The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Goodluck Jonathan

  • Can Jonathan contest again?

    Can Jonathan contest again?

    Sir: The question of whether former President Goodluck Jonathan can contest another presidential election has generated much debate. The answer lies in the clear provisions of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended by the Fourth Alteration, Act No. 16 of 2018).

    Section 135(2) of the Constitution stipulates that the maximum tenure of a president is two terms of four years each, amounting to a total of eight years.

    In the special restriction under the 2018 amendment, the fourth alteration introduced Section 137(3), which provides:

    “A person who was sworn in as president to complete the term for which another person was elected as president shall not be elected to such office for more than one single term.”

    This provision was deliberately inserted to regulate situations where a vice president assumes office after the death, resignation, or removal of a sitting president.

    In 2010, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan was sworn in for the first time to complete the tenure of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua after his death. In 2011, he was sworn in a second time following his own electoral victory.

    Therefore, by the clear wording of Section 137(3), Jonathan has already exhausted the constitutional allowance. Having been sworn in twice, he cannot lawfully present himself for another presidential election.

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    The framers of the amendment foresaw this precise scenario. They ensured that no individual could indefinitely recycle themselves in power by exploiting succession loopholes. The amendment protects the sanctity of the two-term limit and preserves fairness in the democratic process.

    This is not a matter of sentiment or politics. It is a matter of law and constitutional clarity. Should Jonathan attempt to contest again, any challenge to his candidacy would almost certainly succeed in court, because the constitution expressly bars any person sworn in twice as president from seeking the office again, irrespective of whether one of those tenures was partial.

    Such an outcome would plunge the nation into needless controversy and distract from the real issues of governance and nation-building.

    Some may argue that Jonathan only served one full elected term, but the constitution is clear: it is not the number of years served but the number of swearing-in that determines eligibility.

    The constitution is unambiguous. While a president is ordinarily entitled to two terms, a vice president who has been sworn in to complete another president’s term and then elected for a subsequent term cannot run again. In the case of Dr. Jonathan, having been sworn in twice already, his eligibility is constitutionally foreclosed.

    •Chionye Hencs Odiaka, <chionyehencs@googlemail.com>

  • Jonathan’s bad luck

    Jonathan’s bad luck

    Some political losses are like death. To those who win, especially when the loser is a man in the top office of the land like Goodluck Jonathan, it is like a big iroko that crashes through a forest. No tree or leaf or bough is stout enough to repulse the thuds, hisses and howls of its fatal fall.

    The victors, the likes of Buhari and his APC, could have looked at Jonathan’s fall as “a magnificent death,” the same way Joseph Conrad penned an obituary, in his metaphoric story titled: Youth about the bonfire of a ship at sea. Hear the prose master: “A magnificent death had come like a grace, like a gift, like a reward to that old ship at the end of her laborious days.”

    If it was a reward for the victor, it was a sackcloth for Jonathan and his PDP. So, the clamour for his return is an effort at resurrection. We were all witnesses to the death and burial, and there has been none like it since the birth of this nation. Jonathan set a record for presidential failure as the first to go belly up in office. We saw Pastor Orubebe and his hysteria at the funeral hour. Jonathan consecrated his annulment in a concession telephone call to Buhari that went viral.

    The call for another Jonathan presidency reflects the four attitudes to a death: denial, rage, negotiation and acceptance. His people, and Jonathan even, have not reached the acceptance stage. They see Jonathan as the Prophet Joel who didn’t go belly up but must survive the biblical whale’s belly, the revenant politician. The thing about mourning is that when mourners have not reached the acceptance phase, they show denial, rage and negotiations, sometimes have the psychosis of witnessing all of them at the same time.

    We saw it in Bala Mohammed in his many spasms. We saw it in Jerry Gana, and his many shadowy advocates. We see it also in Jonathan, who cannot come out in one word to say he will or will not. He does not feel it is the end of his hope, and perhaps, his ambition still flickers in denial and does not agree with Shakespeare that “he that dies pays all debts.” He probably believes Nigerians owe him.

    Mourning in politics means a lot. You mourn a loss of prestige, the privilege of access, the contracts and perks, the new palaces here and abroad, the fattening wallets in dollars and pounds and Euros, the family flamboyance at shopping malls in Europe and North America, the social standing, the free tickets, the photo ops at high-profile events and with the high and mighty, the top perch at social parties, the small impunities over the lives of “lesser” beings, the village honour, the syrupy flatteries.

    Jonathan and his acolytes mourn these. So does the PDP that has been in disarray for some time. Some of those in the interloper party, The ADC, are now bored because they cannot get those perks. It is not about the people. It is the flattery and magnificence of high office.

    The Jonathan who became president and tugged at the popular conscience with his “I had no shoes” rhetoric was a different one who sought re-election. He was known as clueless, and this column called him famously as “his excellency the snake.” But he somehow believed that he would win again. A top politician told me recently about how many henchmen assured him the north was solid for him. He was too naïve to doubt. They told him he had Jigawa, Kano, Zamfara, and they did that to “collect”. And they did in spades. Hence his recent outburst about politicians who betray.

