2023 Presidency: No automatic ticket for Jonathan

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has ruled out any special preference for former President Goodluck Jonathan if he decides to join the party and obtain the expression of interest and nomination forms to contest the 2023 presidential election.

There have been pressure on Jonathan who, as flag bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), lost the 2015 presidential election to President Muhammadu Buhari to join the ruling party and contest the 2023 presidential election.

Those behind the move, according to Daily Independent findings, are some Northern powerbrokers in the APC, who believe that since the clamour for a power shift to the Southern part of the country in 2023 is so intense, Jonathan should be considered as he can only serve one term, having served out his first term from 2011 to 2015.

Their calculation is that while other presidential aspirants in the South such as Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Rotimi Amaechi, among others, will want to serve two terms if elected president, Jonathan upon serving out a term will hand over to another Northerner in 2027.

Jonathan, who has been in talks with leaders of the APC, was also said to have told them he will only join the party and declare to run if he was made the consensus presidential candidate.

However, that plan seems to have failed as stakeholders in the APC last week ruled out the consensus arrangement for choosing the presidential candidate and rather settled for indirect primary, where party delegates will determine the flagbearer.

Speaking with Daily Independent on Wednesday, a member of the APC National Working Committee (NWC), who spoke on condition of anonymity, said while the Abdullahi Adamu-led executive will be happy to have a former president from the major opposition party join its fold ahead of the 2023 general elections, it will not give any special preference to Jonathan if he decides to contest as this may enrage other aspirants.

According to him, if truly Jonathan joins and decides to contest, the best the party can do for him is to give him a waiver which has also been promised to other likely defectors who want to run on the APC platform.

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“I know the issue of former President Goodluck Jonathan was a top priority for the outgone National Caretaker Committee led by Governor Mai Mala Buni.

But I don’t think that has been the case since the coming on board of the new national chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu”, he said.

When asked if the party is elated by the prospect of Jonathan joining its fold, he said, “Of course, there is no political party that will not be delighted at the prospect of having a former president decamp from the major opposition party, even though they (PDP) themselves have considered him technically out as he has never attended any of their recent stakeholders’ meeting.

“However, one thing I know that if truly the former president wants to run for presidency in our party, the best he can get is a waiver.

It won’t be more than that. He will be given a level playing field to test his popularity like other aspirants.

We are just a month to the presidential primary and he is yet to join the party.

If we now give him a special preference against those who have laboured for the party since its formation in 2013, what do you think will happen? “But I don’t want to speculate.

Let him join the party first. If he does that and now declare interest in the presidency, then we will take it up from there”, he said.

Also speaking on calls on Jonathan to contest the 2023 presidential election, national leader of pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, said those behind the move are irresponsible and unpatriotic people who do not mean well for the country.

According to him, Jonathan as an elder statesman should have rejected the calls outright rather than tell those calling on him to run that he was still consulting and will soon make his position known.

“Such people calling on Jonathan to contest again are irresponsible and unpatriotic.

It will be irresponsible on the part of Jonathan to think of considering such request at all. It is very irresponsible and unpatriotic.

“Jonathan should know better because South-East people have not had their turn.

It is wrong for Jonathan, who should be a states man to have told those urging him to contest that he would consider their request.

“I watched him on television telling them that he would consider their request.

He should not have told them that because he should know that South- South had had its turn and it is now the turn of South-East,” Adebanjo said.

Also speaking, Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), said it will be obnoxious to have Jonathan imposed on other aspirants as the APC consensus presidential candidate.

“We have a big problem on our hands from what I am hearing that some Northern groups, especially governors, are trying to push Jonathan as a consensus candidate.

Everybody is shouting and expressing their displeasure at that. It is obnoxious to have a man like Jonathan imposed on APC as a consensus candidate”. (Daily Independent: Excludes headline)