Alamieyeseigha: Jonathan Can’t Be Forced to Resign – Thisday
December 7, 2009 by tim
Former Governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, has said nobody can force Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan to resign on the basis of the present state of health of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, who is currently receiving medical treatment in Saudi Arabia.
He was commenting on speculations that some forces were mounting pressure on the vice-president to resign as part of plans to alter the political equation in case the president cannot complete his term.
“The constitution has clearly specified the succession order in the country and that nobody can alter that,” Alamieyeseigha said, insisting that the business of government had not stopped on the account of Yar’Adua’s absence.
He maintained that had the president complied with the provision of the constitution which allows the vice-president to act when his principal is on leave, speculations over the pressure on Jonathan to resign wouldn’t have cropped up.
He said: “Of course, the constitution is very clear on who should act when the president is on leave. All these calls for resignation and re-election in 2011 wouldn’t have come; the president would have gone on leave. I think it was a very costly administrative error.”
The former governor said contrary to the speculation, Jonathan, who was his deputy in his administration as Bayelsa State Governor from 1999 to 2005, “is an individual with strong will”.
“The vice-president I know cannot be intimidated. He cannot be coerced to succumb to pressure because we are all guided by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” he said.
Alamieyeseigha said Jonathan was still in charge in the absence of the president, adding: “I refuse to believe that the vice-president is not aware of the day-to-day politics and programmes of government.”
