Former President Goodluck Jonathan has revealed that the immediate past US president, Barack Obama, desperately wanted him removed from office.
Jonathan said Obama made it clear that the US wanted a change of government in Nigeria.
The Obama administration was unsatisfied with the way Jonathan handled the fight against corruption, Boko Haram insurgency and the rescue of the kidnapped Chibok school girls, it was learnt.
It is believed that it was based on these reasons that the US at the time placed an arms embargo on Nigeria.
Although the US cited gross abuse of human rights by the Nigerian army as the reason for its decision.
President Donald Trump has reportedly lifted the embargo, with plans underway for the US to sell fighter jets to Nigeria to further advance the anti-Boko Haram war.
In a new book written by Segun Adeniyi and titled 'Against the Run of Play', which chronicles how Jonathan lost the 2015 presidential election, the ex-president said Obama influenced UK and French leaders against him.
Goodluck Jonathan opens up: Jega disappointed me on how he conducted the 2015 general election
He said, "President Barack Obama and his officials made it clear to me by their actions that they wanted a change of government in Nigeria and were ready to do anything to achieve that purpose. They even brought some naval ships into the Gulf of Guinea in the days preceding the election.
"I got on very well with Prime Minister David Cameron but at some point, I noticed that the Americans were putting pressure on him and he had joined them against me.
"But I didn’t realise how far President Obama was prepared to go to remove me until France caved in to the pressure from America."
He said Obama relentlessly shaped the opinions of world leaders against him by accusing his administration of condoning corruption.
"There was this blanket accusation that my body language was supporting corruption, a line invented by the opposition but which the media and civil society bought into and helped project to the world. That was the same thing I kept hearing from the Americans without specific allegations," he added.
The author, Adeniyi, is currently the chairman of THISDAY editorial board.
The book will be launched on Friday, April 28.
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