Former President Goodluck Jonathan has accused Barack Obama of interfering in Nigeria’s 2015 election.
He claimed the ex-US leader openly backed the opposition and influenced voters against his government.
Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has accused former United States President Barack Obama of playing a direct role in his defeat during the 2015 general election. Jonathan made the allegation in his memoir, My Transition Hours, which was launched in Abuja on Tuesday.
In the book, Jonathan claimed that Obama took an unusual interest in the Nigerian election and showed open bias in favor of the opposition. He said the then US president acted in a way that suggested he wanted a particular outcome, describing his behavior as overbearing and condescending.
According to Jonathan, Obama released a video message to Nigerians on March 23, 2015, which he interpreted as an attempt to influence voters. “President Obama himself took the unusual step of releasing a video message directly to Nigerians all but telling them how to vote,” Jonathan wrote. He added that Obama’s appeal to Nigerians to “open the next chapter” was a subtle way of urging them to vote for the opposition party to bring in a new government.
Jonathan argued that the message implied that Nigerians were incapable of making their own electoral decisions. “The message was so condescending, it was as if Nigerians did not know what to do and needed Obama to direct them,” he said.
He also criticized the US administration for what he described as double standards. Jonathan said Obama publicly insisted that all Nigerians must be allowed to vote without intimidation or fear, yet Washington opposed the Nigerian government’s plan to intensify military action against Boko Haram insurgents before the election.
The former president accused the US of showing little understanding of the security challenges his administration faced at the time. He noted that the decision to postpone the 2015 election was made to ensure the safety of voters, but American officials viewed it differently.
Jonathan particularly mentioned former US Secretary of State John Kerry, accusing him of being dismissive toward the Nigerian government’s concerns. “How can the US Secretary of State know what is more important for Nigeria than Nigeria’s own government?” Jonathan questioned. “How could they have expected us to conduct elections when Boko Haram controlled part of the North East and were killing and maiming Nigerians?”
He insisted that the postponement of the election did not violate any law and that he remained committed to handing over power on May 29, 2015, as required by the constitution.
Jonathan lost the 2015 presidential election to Muhammadu Buhari, making him the first incumbent Nigerian president to lose a reelection bid. He had earlier completed the tenure of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, who died in 2010, before winning his own mandate in 2011.
The book, which provides a behind-the-scenes account of his years in office and the events leading to his electoral loss, offers one of Jonathan’s most candid assessments of the international influences that shaped Nigeria’s 2015 transition.
