Considering the ongoing permutations on all fronts, it sounds rather odd to believe that some highly influential northerners are said to be dragging former President Goodluck Jonathan into the 2027 race. KEHINDE OSASONA in this piece wonders if he’d succumb to the pressure.....CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING.>>
Movers or jokers?
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!A few months ago, power brokers from the northern part of the country reportedly initiated moves to draft former president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, into the 2027 presidential race. Jonathan, it would be recalled, served as the vice-president under the administration of the late Umar Musa Yar’Adua.
Findings by Blueprint Weekend have revealed that the faces behind the new move have weighed the option of Jonathan’s eligibility status as an advantage as well as their quest for power to return to the North earlier than 2031.
Having served as president between 2011 and 2015, Jonathan is constitutionally qualified for a term of four years if he yields to pressure from the initiators of the project, who are believed to be political bigwigs and retired Generals of northern extraction.
While pushing further, another youth group from the same region known as Team New Nigeria (TNN) reportedly flooded the city of Kano with Jonathan’s campaign posters, a confirmation of the earlier speculation about GEJ’s possible return.
The posters bearing Jonathan’s portrait, it was gathered, had inscriptions like “Team New Nigeria 2027: The Goodluck Nigeria Needs – Dr Goodluck Jonathan.”
Led by one Modibbo Yakubu Farakwai, it remains unclear if Jonathan has endorsed the group’s activities or has his foot soldiers working within.
However, as talks intensified, the brains behind the project it was gathered have started lobbying and recruiting like minds across the six geopolitical zones, civil and pro-democracy bodies, and other pressure groups for the ‘GEJ 2027 project.’
The promoters of the project, we learnt, are willing to take advantage of the ‘search’ for a credible and popular candidate with less baggage from the southern part of the country, capable of ousting President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) with ease.
By their estimations, the former president not only commands respect, they are of the view that he is a sellable candidate that could be bought easily by northerners.
PDP, Bala factor
As the jostling for his candidacy gathers momentum, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party may have also thrown its weight behind the call for Jonathan to join the race; however, it could not be immediately ascertained if such a standpoint had the blessing of the national headquarters of the party as well as its hierarchy.
The Ambassador Umar Illiya Damagum is not known to be an ally of either Jonathan or Atiku.
Nevertheless, it was gathered that the embattled acting national chairman of the PDP has sympathy for Wike and his loyalists.
But while also lending his voice to the Jonathan course, the chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, who is the governor of Bauchi state, Senator Bala Mohammed, once told newsmen that he was ready to jettison his presidential ambition if Jonathan agreed to contest.
Justifying his call further, Mohammed, who gave the revelation in Abuja, said the former president has the requisite experience to revamp the economy, adding that he would do a good job if given a second mandate to manage the country.
“If you are talking about a southern Presidency in 2027, we should be looking at one who has enjoyed one term and will probably give Nigerians hope and prosperity as opposed to the one we have in power.
“Secondly, if you are also talking about a nationalist, somebody who would not rig an election to keep himself in office, who announced before the counting process was over, that he lost, it has to be Jonathan,” Bala said.
But dismissing the whole plan, pundits who are keen followers of the Nigerian political landscape, described it as a “huge joke.”
According to them, the political terrain has changed and has advanced, and that the arena is only for political war horses who have seen it all.
Jonathan for them does not suit the bill.
Also, in an exclusive chat, Rowland Ariyo, a political analyst, told this reporter that it “takes more than just goodwill to win election in today’s Nigeria,” insisting that the current political terrain “is not for the lilly-livered.”
“Time, as they say, will tell if the movers are pretenders or not. Why I am saying this is that the politics of today Nigeria has gone beyond just liking or not liking a candidate’s face.
“You know what, you must be popular, be a big spender with a war chest, and more importantly be courageous to even enter the ring in the first place.
“The Goodluck in question is lacking all of this, and it will take magic for him to grab the PDP ticket in the first place, not to talk of facing Tinubu. I mean, it does not add up. However, as the saying goes, never say never who knows what tomorrow holds,” he said.
Odds against GEJ
The current scenario playing out has obviously reignited the scramble for the presidential ticket of the PDP like it was before it tore the party apart.
The former candidate of the party in the 2023 presidential election, Atiku Abubakar, and Nyesom Wike, a former governor of Rivers state, and now the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), fought over who deserved what while it lasted.
It also led to the formation of a political group of the then sitting governors called ‘G5’ which resisted Atiku’s candidacy and swayed votes.
Now, bringing GEJ into the picture again may further compound the already bad situation.
A pointer to that came to the fore when a member of the party deflated all the plans and permutations geared towards propping up GEJ ahead of 2027 as a ruse.
The source within the People Democratic Party (PDP) national secretariat, who refused to be named, told this medium that there was no vacancy, boasting that the only slot had been taken.
Confused by his statement and the assertions that followed, our correspondent reminded him that the slot is yet to be taken by anyone. But, again, he replied, saying, “Atiku is still interested in 2027.”
Other possibilities
As part of their Plan B, this reporter gathered that like former presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, did, if the PDP arrangement did not fly, the proponents of the Jonathan project might look elsewhere for an alternative platform.
Obi had left PDP unannounced when it was glaring that the likes of Atiku and Rabiu Kwakwanso would not allow him to get the party’s ticket.
APC, Patience Jonathan’s views
Meanwhile, the ruling APC, dismissed the threats and cautioned the PDP not to stir up the political landscape prematurely.
APC’s National Director of Publicity, Bala Ibrahim, labelled the PDP’s actions as signs of desperation, asserting that Jonathan’s potential candidacy poses no threat to the party.
“However, it’s far too early to be talking about 2027. Less than 40% of President Tinubu’s mandate has been consumed. Jonathan was defeated by the APC while in power, and defeating him again would be even easier,” he said.
He also debunked the claim that the APC’s victory over Jonathan in 2015 was solely due to Muhammadu Buhari’s cult-like following, arguing that Tinubu’s leadership was instrumental in securing the victory. Ibrahim expressed confidence that the party’s strategic positioning under Tinubu would prevail in 2027 even if Jonathan were to run again.
For former First Lady Dame Patience Jonathan, her husband Goodluck Jonathan would not join the presidential race in 2027, saying he had occupied the highest political office in the country before and has no further political ambition.…..For More READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE ▶▶
