“I Was A Victim Of Betrayal By Politicians In 2015” – Jonathan

By Gideon Njoku

Former President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, has publicly spoken on the betrayal he suffered in 2015. He said that he was betrayed in 2015 by politicians who he apparently thought were with him.

Dr Jonathan spoke in Edo State at the 70th Birthday celebration of his former Chief of State, (CoS) Chief Mike Oghiadomhe.

Jonathan was Nigeria’s President for six years. But the first two years, he only served out the tenure of President Umaru Yar’adua when he passed on in office. Jonathan was the Vice President.

On his own merit, Dr Jonathan contested, and won in 2011, and became the first son of the Niger Delta to occupy the office of the President. He, then, sought for a second term in 2015, but was defeated by then General Muhammadu Buhari, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC.

Referring to that defeat, Jonathan said at Oghiadomhe’s birthday celebration that he was betrayed by politicians.

He described Oghiadomhe as one of his few friends who can stick out their necks for him. Oghiadomhe was Jonathan’s CoS between 2010 and 2014.

Jonathan: “Politics in the Nigerian standard is about betrayals. I witnessed a lot of betrayals during the 2015 election. You will find it difficult to see somebody who says the same thing in the morning, in the afternoon, and in the evening.”

Not a few people agree with Jonathan that politicians he trusted, at the time, threw him under the bus.

It first became public when, at a convention of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Jonathan’s Party,  in Abuja, six Governors, and  a number of other high profile party members, including Atiku Abubakar, Senator  Bukola Saraki, then Speaker of the House of Representatives,  Aminu Tambuwal, staged a walk-out and formed what they called the new PDP – nPDP.

Not long after, they defected to the then new, but fledgling coalition, All Progressives Congress, led by Senator Bola Tinubu. It was, only a couple of them that did not defect. But it was no use. Even though they did not, they worked against Jonathan. Earlier, they had, in the name of Northern Governors, traveled to the US where they met with Government officials. The impression they gave there was not complimentary to Jonathan or his Government. But worse was to come.

During the Campaigns, most of Jonathan’s Ministers from the North, hardly campaigned for him. It was, also, alleged that even his party’s Chairman, betrayed him. Allegedly too, they helped fund the opposition party’s Presidential Candidate.

Ironically, most of those who betrayed him, at the time, were later frustrated out of the APC. They re-defected to the PDP, except a couple of them. While some are still in PDP, others have formed a Coalition and moved into the African Democratic Congress, ADC in a bid to remove President Tinubu in 2027.

Ironically, many of those who betrayed Jonathan are among those wooing him to return to the PDP, or even join the ADC, and run for the office of the President.

Jonathan has given no answer, so far, but many are interpreting Jonathan’s comments on the betrayal he suffered in 2015 to mean that he doesn’t want anything to do with an elective office again. He is satisfied with being a citizen of the world.