     He had that in mind. And they were the same order of men who sweetened him into disaster.

     They in the words of Shakespeare in Macbeth, flatterers of “yesterdays (who) have lighted fools the way to dusty death.” But Jonathan must be thinking about his chances, and the most challenging is not about getting a ticket, it is whether if he gets a ticket, it will not be in vain. 

    As Aviation Minister Festus Keyamo cautioned, the constitution has said you cannot be sworn in more than twice as president. It is booby trap.

    So, while he and his men may be mourning a death that occurred in 2015, he may be wary of a second death, apologies to the Book of revelations. But a second death is a revelation that comes as a prophecy he is wary of fulfilling.

    Jonathan has made himself to believe he is an African statesman, simply because he accepted in public that he did not win the polls, and waxed poetic about his ambition not worth the blood of innocent lives. It is the sort of meekness that brought him to power in “I had no shoes,” that also inspired his presidential epitaph that he did not want his ambition to equate the shedding of innocent blood.

    But politics is not for meek people. Ambition, as Shakespeare wrote, is made of “sterner stuff.”  Jonathan had good luck and it made him a president. It did not redound to good governance, good welfare, well-calibrated policies. In fact, the policies under his watch contributed to the distortions in the economy now under repair.

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    But what some are seeing as his second birth of good luck are the one-term opportunity for the South, and what some see as an economic situation that strains the poor. Another factor is their reliance on collective amnesia and some non-Yoruba in the South’s belief that, somehow, they can snatch it for one term.

    It is in this context that Peter Obi, ever the hustler, is now a homeless man seeking a shelter of opportunity.

    So, what we have are a few impediments for Jonathan. The biggest of them is the law. It forbids his ambition. Two, he may have to struggle for a party that will damn the law. The PDP does not seem to have goose pimples at his prospects except for a few self-serving carpet baggers who want to climb on his back and have, at least, a job to do until that scheme goes belly up again.

    Again, for a Jonathan that did not heal an economy but broke it, many businesses will remember how broke they were in his days. If a collective amnesia holds forth today, an election campaign can rip up the scab of his time. The ethnic factor, ever an unspoken part of the Jonathan proposal, may turn out to be a bad market because he will return to the dog whistles of tribe and faith that may turn him into the Obi sort of divisive candidacy that may not work again this time.

    So, what we may have is not Goodluck Jonathan of 2011, but a man of hard luck. It all seemed picture perfect for him.

     He did one term and he is the perfect man to complete it but the law says no. He could play messiah for an economy but his past says he failed. He cannot conjure tribe and faith or he will compete with Obi who did it and we know the result.

    So, what we have is Jonathan of bad luck in a time of opportunity. This leaves him and his acolytes to decide whether to accept his political obituary or return to the doomed cycle of denial, rage and negotiation, like Marieke Lucas Rijneveld’s award-winning novel, The Discomfort of Evening. The novel, written in a register of lugubrious innocence, tracks a family that finds it hard to live in acceptance of son’s death.

  • Jonathan goes fishing

    Jonathan goes fishing

    Three Sundays ago, the enigmatic former military head of state Ibrahim Babangida turned 84. He is in good octogenarian company. Except those assassinated during violent takeovers of government, Nigerian leaders have done very well for themselves, achieving a life expectancy most developed countries find enviable. The general neither got the throng he was used to receiving decades ago nor voluminous paid advertisements wishing him happy celebrations, however, many highly placed individuals and leaders have not forgotten him. How could they?

    Former president Goodluck Jonathan, speculated to be renewing his interest in the presidency, was at the former military head of state’s Hilltop residence in Minna to wish him a happy birthday. But was that all he did? Maybe. He described the 84-year-old former leader as “one of the finest leaders whose legacies remain relevant to the nation’s unity and development.” Gen. Babangida, he added, “stands out clearly as a committed leader…” Hopefully he believes his own words, and was not just fishing for support in line with the speculations surrounding his alleged interest in running for president 10 years after he left office. There is of course not a chance he would do better than when he first ruled. Worse, he would in fact be even more beholden to special interests should he get another chance. Now that he has set this scintillating precedent, there are other birthdays for him to consider honouring: Abdulsalami Abubakar; Yakubu Gowon; Olusegun Obasanjo.

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    Many commentators are daily imploring Dr Jonathan not to run. On the contrary, he should. The pains of his 2015 defeat are yet to abate, and the only remedy he sees is another shot at the presidency, and a win. He is of course chasing a chimera, but he won’t see it that way until he comes a cropper and rubbishes the little honour he garnered in his unexceptional years as president.

  • 2027: Jonathan in dilemma, associates split

    2027: Jonathan in dilemma, associates split

    • Why former president embarked on exploratory visits

    • Associate: It costs him nothing to say no if he’s not interested

    • Micro-zoning of presidential ticket poses new landmine in PDP

    Indications from the political camp of former President Goodluck Jonathan suggest that he is interested in joining the 2027 presidential race, contrary to earlier reports.

     His supporters in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are already working around the clock to sell his candidature to stakeholders.

