Former President Goodluck Jonathan disclosed that the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua signed a letter authorizing him to act in his absence during his prolonged illness, but an aide deliberately withheld the document from the national assembly.
In an interview with the Rainbow Book Club about his memoir My Transition Hours, Jonathan recounted the deep constitutional and political crisis that followed Yar’Adua’s extended absence. The situation created a power vacuum and heightened ethnic and religious tensions across Nigeria.
Jonathan explained that the political unrest intensified because of a regional power-sharing understanding. Yar’Adua, a northern Muslim, had succeeded Olusegun Obasanjo, a southern Christian, under a tacit agreement that the north would retain power for eight years. However, Yar’Adua’s health issues disrupted that plan.
“The health crisis became the main problem. That’s why even allowing me to act became controversial,” Jonathan said.
As vice president, Jonathan found himself in a constitutional bind—able to perform limited executive functions but unable to fully assume the powers of the president, especially the role of commander-in-chief.
“That letter existed. Yar’Adua signed it. But the person entrusted with submitting it refused to deliver it to the national assembly,” he said, withholding the aide’s name. “Yar’Adua eventually became too ill to manage state affairs.”
Jonathan noted that while the vice president could act as the chief executive, the constitution offered no provision for an “acting commander-in-chief.”
“You are either commander-in-chief or you’re not,” he said.
The absence of formal authority forced the national assembly to invoke the doctrine of necessity to officially appoint Jonathan as acting president. During that period, the country teetered on the edge of instability, with daily rumors of a military coup.
“Every day, people warned of a coup. The country was deeply divided along religious and regional lines,” Jonathan recalled.
He also shared how friends, fearing for his safety, urged him to leave the presidential villa, but he refused.
“They told me, ‘Don’t sleep here, come to my guest house.’ I said no. If they want to kill me, let them do it in the state house so Nigerians will know what happened,” he said. “I didn’t want any misleading stories to emerge.”
Despite the tension, Jonathan said he remained calm and composed.
“I truly wasn’t worried. I stayed calm throughout,” he said.
