Some powerful leaders in the African Democratic Congress, ADC, are reaching out to former President Goodluck Jonathan to run for the presidency in 2027, according to the Nigerian Tribune, which quoted different sources.
Apart from Jonathan, those planning to secure the ADC presidential ticket include, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Rotimi Amaechi, a former governor of Rivers state, Peter Obi of the Labour Party, among others.
According to the newspaper, the party is prepared to cede its sole presidential ticket to the former Nigerian leader once he makes up his mind to join the race. Sources who spoke, are however worried of his loyalty to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, under which he served as Nigeria’s president for six years, between 2009 and 2015.
A source close to both the former president and the ADC told the newspaper on Friday that the former president is seriously considering running in the coming presidential polls.
The source confirmed that key figures in the ADC were comfortable with having Jonathan as their presidential candidate and had, in fact, reached out to him.
He, however, said the former president was torn between his loyalty to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) “which made him” and the ADC which, he said, had the potential of winning the election if it gets the right candidate.
“Former President Goodluck Jonathan is worried that certain persons with strong links to the Villa may still be in control of the PDP and may mess him up if he seeks the ticket of that party,” the source said.
He added that Jonathan’s only issue with the ADC is that “he does not want to contest against Peter Obi because he believes that the Igbo people supported him in 2015 even more than his own Ijaw people.”
While saying emphatically that Jonathan would run except he could not find a platform, the source added that “if he chooses our party (ADC), we will zone the presidency to the South. If he does not come to us, we will have no option than to go to the North because politics is about numbers and winning.”
Jonathan left office in 2015, after he was defeated by the late President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and has since distanced himself from active politics and from his party, the PDP, as he no ,longer attend the party’s meetings.
Instead, the former leader who has been globally adjudged as a statesman for voluntarily relinquishing power, has busied himself by playing mediatory roles as the representatives of African Union and other world bodies, in some countries facing political turmoil.
The magazine however reported that some elements in the PDP are planning to bring hi into the race against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the next election. The former Bayelsa state governor has yet to speak on the issue publicly even though, those who know him clsoely insist that he’s consulting with who who is who in the country.
His recent visit to former military leader, Gen Ibrahim Banbangia (rtd.), some say is part of the ongoing consultations to get the support of those that matter in the country.
Meanwhile, the ruling APC said on Friday that the Jonathan 2027 Project is a wild goose chase by those behind it, saying it would result to nothing as he cannot defeat President Tinubu.
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