     Sources in Wadata Plaza (PDP National Secretariat) confirmed that high-level consultations are ongoing to woo Jonathan back into active partisan politics. Some northern political elements’ preference for a president who will easily reach compromises, in addition to facilitating the emergence of one of them as a presidential candidate in 2031, is a major motivation for preferring GEJ.

     Observers stated yesterday that recent comments by Jonathan, his cousin, Robert Azibaola, and his special adviser, Ikechukwu Eze, are clear indicators of the former president’s ambitions.

     Besides, The Nation gathered that Jonathan has been reaching out to influential Nigerians about his plan.

     One of those already visited by him is former President Ibrahim Babangida, sources said.

     A political ally of the former president said yesterday that Jonathan’s statement on the alleged betrayal that cost him re-election in 2015 was strategic to draw public sympathy.

     He said if Jonathan was not interested in the race, it would cost him nothing to make a categorical statement to that effect.

      “You find it difficult to see somebody who will say the same thing in the morning and in the evening,” Jonathan said yesterday.

     He spoke during the 70th birthday party of his former Chief of Staff, Chief Mike Ogiadomhe, in Benin, the Edo State capital.

      “I’ve witnessed a lot of betrayers, especially during the 2015 elections (which he lost to the late President Muhammadu Buhari), and Mike is somebody who would take a bullet on my behalf.

     “He is somebody that you can take his word to the bank. Most other politicians, you cannot take their words to the bank. They will tell you something, the next one hour they are saying another.”

     The Jonathan ally who did not want to be named likened the Benin statement to the  September 2010 speech by Jonathan, when he was seeking the presidential ticket of the PDP ahead of the 2011 election.

     He said on that occasion: “I was not born rich, and in my youth, I never imagined that I would be where I am today, but not once did I even give up. Not once did I imagine that a child from Otueke, a small village in the Niger Delta, would one day rise to the position of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

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     “In my early days in school, I had no shoes, no school bags. I carried my books in my hands but never despaired; no car to take me to school, but I never despaired.

     “There were days I had only one meal but I never despaired. I walked miles and crossed rivers to school every day but I never despaired. Didn’t have power, didn’t have generators, studied with lanterns but I never despaired. In spite of these, I finished secondary school, attended the University of Port Harcourt, and now hold a doctorate degree.”

     Azibaola and Eze have also been quick in shooting down any suggestion in the media that he would not be contesting in 2027.

     Responding to a report last week on why Jonathan might not contest, Azibaola dismissed the story as completely false.

     The former President, according to him, “never said he would not contest in 2027. The so-called aide quoted in the publication does not exist.”

     He added that while Jonathan has not officially confirmed his intention to run, he has also not ruled himself out.

     Earlier this week, he told the Aviation Minister, Festus Keyamo, and human-rights activist, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, both of whom had commented on Jonathan’s eligibility in 2027, that their opinion was not needed.

     His words: “Dear Festus Keyamo (SAN), Chidi Odinkalu (Prof), I greet both of you. For the record, three of us are lawyers. We were all pro-democracy activists in the ’90s, and I was a better activist than both of you combined.

     “Rule No. 1: Do not offer legal advice where none is solicited. GEJ (PDP) has numerous, more cerebral, more experienced SANs at his disposal who give him sound, unblemished professional legal advice.

     “Please note: GEJ is 100% constitutionally and legally qualified to contest, if he chooses to. If he decides not to yield to the overwhelming calls to run, it will not be because he is unqualified.

     “Your unsolicited legal view is not of any concern to him and will never be. Don’t waste your precious time dwelling on this. Or should I schedule a meeting so you can be properly educated on the subsisting court judgments on the matter, one of which your party, APC, was a party to?

     “This is not a confirmation that GEJ is running, though.” 

    On his part, Eze, responding to an article entitled “Jonathan, Don’t Just Run… Please Flee!” by newspaper columnist Chidi Amuta, reeled out Jonathan’s achievements while in office.

    He dismissed Amuta’s opinion as an exercise in intellectual revisionism.

    Eze said of his boss: “Since leaving office, Dr. Jonathan has become one of Africa’s most respected elder statesmen. He has led multiple peaceful electoral missions across Africa, been recognised internationally for his role in advancing democratic norms, won the prestigious Sunhak 2025 Peace Prize and remains a credible voice on governance across the continent.

    “That is not the profile of a ‘problem child’ as Amuta insensitively put it, but that of a model leader who chose country over power, peace over pride.

    “Dr. Chidi Amuta’s article is not a critique; it is a careless misrepresentation of a leader whose record continues to speak for itself. Nigerians and history are more discerning than Amuta gives them credit for.”

    Party sources said there is no guarantee of an easy ride for him in getting the PDP presidential ticket despite the current moves by his supporters in the party.

    One source said the decision of the party to micro-zone the presidential ticket has its own challenges, as the three geopolitical zones in the south will have to agree on how to go about it first.

    PDP National Chairman, Ambassador Umar Damagum, Chairman of PDP Governors’ Forum, Bala Mohammed, Chairman of PDP Board of Trustees, Senator Adolphus Wabara and members of the Douye Diri PDP National Zoning Committee, that was set up on Thursday, August 14, affirmed zoning as a major strategy, such that while the party’s November 15-16 national convention will produce a national chairman from the North, comprising North West, North East and North Central, the South, inclusive of South West, South East and South South will produce the party’s 2027 presidential candidate.

