Ahead of the 2027 Presidential election, the Presidency has warned ex-President Goodluck Jonathan to beware of sugar-coated sheer leaders in the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) goading him on to contest against President Bola Tinubu.
According to a release by the Presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga, Jonathan would have to clear the first hurdle of his eligibility in the court of law having been sworn-in twice as the President of Nigeria.
He also said the former President would also be faced with that task of convincing the people on what new thing he would be bringing to governance having been rejected at the polls in 2015 for ruining the nation’s economy.
Onanuga wrote: “As we begin the march towards the 2027 elections prematurely foisted on the nation by the desperation of the opposition ganging up against President Bola Tinubu despite his glaring giant economic strides, we are once again regaled with a cacophony of voices, most of them full of sound and fury, signifying nothing, to paraphrase inimitable Williams Shakespeare in one of his classic works, Macbeth.
“One recent statement that stands out in its absurdity is Professor Jerry Gana’s. The former Minister of Information and National Orientation, moving to draft former President Goodluck Jonathan into the 2007 presidential race, affirmed that the former president would contest the coming election on the platform of the discredited People’s Democratic Party (PDP), which bequeathed a legacy of economic ruins, after 16 years of bad governance.
“Gana even deluded himself, asserting that the former President would defeat President Tinubu to reclaim power after 12 years.
“Prof. Gana of the defunct MAMSER fame is free to delude himself and engage in his usual comedy; after all, Jonathan’s entering the race would provide another job for the Niger State-born former university don.
“However, we should caution former President Jonathan to be wary of the PDP sugar-coated cheerleaders. Politicians of Jerry Gana’s ilk merely want to lure him into the race to satisfy their personal, political, religious, and ethnic interests. They will abandon him midstream, as they did in 2015, and leave Gentleman Jonathan in the lurch.
“Don’t get us wrong: President Jonathan reserves the right to run if he wishes. It is his inalienable right to contest the presidency again. President Tinubu will wholeheartedly welcome him if he decides to enter the race.
“But Jonathan will have his date in the court of the land. Indeed, the jury will determine whether Jonathan, who was sworn in twice as president, satisfies the constitutional requirements and is eligible to contest the presidency and be sworn in, if successful, for a third term in office.
“Shorn of all those selfish considerations for which some PDP big guns find his candidacy appealing, President Jonathan will also have his encounter with the people as to whether he has anything new to offer after his disastrous six years, for which they voted him out in 2015.
“Let us remind ourselves about Jonathan’s record. We cannot forget in a hurry how his regime, devoid of any clear economic agenda, engaged in frivolous spending, ran the economy aground and put the country in dire straits.
“The nation’s economic downturn, which President Tinubu is working very hard to overcome, actually began under President Jonathan.
“The Jonathan administration severely damaged the economy, and all key indicators declined under his watch. Under him, the so-called business moguls allocated foreign exchange to import fuel, simply pocketing the dollars without importing anything. Some of those big men still have court cases on the issue today.
“Jonathan and his National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd), freely distributed security funds to friends and cronies.”
