By Suleiman Anyalewechi
In what looks like a crack in the ranks of the support base of the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC, the former spokesperson for the South East Tinubu Campaign Organization, Dr. Josef Onoh, on Tuesday, September 30, 2025, declared that former President Goodluck Jonathan is eminently qualified to contest for the nation’s top job in 2027.
The scion of C. C. Onoh family and brother of President Tinubu’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Bianca Odumegwu Ojukwu, faulted the position of President Tinubu’s media aide, Bayo Onanuga, who claimed that the rumoured return plan of Jonathan will be subject to legal scrutiny.
Onanuga, in a statement on Monday, September 29, 2025, while welcoming the much speculated plan by the former President to contest against Tinubu in 2027, warned that Jonathan is not constitutionally qualified to contest, having been sworn-in twice as President of the country.
According to Onanuga, having been sworn-in as President first in 2010 , following the death of former president Umar Musa Yar’Adua, and in 2011, after the general elections , Jonathan can not be sworn-in for the third time as Nigerian leader.
The President’s media aide pointedly told Jonathan to get ready for a legal firework to determine his eligibility or otherwise for the 2027 presidential contest.
“Don’t get us wrong. President Jonathan reserves the right to run if he wishes. It is his inalienable right. President Tinubu will wholeheartedly welcome him if he decides to enter the race.
“But Jonathan will have his day in Court to determine whether
having been sworn-in twice as President, he is constitutionally eligible to contest and if successful, be sworn-in for a third term”, Onanuga stated.
But at an interactive session with the media in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa state capital on Tuesday, Onoh, a Chieftain of the APC from Enugu State, insisted that the issue of the eligibility and or otherwise of Jonathan to contest for the Presidency has long been legally settled.
“The eligibility of former President Jonathan under constitutional term limits is already a settled legal precedent .
“It was established through unchallenged judicial rulings that affirmed his qualification to contest future elections.
” In May, 2022, a Federal High Court Judgment in Yenagoa, with Suit No ( FHC/YNG/CS /86/2022, in which Justice Isa H. Dashen ruled on a case brought by APC members, Andy Solomon and Ibidiye Abraham, against Jonathan, the APC and INEC, the Court held that Jonathan’s assumption of office on May 6, 2010, following the death of President Umar Musa Yar’Adua, was a succession to complete Yar’Adua’s unexpired term under the doctrine of necessity, and did not count toward the two-term limit for elected mandates
“The 2018 Constitutional amendment,which added Section 137 (3) to bar anyone sworn in twice from further contests ,does not apply retroactively to Jonathan.
“The amendment post-dated his tenures, and cannot retroactively disqualify rights accrued under the pre-amendment framework”, Onoh stated.
According to him, the ex-post facto laws are impermissible under Nigeria’s constitutional democracy, citing the 2015 Court of Appeal verdict in Cyriacus Njoku v Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.
Onoh insisted that since the 2022 ruling was never appealed and upturned, the judgment remains final and binding under what he described as res judicata.
“Any suggestions that the courts might revisit this issue is legally unfounded. Nigerian jurisprudence, including Supreme Court decisions such as Marwa v.Nyako (2012) upholds such finality to ensure certainty and prevent endless challenges to settled rights”, he noted.
To buttress the fact that the matter has been settled, the son of the former Governor of old Anambra State, Christian C Onoh, further cited a Federal High Court in 2013 ,( Suit No FHC/ABJ/CS/231/2013 ) in which Justice Mudashiru Oniyangi in his ruling cleared Jonathan to contest for the Presidency in 2015.
According to him, this same verdict was never appealed.
Onoh, therefore, urged President Tinubu to concentrate on formulating people-oriented policies and voter- engagement, instead of dissipating energy on Jonathan’s qualification.
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