    The  North will conduct its own micro-zoning to determine the specific state to produce the national chairmanship candidate.

    A source said: “Micro-zoning is about survival, not sentiment; if we get it wrong, we hand APC the election before the campaign even starts.”

    Another party source said Jonathan’s political base in the Southsouth is no longer guaranteed for him in view of political developments in the zone over the last few years.

    “Edo, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Bayelsa and Cross River used to be Jonathan’s and PDP’s exclusive property. But now, how many of them are for PDP?”, the source said.

    He wondered what magic Jonathan could perform now in any of the states, with the possible exception of his home state, Bayelsa.

    He said most of his supporters in Cross River, like former governor Liyel Imoke, have left for the Africa Democratic Congress (ADC), while the PDP is no longer the same in Rivers.

    The South East, another of his strongholds, is unlikely to vote for him, in the event that Mr. Peter Obi is also on the ballot, said the source.

    Obi’s dilemma is similar to Jonathan’s, as the Labour Party, on which platform the former Anambra State governor contested the 2023 presidential election, is currently in disarray, while Obi is still unsure of joining ADC.

  • Nigerian politics full of liars, betrayers, says Jonathan 

    Nigerian politics full of liars, betrayers, says Jonathan 

    “It’s difficult to see somebody who will say the same thing in the morning and in the evening“

    Former President Goodluck Jonathan has described Nigerian politics as full of betrayers and liars.

     “You find it difficult to see somebody who will say the same thing in the morning and in the evening,” Jonathan said yesterday.

    He spoke during the 70th birthday party of his former Chief of Staff, Chief Mike Ogiadomhe, in Benin, the Edo State capital.

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    But he singled out Ogiadomhe, a former Edo State deputy governor, as reliable and a dependable ally, saying: “I’ve witnessed a lot of betrayers, especially my 2015 elections (which he lost to the late President Muhammadu Buhari), and Mike is somebody who would take a bullet on my behalf.

    “He is somebody that you can take his word to the bank. Most other politicians, you cannot take their words to the bank. They will tell you something, the next one hour they are saying another”.

    Many PDP chieftains have been calling on the former President to run in 2027.

    Some of those inviting him to join the race for the PDP ticket include former Jigawa State Governor, Sule Lamido, former Minister of Information, Prof. Jerry Ghana, and Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed.

     But Jonathan has not responded to the call despite his wife, Dr. Patience Jonathan, in May, declaring that her husband would support President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who she claimed supported Jonathan to win the 2011 election.

    She promised to campaign in 2027 with First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu.

    While the controversy continues, some close allies of the former President have insisted that Jonathan will not throw his hat into the ring.

    “He enjoys being a statesman that he has become since 2015 after he lost the election. He would not like to tarnish his global image. At the same time, he does not want to be the one that would allow himself to be used to destroy Southern solidarity,” one of his strong allies said.

     But his cousin, Robert Azibaola, has insisted that Jonathan will run.

    Edo State Governor, Monday Okpebholo, was represented by Deputy Governor, Dennis Idahosa.

    Also at the party were former Governor Lucky Igbinedion, who Ogiadomhe served as deputy, another former Governor, Osarhiemen Osunbor, and deputy governors of the state like Rev. Peter Obadan, Pius Odubu and Marvelous Omobayo, and former Gombe State Governor, Ibrahim Dakwambo.

  • 2027 presidency: Jonathan constitutionally qualified to contest elections – Azibaola Robert

    2027 presidency: Jonathan constitutionally qualified to contest elections – Azibaola Robert

    Azibaola Robert, a cousin of former President Goodluck Jonathan, has declared that Jonathan is constitutionally and legally qualified to contest the 2027 general elections.

    His statement came amid rising calls from stakeholders who believe Jonathan remains the only opposition figure capable of mounting a strong challenge against President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Jonathan, who served as Nigeria’s president from May 2010 to May 2015, first assumed office in an acting capacity following the death of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.

    He later won the 2011 presidential election under the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) before conceding defeat to Muhammadu Buhari in 2015.

    With the opposition split between the PDP and the Labour Party, and uncertainty surrounding the political ambitions of Peter Obi and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, stakeholders argue that Jonathan’s experience and national appeal position him as the strongest unifying candidate.

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    However, his potential return has sparked debate. Aviation Minister Festus Keyamo, SAN, has urged the PDP not to field Jonathan, while human rights lawyer Professor Chidi Anselm Odinkalu insists he is constitutionally barred from running again.

    Reacting, Robert stressed that Jonathan retains the constitutional right to contest in 2027 if he chooses. He added that if the former president decides not to heed the growing calls, it would not be for lack of qualification.

    He reminded both Keyamo and Odinkalu that he is also a lawyer who was also a prodemocracy activist in the 1990s, adding that, although his comment does not confirm Jonathan’s candidacy.*

    Azibaola wrote on his Facebook page:

    “Dear Festus Keyamo, SAN, Chidi Odinkalu (Prof.), I greet both of you. For the record, we are three lawyers.

    “We all were pro-democracy activists in the 90s, and I was a better activist than both of you combined.

    “RULE NO. 1: Do not offer legal advice where none is solicited. Goodluck Jonathan has numerous, more celebrated, more experienced SANs at his disposal who give him sound, unblemished, professional legal advice only.

    “GEJ is 100% constitutionally and legally qualified to contest if he chooses to. If he chooses not to yield to his overwhelming calls to contest, it would not be because he is not qualified.

    “Your screwed, unsolicited legal view is not of any concern in his bucket list, and it will never be. Don’t waste your precious time further dwelling on this.

    “Or should you schedule a meeting with me so you can get properly educated on the subsisting court judgements on this, one of which your party, APC, was a party?

    “I beg una, make we no dey put too much water inside belle for another person disco dance, make long line no form for latrine door. This is not a confirmation that GEJ is running, though.”

  • Indigenous company gets Jonathan’s praise at unveiling of two aircraft

    Indigenous company gets Jonathan’s praise at unveiling of two aircraft

    Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan has lauded the investments of Azikel Group, an indigenous conglomerate, in aviation and the oil industry, saying it will boost employment and revenue to both federal and Bayelsa state governments.

    Jonathan, who spoke at the event yesterday in Yenagoa, at the unveiling ceremony by the company of its two newly acquired 2025 Bell Helicopter 505 and 2025 Agusta 109SP Elite, said aircrafts will enhance the company’s operations in the Niger-Delta region.

    According to him, the newly acquired helicopters are highly advanced modern aircrafts capable of operating in the challenging offshore conditions in the Niger Delta region.

    The Azikel Group is an indigenous conglomerate that specialises in Dredging, Power and Petroleum.

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    Mr Jonathan also lauded the pace of work at the Azikel Refinery which is at its completion phase.

    He expressed optimism that the Azikel Refinery will bring huge economic benefits to Bayelsa state and Nigeria.

    He said, “The industrial benefits of the Azikel Refinery is such that it would boost the economy and generate a lot of revenue to the Federal and state governments, while Bayelsans and Nigerians would be engaged productively.”

    President of Azikel Group, Dr. Azibapu Eruani, commended President Jonathan for the visit, adding it will spur the company to greater heights.

    According to Eruani, the aircrafts were the latest of their kinds and have highly advanced technological features that enhance safety, comfort and reliability.

    He said, “This is the latest Bell 505 which is the best of its kind; and it’s also built for comfort, and safety, such that the computerised device can detect turbulence and send signals for safe landing.”

    Dr Eruani expressed optimism that the products of the refinery are of the best quality and of the highest grade and meets international specifications.    

    His words, “The products of the Azikel Refinery are of highest quality and grade Euro 6 to meet the highest international specifications.”

  • 2027: exhuming Goodluck Jonathan again

    2027: exhuming Goodluck Jonathan again

    In April 2022, shortly before political parties began their nomination battles for the 2023 presidential election, a group of supporters visited former president Goodluck Jonathan at his Abuja residence to pressure him to throw his hat in the ring. He was characteristically evasive. His response was a model in both brevity and caution. “Yes you are calling me to come and declare for the next election, I cannot tell you I’m declaring,” he had said soothingly. “The political process is ongoing. Just watch out. The key role you must play is that Nigeria must get somebody that will carry young people along.” Presumably he was that somebody who knew how to galvanise the youth. Months before the parties organise the next nominations for the 2027 presidential election, Dr Jonathan has once more come under pressure to enter the race. Dispensing with the lessons of the 2022 experience, the former president has again adopted his cautious and evasive approach.

    This time, he is not facing any hurdle that he didn’t face in 2022. There is still the legal conundrum inserted in the constitution in 2019 forbidding any president who had previously taken oath of office twice from running for the presidency. Responding to the lacuna that arose from the death in office of ex-president Umaru Yar’Adua in 2010, the National Assembly amended the constitution to remove any ambiguity regarding qualification for the presidency. In 2019, the amendment, contained in Section 137(3), came into effect, and it pointedly precludes anyone who completed the term of a previous president and had won another term in office from staking a claim for the office. The lawmakers reasoned that a breach would violate the immutable constitutional provision that no president shall serve more than eight years in office. It is not clear by what legal sleight of hand anyone can still read ambiguity into that amendment or waffle about whether it can be applied retroactively or not.

    In 2022, former vice president Atiku Abubakar and other crowds of ambitious aspirants from the southern part of the country helped banish the possibility of Dr Jonathan entering the contest. And so it was that the once exuberant former president suddenly became grimfaced and deflated. Had he calmly considered the circumstances of the race he was being beguiled into, he would have seen that it was a bridge too far. But strangely, he let himself be seduced by the prospect of returning to familiar haunts he had grown to love, a presidency so powerful and immense, but an office he felt somewhat humiliated out of in 2015. He was not alone in displaying that unnatural desire. Ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo reportedly did not want to relinquish power in 1979, but was coaxed by his fellow generals. He never stopped longing for the office, and when the opportunity came again in 1999, though he at first dissembled, he took it with both hands. In November 2010, Alhaji Atiku became the consensus candidate of the Malam Adamu Ciroma-led Northern Political Leaders Forum (NPFL) in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s presidential primary slated for January 2011. He had defeated Ibrahim Babangida, former military head of state who had ruled for eight years, but still panted after the office more than a decade after he was shooed out.

