Former President Goodluck Jonathan claims that ex-US President Barack Obama contributed to his defeat in 2015.
Jonathan made the claim in his yet-to-be-released book 'My Transition Hours’ which is set to launch on Tuesday, November 4.
According to him, the Obama administration at the time displayed a level of bias against his government. He called a moment when the US President described him as overbearing and ‘condescending’ in his message to Nigerians ahead of the 2015 general election.
He said: “On March 23, 2015, President Obama himself took the unusual step of releasing a video message directly to Nigerians all but telling them how to vote.”
Giving the details in the book, Jonathan said, “In that video, Obama urged Nigerians to open the ‘next chapter’ by their votes.
“Those who understood subliminal language deciphered that he was prodding the electorate to vote for the opposition to form a new government.”
According to Premium Times, which obtained a copy of the book hours before its unveiling in Abuja on Tuesday, Jonathan had kept the book secret in order to avoid excerpts of it being published ahead of its formal launch.
Recall that Jonathan lost the 2015 elections to the late President Muhammadu Buhari, marking the first time an incumbent president would lose reelection.
He assumed office in 2010 following the death of President Umaru Yar’Adua, getting his own mandate of four years at the 2011 presidential election.
“The message was so condescending, it was as if Nigerians did not know what to do and needed an Obama to direct them,” Jonathan said of the video message.
He lampooned Obama, who was American president from 2009 until 2017, for saying all Nigerians must be able to cast their votes without intimidation or fear, but was reluctant to allow the Nigerian security forces drive Boko Haram insurgents away from the Nigerian territories they had been occupying in order to free Nigerian citizens there ahead of elections.









