Why I almost cried when I was appointed Vice President — Jonathan

He asked elected officials to act peacefully both during and after the 2023 elections.

When he was selected to run against the late Musa Yar’Adua, the former president Goodluck Jonathan claimed he never wanted to be Vice President of Nigeria. He said that he grieved but had to accept that it was his fate.

He asked elected officials to act peacefully both during and after the 2023 elections.

When Jonathan visited Bayelsa State Governor Douye Diri to offer condolences following the passing of his father in Sampou Village in the state’s Kolokuma/Opokuma Local Government Area, he made this statement.

“As a national leader who had the honour of holding office at both the state and federal levels, I can only suggest that politics is not about having to be there. You will be present if God intends for you to be. If it hasn’t been your turn yet, you won’t be there. I nearly sobbed when I was promoted to vice president because I never wanted to do that, but it was my fate and I had to go.

Consequently, I counsel those who are interested in these positions and those who support them to behave extremely nicely. They want to be of service to us, not to themselves.

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“I advise individuals to start their own businesses if they are ambitious enough. Go to bed if people don’t want you at the state assembly even if you want to be there. Go sleep or do business if people don’t want you to be governor.

But if you intend to treat us as fellow citizens, you must show humility and promise not to murder us first. So long as people behave peacefully, they will succeed in winning elections, according to Jonathan.

Jonathan, then the governor of Bayelsa State, was selected by Yar’Adua to serve as his running mate on the Peoples Democratic Party’s presidential ticket before to the 2007 general elections (PDP). He was the Vice President for three years before Yar’Adua passed away after they won the election.

Jonathan took over as President when Yar-Adua passed away and finished the term. He ran for office in 2011 and won, earning a second four-year term. However in 2015, he was defeated in his bid for reelection by Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC).