Since I floated the idea in July, in an article titled “2027: The case for Jonathan’s return to power is theoretical, yet logical” (BusinessDay, July 7, 2025), speculations have been rife that former President Goodluck Jonathan might indeed throw his hat in the ring for the 2027 presidential race. The speculations reached fever pitch recently when Professor Jerry Gana, a former Minister of Information, declared with certitude: “I can confirm that Goodluck Ebele Jonathan will contest the presidential election in 2027 as PDP candidate.”
As if to validate the provenance of that statement, former President Jonathan himself appears to be consulting on a potential comeback bid. He has visited and held closed-door meetings with political and party leaders, as he did recently when he and his associates met with Senator David Mark, the National Chairman of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, and the party’s other leaders in Abuja.
Of course, Jonathan’s 2027 presidential ambition, if indeed he nurses any, is still putative; it’s putative because fraternising with ADC, despite Professor Gana’s claim that he “will” run “as PDP candidate”, suggests that the road to Jonathan’s 2027 candidacy is still paved with uncertainties; uncertainty about the party platform, and uncertainty about the ticket itself. Yet, the mere possibility of Jonathan’s return bid has sent jitters across the presidency and flustered President Tinubu’s party, All Progressives Congress, APC. The fear of Jonathan’s candidacy in 2027 has gripped the presidency and the APC so much so that their reactions can best be described as hysterical and apoplectic.
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Reacting to Professor Gana’s statement, Bayo Onanuga, President Tinubu spokesperson, asserted that the Jonathan administration “severely damaged the economy”, “ran the economy aground” and “put the country is dire straits”. But the same Tinubu administration previously said that former President Buhari’s government “bankrupted Nigeria” and “left a dead economy”. If Jonathan “ran the economy aground” before he left office in 2015, what was there for Buhari to destroy when he took over from him?
Historians will, indeed, recall that Buhari met a bad economy, buffeted by the collapse of world oil prices in 2014, but made the situation extremely worse by pursuing destructive policies. Clearly, President Tinubu assumes that, come 2027, Nigerians won’t remember how the economy was managed under the Jonathan and Buhari administrations and, indeed, under his own, hence his spokesperson, Onanuga, concluded: “Jonathan’s dismal record (in office) will be his obstacle in 2027.” It was a pre-emptive attack born out of panic about Jonathan entering the 2027 race.
“Given the history of judicial independence in Nigeria, few would dismiss that analysis. Sadly, the presidency gave credence to it by hinting that it would challenge Jonathan’s eligibility to run in 2027.”
Of course, it’s not only the presidency that is pre-emptively attacking Jonathan, presumably to ward off the former president from the 2027 contest. President Tinubu’s party, APC, has worked itself into a lather. A day hardly passes without an APC leader or loyalist pouring scorn on Jonathan’s speculative comeback bid. In a tasteless pun, the Lagos chapter of APC said Jonathan would need “an overdose of good luck to be competitive” in 2027, as if they had the Nigerian electorate in their pocket. The former Edo State governor and Tinubu ally, Adams Oshiomhole, now a senator, warned Jonathan: “Only your enemies want you to run in 2027”, implying that Tinubu is so electorally formidable, Jonathan couldn’t match him. But why not let Nigerians decide at the polls?
Well, another Tinubu ally, Nyesom Wike, former Rivers State governor and current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, went further. Speaking on Channels Television, Wike said: “Those urging Jonathan to contest the 2027 presidential election are deliberately plotting to plunge the country into a crisis.” Really? All over the world, some presidents who lost re-election came back to win a second non-consecutive term. But in Nigeria, the mere attempt to do so would, we are told, cause a national crisis! There is no other definition for a phantom democracy, for an illiberal society. Once the spectre of national crisis has been invoked, the recourse to authoritarianism is imminent.
Unfortunately, it’s not only the presidency and APC politicians that are flying the “Stop Jonathan” flag. There are similar strident voices among the commentariat. Some commentators went as far as portraying the Jonathan administration as the worst thing that has ever happened to this country, and poopooed his attempt at a comeback. In a damning anti-Jonathan piece titled “Jonathan, Don’t Just Run … Please flee!”, the columnist Dr Chidi Amuta said Jonathan “did not have a previous record of outstanding service and performance in office”; and was “tepid and often clueless in policy matters.” The veteran journalist Azu Ishiekwene added his own anti-Jonathan voice, listing Jonathan’s policy failures and concluding that he left “a chastening legacy” and “was chased out of office”.
Far be it from me to defend Jonathan’s administration, of which I was critical as a columnist. But after Buhari’s disastrous eight years as president, I would struggle to agree with anyone that Jonathan is the worst president Nigeria has ever had. Yet, after his calamitous first term, during which the economy went into a recession twice, Buhari was elected for a second term, and after his catastrophic eight years, at the end of which he “bankrupted” Nigeria, his party, APC, was returned to power. Elsewhere, Buhari won’t get a second term, yet he did; elsewhere APC won’t be returned to power after Buhari’s ruinous eight-year presidency, yet it did. So, where is the logic in the argument that Jonathan shouldn’t return to power because he ran a lacklustre administration in his previous term?
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But the far more perturbing interventions are the legal ones. Both Festus Keyamo SAN, the aviation minister, and Dr Chidi Odinkalu, a legal scholar, made the point that the courts may deny Jonathan the right to run again because of a constitutional amendment, enacted after he left office in 2015, which prevents anyone from being sworn in thrice. The Jonathan camp, citing precedents, insists he is “100 per cent constitutionally qualified” to contest in 2027. However, Dr Odinkalu added an interesting, if worrying, angle. He said that in deciding whether Jonathan could run again in 2027, “the judges will not be apolitical,” adding that “there will be no end to the number of judges happy to oblige the incumbent in 2027 with judicial cover for a political hit job” of quashing Jonathan’s candidacy.
Given the history of judicial independence in Nigeria, few would dismiss that analysis. Sadly, the presidency gave credence to it by hinting that it would challenge Jonathan’s eligibility to run in 2027. In his statement, Onanuga said: “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.” But why would the presidency put its weight behind a legal challenge to Jonathan’s eligibility? Well, simple: his candidacy threatens Tinubu’s re-election! Yet, using the judiciary to stop Jonathan from running in 2027 would be another nail in the coffin for Nigeria’s hollow democracy.
To be clear, my interest here is non-partisan, but in defence of democratic pluralism and competitive politics. If Nigeria must have a democracy worthy of that name, it must be truly pluralistic and competitive. Sadly, the fear of Jonathan’s comeback bid has so rattled the presidency and the ruling party that their actions and demeanours are antithetical to competitive politics and pluralistic democracy. Unacceptable!
