Isaac Samuel
A covert political project to return former President Goodluck Jonathan to Aso Rock in 2027 is gathering steam, reportedly backed by an alliance of some northern political heavyweights who are dissatisfied with the President Bola Tinubu’s led administration.
Already, some stakeholders in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have backed moves to present Jonathan as the party’s consensus southern candidate.
Though, the drive is anchored by Gov. Bala Mohammed of Bauxhi State, who was FCT minister under Jonathan, it is reinforced by open endorsements from former Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido and PDP stalwart Chief Olabode George.
George in an interview earlier this week stated that Jonathan was highly qualified to seek re-election as president on the platform of the party.
“He’s very qualified because he did not leave the party. The more the merrier,” George said in an interview.
“All those who say they want to contest should wait till 2035. He is the easiest to sell because he has a track record, especially the economic indices Nigeria witnessed during his tenure”, he said.
Lamido, on his part described Jonathan as the strongest option for the 2027 presidential election.
“I think for PDP now they should try to woo him [Jonathan]; he is their best bet. To me, he is their best bet. Anybody put forth by the PDP, Nigerians will support him,” Lamido said on Friday during an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
He described Jonathan as an experienced leader who understands governance and works well with others.
The PDP chieftain argued that no current member from the South can match the former president’s pedigree.
“He is most welcome, competent, and very qualified. To me, I welcome him into the PDP. I think so far in the PDP, with all respect to all members, I don’t see a better alternative than Jonathan if he comes to the PDP,” Lamido stated.
In 2023, similar efforts were made to draft the former president into the race.
A coalition of Northern groups, which claimed to be acting independently, said it purchased the presidential expression of interest and nomination forms of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.
However, the former president promptly dismissed the claims at the time.
The plan to draft Jonathan into the 2027 race is according to multiple reports to leverage the former president’s national acceptability and his record of economic stability to rally both southern blocs and sections of the North wary of a prolonged Tinubu presidency.
The PDP’s zoning of the 2027 ticket to the South has provided a legal and political opening for the move.
There has been controversy over the eligibility of Jonathan due to the alteration to the 1999 Constitution.
Femi Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), had argued that Mr Jonathan is not eligible by virtue of 137 (3) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended, which provides as follows:
“A person who was sworn in to complete the term for which another person was elected as president shall not be elected to such office for more than a single term.”
After the death of Yar’Adua, the former Bayelsa State governor was sworn in to complete that tenure. He was re-elected in 2011 but lost in 2015 to Muhammadu Buhari of the APC.
Others lawyers like Mike Ozekhome, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and Abdul Mahmod have argued that Jonathan is eligible to serve another term of four years.
But the drafting exercise is already facing turbulence from within the South.
Former ADC presidential candidate Dumebi Kachikwu alleged that Jonathan has offered Labour Party’s Peter Obi the role of Coordinating Minister of the Economy in exchange for standing down.
At a press conference in Abuja on Friday, Kachikwu also accused northern political elites of engineering Jonathan’s comeback to divide and weaken the South ahead of 2027
Kachikwu added that Obi was also told that he cannot get Northern votes because he is an Ibo man.
He said, “In order to weaken the South, they have now drafted in former President Jonathan into the race who is alleged to be offering Peter Obi the position of Coordinating Minister of the Economy for him to support his ambition.”
He accused former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and a few northern elites of holding political power for decades without nothing to alleviate the illiteracy and poverty in the region.
The former presidential candidate accused the elites from northern Nigeria of using the “weapons of region, religion, tongue, tribe and poverty as they convince millions of poor Northerners that a southern President Tinubu hates them and is the cause of their poverty.”
“On a daily basis they are spreading deliberate falsehoods against not only President Tinubu but against all potential southern aspirants for the Office of President. A Peter Obi has been told in very clear terms that he will never get northern votes as an Ibo man and as such he should accept to be Atiku’s running mate”, he said.
But those backing the President Tinubu’s for another term are already framing the idea as a gift to Tinubu’s re-election bid.
House Committee Chairman on Customs and Excise, Leke Abejide, publicly declared that Tinubu would win more than 32 states if Jonathan were the PDP candidate, citing the incumbent’s popularity in the North-West and North-Central.
The lawmaker, a chieftain of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, said: “My prayer is that they should run like that (different political platforms) and Asiwaju will win 32 states. He may lose maybe Anambra, Abia, he will win Ebonyi; he may win more than 32 states.”
Though two months ago, former first lady Patience Jonathan hinted that her husband would not be in the 2027 race, the former president is yet to officially speak on the matter.
