Jonathan claims, “President Obama himself took the unprecedented step of issuing a video message directly to Nigerians on March 23, 2015, all but telling them how to vote.”
“In that video, Obama invited Nigerians to unlock the ‘next chapter’ with their votes,” Jonathan stated, citing the book’s details.
“Those who understood subliminal language deciphered that he was prodding the electorate to vote for the opposition to form a new government.”
Jonathan had kept the book a secret to prevent parts of it from being released before its official presentation, according to Premium Times, which acquired a copy of the book just hours before its Tuesday unveiling in Abuja.
Jonathan lost the 2015 elections to the late President Muhammadu Buhari, marking the first time an incumbent president would lose reelection.
After President Umaru Yar’Adua passed away in 2010, he took office and was elected president in 2011 with a four-year term.
“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 made fun of Obama, the US president from 2009 to 2017, for stating that all Nigerians should be able to vote without fear or intimidation but refusing to let Nigerian security forces expel Boko Haram militants from the areas they had been occupying in order to liberate Nigerians before elections.
Jonathan also attacked former US Secretary of State John Kerry, claiming that the diplomat was indifferent to his government despite repeated attempts to explain that delaying the election was in Nigeria’s best interests.
“How can the U.S. Secretary of State know what is more important for Nigeria than Nigeria’s own government? How could they have expected us to conduct elections when Boko Haram controlled part of the Northeast and was killing and maiming Nigerians?
“Not even the assurance of the sanctity of the May 29, 2015 handover date could calm them down. In Nigeria, the Constitution is very clear: No president can extend his tenure by one day,” Jonathan stated.