    Sources within the PDP confirm that Dr Jonathan is being pressured to contest the 2027 presidency on the party’s platform. Bauchi State governor Bala Mohammed, who was for almost five years Dr Jonathan’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT) minister, is believed to be the leading exponent of the Jonathan candidature. He has privately conceded that the legal conundrum barring the former president from contesting could be successfully tackled, and that since Dr Jonathan would then not be entitled to run for a second term should he win, it would pave the way for the return of another northerner, presumably his good self, to take a shot at the presidency. His permutations may be neat, but they are infantile. There are many more leading PDP members lining up behind a Jonathan candidacy, believing that he would stand a better chance than anyone else, including Peter Obi, former Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, of winning. It is not known how reassuring it is to Dr Jonathan that the same party is in some perverse way grooming an alternative in Mr Obi.

    The PDP may wish to exhume Dr Jonathan who cold-shouldered the party after 2015 because he felt betrayed by party bosses, or groom Mr Obi who also abandoned them when he thought they were hostile to his ambition, but in reality they may simply be acknowledging how difficult it is to find a suitable presidential candidate with which to beat the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in 2027. It is also feared that the North and some elements in the PDP may in fact be exhibiting their extreme antipathy towards President Tinubu in particular. Stories of the seductions they have inspired fill the media. But, from all indications, the stories will fizzle out in the coming months, for the forces against them are overwhelming, if not insurmountable. It is true that outside Dr Jonathan and Mr Obi, they do not have anyone of enough heft to champion their cause and put them in battle formation, but to linger too long on the implausible and chimerical candidature of the two runaway politicians is to further deplete their chances and prolong their anguish.

    Both Dr Jonathan and Mr Obi are irritatingly cautious politicians, the kind of caution that encapsulates indecisions and hesitations. They are currently perched on the horns of a dilemma and will not throw their hats in the ring without firm assurances of getting the presidential ticket. Yet, no one in the PDP will give that assurance. More unnervingly, no one in the PDP, not even their brightest legal minds, can give them the assurance that the legal conundrums the courted aspirants face can be resolved in their favour. For all his tentativeness, Dr Jonathan fears that Section 137(3) cannot by any conceivable legal interpretation be stretched to accommodate his ambition. His wife, Dame Patience, a more resolute person than he, thinks the family honour should be redeemed by supporting someone else for the contest. Since leaving the throne, both she and her husband have looked far better and rosier than when they held the reins of power and were subjected to the worst kind of vilifications Dr Jonathan himself thought was unequalled in Africa. In addition, the former president’s aides will be secretly appalled that their principal still harbours any thought of returning to the hot seat.

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    It is expected that the former president will soon announce his disinterest in the race. Regardless of the allure of office, and notwithstanding his suspicious incapacity for deep reflection, he is thought to understand that he is being courted to be cynically deployed to divide the South and pave the way for a northern victory at the poll. He is also thought to understand that they are courting him not because they respect and love him or appreciate his record in office, but because they hope to use him for their own base calculations to reinforce their long-held belief in the superiority and dominance of the North over the South: that they can enthrone and dethrone at will, and that any southerner in office must labour or function under the weight of northern suzerainty and southern vassalage. Dr Jonathan has not given the impression of retaining a tight circle of advisers capable of disaggregating Nigeria’s complex political dynamics and availing him the best options for his considerations. However, he has proved at key moments in his life a capacity for identifying and listening to his best instincts. Those instincts served him well in 2015 when he lost the election and conceded it despite being egged on by his supporters to foment trouble.

    This time, with regard to the 2027 race, he faces far less challenging conundrums than the opposition and election that took him out in 2015. He will see the constitutional impediments to the 2027 race as insurmountable, and the PDP so wracked by internal conflict as to be able to present a formidable force against the enemy. He will also see whatever guarantees they give him concerning the nomination as insufficient to bank on, especially in a party which years of internal dissensions had weakened and disoriented. And finally, he will see the political ramparts and moats upon which the party hopes to erect its defences against the APC as too weak to withstand the ruling party’s cannons, indeed far weaker than the battlements that failed him in 2015. Should he attempt to contest and be given the ticket, he will sense his vulnerability 12 years after he left office much keener than when he ruled supreme and his word was nearly indisputably law. Mr Obi fights common sense and will return to his Labour Party recently retaken from the Julius Abure faction; Dr Jonathan is much calmer, sturdier, and less given to presumptions and oversimplifications. It may take him a little longer to arrange his logic well, but in the end, he will likely resist the witches of Endor bent on summoning his spirit for an ignoble cause.

