A former governor of Niger State, Babangida Aliyu has said that the North opposed former president Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election bid in 2015 because he reneged on his promise to govern for only one term of four years.

The former governor, who was then the chairman of the Northern Governors Forum made the revelation in the new book by the Chairman of the ThisDay Editorial Board, Mr. Segun Adeniyi titled: “Against The Run of Play.”

Also yesterday, during the formal presentation of the book in Lagos, former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar challenged Nigerian journalists to chronicle events of recent history in books for posterity, adding that he still has faith in the Nigerian Project.

In the book, Aliyu said: “If Jonathan had been clever enough to say he would not run and had stuck with the Peoples Democratic Party’s zoning formula by supporting a young northern candidate, I am almost certain Buhari would have shed his ambition to contest in 2015 knowing there was no way he would win.”

The author of the book had noted that one major issue of contention that rocked the PDP leading up to the election was that by seeking a second term, Jonathan was reneging on his much-talked about pledge to spend only one time in office.

In the same book, Jonathan disagreed, saying that he was misquoted. He said that his pledge to stand election for only one time was based on the suggestion that if the constitution was amended to make for president to spend seven years in office.

However, the former president did also not see any wrong in reneging on this pledge. He was quoted in the book as saying: “In any case, you can make a political promise and change your mind so long as it is within the law.”

The former Niger State governor said that with suspicion mounting that Jonathan was contemplating changing his mind on the one-term deal, PDP governors held meetings with him individually and as a group.

 He said: “As chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, I recalled having to remind him of the commitment he made to us in 2010 before we supported his bid to contest. I know that other governors were also meeting him while a few were seeing themselves as potential candidates.

“In one of my meetings with him, I suggested he could even choose any credible PDP man he wanted from the North and such a person did not have to be among the governors. One day, he would agree to the idea, on another day he would say something else.”

Former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar  (rtd) during the unveiling of the book, said that he would rather a Nigerian author write the book than a foreigner, “who might not understand intricacies behind the events.”

He therefore urged Nigerian journalist to start chronicling events of our recent history.

He said it was the duty of the Nigerian journalist to stimulate a robust discourse of contemporary Nigerian history which would be of great benefit for the future, while also urging journalists to dig deeper to unfold issues surrounding the kidnap of the Chibok girls and the Boko Haram.

He stated that the book, since it was unveiled, had generated a lot of discourse both on the internet and the general public; and also on the political stage, adding that such is necessary to put contemporary Nigerian history on the front burner.

“Segun chose an important subject in Nigerian history. The events around the 2015 election are a defining moment in the history of Nigeria; it is worth the time spent on it.”

The former Head of State enjoined journalists not to limit themselves to just writing reports, but to write books that will tell the Nigerian story.