Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has revealed that his predecessor, Umar Musa Yar’Adua, wanted to hand over the affairs of the country during his illness, but a presidential aide refused to submit the letter to the National Assembly.
Jonathan who did not mention the name of the presidential aide while making the disclosure in an interview on Saturday, said Yar’Adua had sent the letter when he was away on a medical trip.
The former President said there was always a balance between North and South, Muslims and Christians in who runs the affairs of the country as the President.
He said, ”Yar’Adua was a northern Muslim and the president. He took over from a southern Christian, Obasanjo, who ruled for eight years.
“So definitely, the northern Muslims wanted Yar’Adua to at least do eight years before he could come back to the south for another, probably a Christian, to take over.
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”But, well, the health issue came up, and it was the problem. And that is why even allowing me to act was an issue. When Yar’Adua was going for the medical checkup, a letter was written.
“The Constitution says that for the Vice President to act, the President will send a letter to the Senate and the House of Representatives informing them.
“That letter was written, but the person to whom the letter was handed over, I will not mention the name to you now, who was one of the aides of Yar’Adua, refused to submit the letter to the National Assembly.
“Yar’Adua became so ill that he had no control over issues. So we had a country where the President was not available, and there was no Acting President. Yes, as a vice president, you can take over some responsibilities of the president.
“The president of Nigeria has two major responsibilities, firstly, you are the chief executive of the country, just like the Prime Minister of the country.
“The Vice President can assume they don’t need any transfer. And I was doing that because we are having Executive Council meetings, and we were approving memos from ministers. So the government was going on, but there was no Commander-in-Chief,” he said.
