Former President, Goodluck Jonathan, has narrated what transpired between him and some northerners when his former boss, Umar Yar’Adua, was battling ill health.
Naijaonpoint reports that Jonathan, who spoke in an interview with the Rainbow Book Club about his memoir, ‘My Transition Hours,’ said he endured tension in the Presidential Villa while serving as Vice President.
He said there were conspiracies aimed at booting him out of the Presidential Villa in a bid to deny the South the opportunity to succeed Yar’Adua.
Jonathan revealed that at some point, when Yar’Adua was out of the country due to his deteriorating health condition, he was advised by some friends to vacate the Presidential Villa for his safety.
Jonathan said he turned down the advice to stay away from the State House regardless of what might happen to him.
He said, “The country was at that time tense following the North-South, Christian-Muslim divide. Every day I was hearing about a coup.
“I remember one day, I was still Vice President, they had not even moved the Doctrine of Necessity and some of my friends came and said, ‘No, you don’t have to sleep here. You have to come and sleep in my guest house.
“I said, ‘No.’ I will stay in the State House. If anybody wants to kill me, it’s better that you kill me in the State House so Nigerians will know that they assassinated me in the State House. They know I have not committed any offence.”