a formal letter empowering him, then Vice President, to act as president before departing Nigeria for medical treatment abroad.

Diaspora Digital Media (DDM) reports that Jonathan’s claims have reignited debate over Nigeria’s turbulent political transition during Yar’Adua’s prolonged illness and eventual death in May 2010.

According to Jonathan, the letter, meant to be delivered to both chambers of the National Assembly, was never submitted because an unnamed aide chose to withhold it.

As a result, Nigeria was left in a dangerous constitutional limbo, with no acting president or functioning commander-in-chief for several months.

The former president recounted that, in the absence of a formal transfer of power, he continued to perform limited executive functions such as presiding over Federal Executive Council meetings and approving ministerial memos. However, he stressed that these powers did not include the constitutional authority to serve as commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

“There was no acting president, and there was no commander-in-chief,” Jonathan said. “You are either a commander-in-chief or not. There is no provision for acting commander-in-chief in our constitution.”

He noted that the vacuum created by Yar’Adua’s illness and the refusal to activate the formal succession process led to a dangerous and unprecedented situation in the country.

Jonathan explained that power-sharing dynamics between Nigeria’s northern and southern regions further complicated the transition.

Yar’Adua, a Northern Muslim, had succeeded former President Olusegun Obasanjo, a Southern Christian.

There was an expectation in some quarters that Yar’Adua should complete two terms to maintain political balance before power could return to the South.

He suggested that regional and religious sensitivities made the prospect of his elevation to acting president politically contentious.

Jonathan revealed that while Yar’Adua had indeed signed a letter authorising his vice president to take over in an acting capacity, the document was blocked by a senior official close to the presidency.

He declined to name the individual responsible but made it clear that the aide’s actions disrupted the constitutional process.

The impasse, he said, ultimately forced the National Assembly to invoke the “doctrine of necessity,” a rare legal manoeuvre that allowed lawmakers to empower him to act as president despite the absence of a formal transfer letter from the ailing leader.

Jonathan drew a comparison with the United States, where even a minor medical procedure prompts a temporary handover of power to the vice president.

“They don’t allow a power vacuum,” he said. “If an American president is unconscious for five minutes, power is handed over and taken back once he regains consciousness.”

He lamented that Nigeria remained in a leadership vacuum for an extended period, putting national stability at risk.

“The government was running, yes, but without a commander-in-chief, and that was dangerous,” he said. “It wasn’t until the National Assembly acted that I was officially empowered to lead.”

The National Assembly’s invocation of the doctrine of necessity marked a turning point in Nigerian constitutional history and helped avert a full-blown crisis.

Yar’Adua died in May 2010 without returning to office. Jonathan completed the remainder of the term and went on to win the 2011 presidential election.

His recent revelations have reignited scrutiny of the power structures that shaped that critical era and raised questions about the accountability of presidential aides entrusted with constitutional responsibilities.

Observers say the incident underscores the need for institutional reforms to prevent future political gridlock and to ensure that Nigeria’s democratic processes are not hindered by personal or regional interests.

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