  • Jonathan quibbles over one-party system

    Jonathan quibbles over one-party system

    Public engagements are sometimes the best chance for former presidents to declaim against public policies they dislike. Former president Goodluck Jonathan seized the occasion of the tribute night and memorial lecture in honour of the late elder statesman Edwin Clark to chafe at what he believed was probably a subtle effort to impose a one-party state on Nigeria. He seemed angrier than he let out on the night, but it was enough that he at least got an opportunity to exhale. He appeared to have thought about the subject, though it is not clear just how deeply. Reading between the lines, he actually sounded like he believed there were subterranean efforts to railroad Nigeria into a one-party state. By self-effacingly suggesting that a one-party goal might not necessarily be nefarious, especially if it was planned, he left room for diverse interpretations of what his personal opinion was or what he thought the country should really embrace.

    A small quote from his remarks on that day of tributes should open a window into his noncommittal view on a subject made needlessly controversial by social media commentators. He said: “When you listen to the news or go through the social media, that is one thing (one-party) that on an occasion like this, one needs to talk about. Yes, countries have practiced a one-party system. It may not be evil after all. But Julius Nyerere of Tanzania used one-party state to stabilise the country in their early days of independence. His country, just like Nigeria, has many tribes and tongues and two principal religions, Christianity and Islam. If he had not done that, some parties would toe the line of region, some on the basis of tribes, and unity would be difficult. But it was properly planned. It was not by accident. If we must as a nation go the one-party route, it must be designed. It must be planned by experts and we must know what we are going into. But if we go through the backdoor by political manipulations, then we will be going into a crisis. So, I will advise that probably in a country like Nigeria, we allow the system to stay as it is, which is a multi-party system. But if we for some reason must go one-party, it should not be an accident.”

    Put simply, Dr Jonathan was saying that if a one-party state was achieved for Nigeria by design, it might be okay. If it was done by accident, or the country stumbles into it, it could be counterproductive. Of course everyone knows that. It was, however, expected of the former president to let his opinion on the subject of a one-party state to be known without any ambiguity. Does he think a one-party state would advance the cause of democracy, however it is interpreted, narrowly or expansively, or does he think it would eventually destabilise the country and enthrone a tyrant? He left that puzzle unresolved, indeed unattended. Instead, he perched on the fence and declared that the problematic part was whether the policy was accidental or designed. But that can hardly suffice. He needed to first resolve whether a one-party state could promote unity and stability in a multi-religious and multi-ethnic country, and then secondarily determine how to conjure that magic. Had the unhappy former president availed us his thoughtful opinion rather than walk a tightrope, it would have been debated whether he made sense or not. More, it would have been obvious whether he gave the matter any deep thought as expected of a former president, or whether he glossed over the subject as was his custom when a controversial matter challenged his convictions.

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    It becomes of course a different ball game whether the country was really being heedlessly coerced into a one-party cauldron, as the former president and many others in the opposition sneered. There have been defections to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) at state and national levels, beginning most remarkably from Delta State, and those defections are still continuing apace. Yes, a few defectors have also developed cold feet, in Delta State and elsewhere, but they are more than countermanded by other even more aromatic defections in different parts of the country, notably in Edo State, to the ruling leviathan. Now, the northern reaches of the country have caught the bug and are exploding in a paroxysm of defections, with no sight of when it would end, or what the country’s political map would look like after the earthquakes have subsided. Yet, these defections are not unprecedented. They are typical of Nigerians politics, from the First Republic till date. Will laws be passed to explicitly forbid defections? It is unlikely. Existing laws appear adequate, regardless of the conundrums those laws have become to jurists. In any case, more relevantly, regarding the current Fourth Republic begun in 1999, there have been times when the country seemed headed either by design or accidental, as Dr Jonathan mused, to a one-party state. In the end the fears proved exaggerated.

    Having ruled Nigeria for about five years, and had he been capable of the introspection many ascribed to him, Dr Jonathan ought to know that Nigeria is too complex and too far gone in multiparty politics to detour to a one-party system. He admittedly indicated preference for the political status quo, but he also seemed open to a different system, if necessary. He, however, should have spent time in his lecture reassuring the country that despite ongoing defections, not to say their dangerous connotations, the country would not go down the one-party chute. More, it was expected that he would spend quality time giving a disquisition on the merits and demerits of a one-party state, probably ending with a suggestion to the country to renew and sustain its multiparty system. But if he had to contend with a country veering towards a one-party system, it is not enough to be indifferent; he should have proceeded to explain the consequences of choosing a one-party system, and do it with everything he has got in his political and intellectual armamentarium. He was right to cite the foundational one-party system of Tanzania, but since that country abolished the one-party system in 1992, it would not be a bad idea for the former president to avail us his study of the lessons Tanzania has learnt since adopting multiparty democracy, particularly within the context of ethnic and regional politics. Might the fact that Julius Nyerere (ruled between 1962 and 1985 as the first president and founding father) came from the smallest ethnic group, the Zanaki, have influenced the adoption of a one-party state? And what role did the two-thirds Christian population and one-third Muslim population play in the adoption of the foundational party system?

