Presidential Aide Withheld Yar’Adua’s Letter For Power Handover To Me, Ex-President Jonathan Reveals

Sunday June 29, 2025

By Idorenyin UMOREN

Nigeria’s Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan has made startling revelations about the constitutional crisis that engulfed Nigeria during the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s prolonged illness, alleging that a top presidential aide deliberately withheld a crucial handover letter from the National Assembly.

In an interview with Rainbow Book Club, trending on Saturday, June 28, Jonathan disclosed that President Yar’Adua had written a formal letter to empower him as acting president before travelling abroad for medical treatment in 2010, but the aide entrusted with the document refused to submit it to lawmakers.

The former president said the aide’s action plunged the country into a constitutional crisis, leaving Nigeria without an acting president or commander-in-chief for months.

He explained that while he could perform executive functions as vice president, including presiding over Federal Executive Council, FEC, meetings and approving ministerial memos, he lacked the constitutional authority to act as commander-in-chief without the formal letter.

He noted that the crisis forced the National Assembly to invoke the ‘doctrine of necessity’, empowering him to act as president without an official letter, a move he compared to the swift transition protocols in the United States, US.