Nigerians react as ex-President Jonathan makes fresh revelation of how Obama aided his re-election defeat

Former President Goodluck Jonathan who served only one term in office before his ouster in the 2015 election, has revealed the role played by the Barack Obama-led government of the United States in his second term re-election defeat.

 

 

In an interview which appears to be a clip from a documentary in the works about the ex-President, he said the level of interference by the Obama government during the election was overwhelming.

 

Jonathan cited the instance where Obama urged Nigerians to vote for a new chapter, a cryptic way of urging the electorates to do away with the old government.

 

The former Nigerian president also cited the instance where wife of the American President, Michele Obama, flaunted the placard of Bring Back Our Girls.

 

The Bring Back Our Girls campaign was used to galvanise international pressure on the Nigerian government to speed up the rescue of over 200 girls abducted in Chibok, a community in Borno State in 2014.

 

Jonathan also cited the visit of the American Secretary of State at the time, John Kerry on the eve of the election to Nigeria. Kerry had severally met Jonathan’s major opponent in the time, Muhammadu Buhari. He said that level of interference was overwhelming.

 

 

Jonathan said: “It is not as if I couldn’t won the election even with that. But if, by my own thinking, and the way some other people also looked at it, they go outside the normal diplomatic relationship, then it should be mentioned. Sending that person (Kerry) to Nigeria at the eve of an election after Obama even issued a statement directing Nigerians to vote for the next chapter, that tells you something.”

Nigerians react

 

On X, formerly Twitter, Nigerians have weighed into the matter.

@_iRoyalty_ said: “@BarackObama was that evil. I wish he never made it to the white house. It was clear. He only cared about making homosexuality a global trend, nothing else mattered to him. A disgrace to the African race.”

@onwe_tc said: “100 years from now, Historians and Anthropologists will study the brain of present day Nigerians to understand whether we had the same brain as other human beings. They’ll put in long hours to figure out how a country threw away it’s peak-level economic prosperity for “Sai Baba”.

@Royal_Spotlight said: “Jonathan was facing both forces within and outside, but he didn’t use his powers like APC are doing now.”

@AishaYesufu said: “Jonathan removed himself from office. People rallied round him in 2011. They voted for one of their own with no shoe. People demonstrated for him to be made Acting President. He got into office and became arrogant. He watched people being killed and did nothing. Not even to sympathize. He started attacking institutions and our democracy. He ended up losing to a man many didn’t like whom he had defeated 2011. Buhari did not win the 2015 election. Jonathan lost it. It was Jonathan’s to win and he and his party arrogantly thought they will rule for 50 years.”

 

First time I'm hearing Jonathan be so direct about the way they removed him from office and the role Obama played in it.

But why hobnob with the same people that planned his ouster? Why couldn't he take a stand when it mattered most?pic.twitter.com/i2prU18ERX

— Spotlight Abby (@Spotlight_Abby) January 21, 2024