Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has revealed the tense and uncertain atmosphere he endured at the Presidential Villa while serving as Vice President under the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.

 

Speaking during an interview with the Rainbow Book Club about his memoir, My Transition Hours, Jonathan disclosed that there were covert plots to force him out of office amid Yar’Adua’s deteriorating health.

 

He said some northern political actors conspired to prevent a power shift to the South, warning that the country was on edge due to a “North-South, Christian-Muslim divide.”

 

“Every day, I was hearing about a coup,” Jonathan recalled.

 

The former leader revealed that at one point, close friends advised him to leave the Villa for safety reasons. However, he refused, choosing instead to remain in the State House.

 

“I told them, ‘If anyone wants to kill me, let them do it in the State House, so Nigerians will know I was assassinated there. I’ve committed no offence,’” he said.

 

Jonathan remained in the Villa until the National Assembly invoked the Doctrine of Necessity, formally making him Acting President in February 2010.