Former governor of Bayelsa State, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, has revealed the order of events that led to Goodluck Jonathan becoming President of Nigeria.
Alamieyeseigha says former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, picked Jonathan, his former deputy as Vice President to late President Umaru Yar’Adua, in an attempt to embarrass him.
He revealed to Sun Newspapers, that the move was part of Obasanjo’s grand plan to kill the ambition of Atiku Abubakar, to succeed him in 2007.
He said: “For Goodluck, I knew that Jonathan was going to be vice president of Nigeria as far back as August 25, 2005. Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, told me that since Atiku and I wanted to take his job, that it would be over his dead body; and that unless he died, Atiku cannot be president of Nigeria.
“Obasanjo said since Atiku had picked me as his running mate, he would make sure that he dealt with and disgraced us. He said he was going to use my deputy to rubbish me before everybody. So, I knew.”
On why he picked Jonathan as his deputy, Alamieyeseigha said he needed an establishment person and somebody who was not too ambitious.
“I needed somebody that, if I travelled outside the State, I could sleep well. It was a combination of these factors that made me to choose Jonathan as my deputy then.
“I set out an objective criteria on the qualities I needed and when the late chief judge of Bayelsa State recommended him (I did not know him before), I entered my car and drove to his residence. I asked him to resign and come and be my running mate. I was already a candidate. He was then in OMPADEC quarters.”
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