    Dr Jonathan continues to be presented with sterling opportunities to shed light on some of the existential conundrums of Nigeria, having ruled for about five years and as the first PhD degree holder. Yes, he might be a zoologist, but his views and the ratiocinations that undergird them have sometimes reflected badly on his scholarship. Even without a proper and systematic education at the highest level, such as Dr Jonathan had the privilege of acquiring, he should still be capable of deep, sobering, and inspiring reflections on the country on account of his experience as a national leader controlling not only the entire country but also the biggest political party in Africa at the time. No, it is not expected that he should do the hard work of researching the building blocks of his speeches, but he is expected to direct the research as well as define the tone and direction of his discourses. He was too overwhelmed to do all that during his presidency, seeing that he was surrounded by too many jobholders and sycophants; but out of office, he now has the time, money and resources to engage in deeper and more productive thinking, finding solutions to the country’s multifarious challenges. His qualifications and presidency should tell him something significant, that much more than his successor in office, the languid and phlegmatic Muhammadu Buhari, he is the reflexive first choice of conference organisers who seek appeal to the cortex rather than the midriff. (Ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo is the favourite of noisemakers and headline grabbers).

    It is too late to draw any water from the well of President Buhari. The well is dry and unproductive. And whatever water is drawn from the well of Chief Obasanjo is bound to be muddy and contaminated, brimful with detritus and all sorts of insidious diseases and harmful organisms. Dr Jonathan could summon the capacity, with a little more effort, patience and thinking to serve the country as its pathfinder. If he has so far not risen to that level, if he has quibbled endlessly on issues, and if he inexplicably identifies with the most whimsical choices, it is simply because his character fails him, as it did repeatedly when he was president. Now, out of office, he appears to be finding it even more difficult to locate the meaning of character, a deficiency that caused him last Wednesday in Abuja to speak from both sides of the mouth on a subject that a properly schooled councillor should explicate with passable profundity.

  • I’ll continue to devote my life to peace, humanity, says Jonathan

    I’ll continue to devote my life to peace, humanity, says Jonathan

    Former President Goodluck Jonathan has pledged to continue to devote his life to the promotion of peace and service to humanity in the country and across the globe.

    Jonathan stated this yesterday in Abuja at a reception organised by the “Friends of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan” on his receiving the 2025 prestigious Sunhak Global Peace Prize Award in Seoul, South Korea.

    The former president said it has always being his desire to impact lives and promote peace in his space.

    “I wouldn’t say much, but only to thank you and to reassure you that my commitment to peace will continue. I will continue to do my little best until the last day I will live on earth. I believe that’s the only way I can serve God, by serving man,” Jonathan said.

    Jonathan said though he suffered while growing up as a child because of his humble background, he always felt sad seeing people suffering or seeing a country going through crisis.

    The former governor of Bayelsa State added that it was his desire to see that no Nigerian suffer any lack, even though it was not so easy or possible for any president to achieve that.

    “That has been my fear, and that was why I was very reluctant when I was approached to come to the centre, to be a vice president.

    “I said, look, Bayelsa is a small state. Let me see what I can do with this small state, whether I can make significant changes, but today here I am,” he said.

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    Jonathan appreciated the organisers of the Sunhak Global Peace Prize Award for counting him worthy, saying “I never expected it.”

    He also appreciated the organisers of the reception for the great honour, even though he initially declined it.

    “I also appreciate all those who attended this reception. I have listened to the comments from all of you, and I can only say thank you for those good words. They are quite encouraging,” he said.

    The 2023 Presidential Candidate of Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, said Nigeria would continue to celebrate Jonathan for the sacrifices he had made to make the country peaceful.

    Obi, who was the Chairman of the occasion, said everybody knew what Jonathan represented and the hope he had brought to Nigeria’s democracy.

    “There is no special day to celebrate this award than today, Easter Day, which is a day of sacrifice. We will continue to celebrate you for the sacrifice you made for this country to be at peace.

    “You have put in a lot of efforts to ensure there is peace in Nigeria, Africa and the world as a whole,” Obi said.

    The Chief Host of the occasion, Azibaola Robert, said the friends of Jonathan found it worthy to celebrate him for the global recognition.

    Robert, an entrepreneur and Managing Director of Kakatar Group, described Jonathan as someone who has strong passion for peace.

    He described the event as an appreciation to the pattern of life that Jonathan had lived and for the impact he had shown as a politician and a statesman.

    Robert said that Jonathan, as a brother, has created a big character very hard to step in because every day there is a new lesson to gain from his presence.

    He described the celebrant as a God-sent not only to his Bayelsa people but to Nigeria and the rest of the world.

    A former Principal Private Secretary to the former President, Amb. Hassan Tukur, described the Sunhak Global Peace Prize Award as well deserved.

    He said Jonathan had demonstrated his love for peace during the crisis in Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Guinea-Bissau and many other countries across the globe, during and after his tenure as president of Nigeria.

    He recalled how Jonathan led ECOWAS, AU and UN to restore peace in Côte d’Ivoire in the aftermath of crisis that followed the disputed 2010 presidential runoff election between former president Laurent Gbagbo and his former Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara.

    Established in 2015, the biennial Sunhak Peace Prize honours individuals and organisations that have shown extraordinary services to global peace and well-being in the areas of sustainable human development, conflict resolution or ecological conservation.