Nigeria Elections: Jonathan vowed to serve single term – Obasanjo

President Goodluck Jonathan undertook before elections in 2011 to serve only one term as president, former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said. Bloomberg quotes Obasanjo as saying in an interview in London: “President Jonathan said, not only once, twice, publicly, not only inside Nigeria, but outside Nigeria, that he would have one term, and said that to me,” Jonathan has been in power since his predecessor, Umaru Yar’Adua, died in office in 2010. When he won 2011 elections he broke an unwritten convention within the ruling People’s Democratic Party to rotate power between the south and the mainly Muslim North, but has not yet said whether he intends to stand for re-election in the 2015 general election.

One of the things that is very important in the life of any man or any person, is that he will be a man or a person of his word,” Obasanjo said. “If you decide your word should not be taken seriously that’s entirely up to you.” Obasanjo, who backed Jonathan’s presidential campaign four years ago, declined to say whether Jonathan should or shouldn’t stand for re-election. A former military ruler in the late 1970s, he later served two terms as elected president after military government ended in 1999. Reuben Abati, Jonathan’s spokesman, couldn’t be reached on his mobile phone for comment as it was switched off, said Bloomberg.

Source: Daily Trust