Why I withdrew support for Jonathan in 2015 — Oshiomhole

A former Governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole, has said ‘the incompetence’ of ex-President, Goodluck Jonathan, prompted him to withdraw his support for the second term bid of the former leader.

Oshiomhole said this was despite the geographical kinship he had with Jonathan, saying doing anything short of withdrawing his support would ruin the country.

Oshiomhole, in the current edition of The Interview said the level of incompetence that trailed the first term of Jonathan’s administration was very revealing as even the road to Yenagoa (Jonathan’s state capital) did not show that a president came from there.

“Competence that was expected was not there; the level of fairness was not there. And even if you talk about sentiments, the sentiment of servicing the geo-political zones; the South South had nothing to boast of. Even the road to Yenagoa did not show that a president came from there,” the Editor-in-Chief of The Interview, Azu Ishiekwene, quoted Oshiomhole to have said.

Oshiomhole also referred to a private meeting where he advised, through Jonathan’s former Chief of Staff, Mike Oghiadomhe, that the former president should not contest after 2011, but that his advice was ignored.

“I said let Jonathan complete Yar’Adua’s second term and hand over to a northerner,” he said.

Ishiekwene said Oshiomhole also spoke, for the first time, on why he accepted the N200m severance package approved for him by the Edo State House of Assembly.

“I was never going to talk about it (the severance package),” he said, “but I have to say it now so that you can understand where I’m coming from.”

The former labour leader then delved into his decades of service as a union leader: ‘Without a kobo’ as severance benefit, the legal challenge he mounted to remove his predecessor and his legacy, among many other explosive subjects.