A former presidential aide refused all efforts to submit late President Umar Yar’Adua’s transfer of authority letter to the National Assembly, Goodluck Jonathan has said.
He, however, failed to publicly mention the name of the aide who refused to submit Yar’adua’s letter to the National Assembly.
Speaking in a recent interview, Jonathan highlighted the effect of the level of power showcased by the cabals during the administration of his predecessor.
Yar’Adua who succeeded former presisent Olusegun Obasanjo died after a long illness and was immediately replaced by Jonathan and Namadi Sambo as vice president.
Continuing Jonathan said Nigeria’s power sharing between the North and South and the Christians and Muslims is the nation’s biggest undoing.
“There’s always a balancing between North and South, Muslims and Christians. And Yar’Adua was a Northern Muslim, serving as president. He took over from a Southern Christian, Obasanjo, who ruled for eight years.
“Definitely the Northern Muslims wanted Yar’Adua to at least do eight years before power would return to the South, likely to another Christian. But his health issues came up and it was a problem. That’s why even allowing me to act as president became an issue,” Jonathan said.
He mentioned that the late presisent as at then wrote the letter of transfer of power in line with the constitution.
“That letter was written, but the person who the letter was handed over to, I will not mention the name to you now, was one of the aides of Yar’Adua, refused to submit the letter to the National Assembly.
“And Yar’Adua became so ill that he had no control of issues,” he noted.
He added that Nigeria, at the time had no presisent or acting President.
He added that while he carried out his duties as the vice president, carrying out some presidential assignments, he could not function as the commander-in-chief.
This he said limited some activities and the decision-making process within the presidency.
