It is now official: the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says it lost its
\n16-year hold on power because former President Goodluck Jonathan betrayed
\nthe north.<\/p>\n
Cairo Ojougboh, vice-chairman (south-south) of the PDP, told journalists
\nin Abuja on Friday that if Jonathan had kept to his promise to do only one
\nterm in 2011, the party would not have lost the election.<\/p>\n
In a report published by THISDAY on Sunday, Ojougboh said even the
\nChristian north turned against Jonathan in the 2015 polls because of the
\n\u201cinjustice\u201d of reneging on his promise.<\/p>\n
Although he was widely reported to have promised to do only one term in
\n2011, Jonathan denied entering such a pact and challenged his accusers to
\nprovide evidence.<\/p>\n
But Ojougboh maintained that Jonathan did make the promise after
\nsucceeding President Umaru Musa Yar\u2019Adua, who had barely spent three years
\nin office when he died.<\/p>\n
The PDP leader said: \u201cJonathan himself said he will do only four years.
\nEmirs, leaders and stakeholders in the country accepted that Jonathan will
\ndo only four years so that power can shift to the north. When the time
\ncame, a lot of macabre dance started. People started putting pressure here
\nand there, and people started encouraging Jonathan to contest.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, Jonathan didn\u2019t have the nerve to say, no, I will keep my
\nagreement. So, Jonathan contesting meant that zoning formula had been
\nbreached. The north didn\u2019t take kindly to it; they said, no, this is not
\nwhat we agreed. Even the Christian north that used to be very friendly,
\nespecially the north-central, said, we had an agreement.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome governors, about five of them, left the party because of that
\nbecause they saw what was happening. The north now agreed that they must
\ntake power back, that it was their turn.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the 2015 election was a battle between the north and the south.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe south had done more than enough for the time being, for the agreement
\nof 1998\/1999. So the north said, look we are going to vote for our son,
\nwhether he is good or bad,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Jonathan lost to President Muhammadu Buhari by 2.57 million votes, having
\nwon in 2011 by a difference of 10 million votes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It is now official: the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says it lost its 16-year hold on power because former President Goodluck Jonathan betrayed the north. Cairo Ojougboh, vice-chairman (south-south) of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37654,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n