Twice in recent presidential election cycles, Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria’s former one-term president, allowed speculations to spread like wildfire that he would seek the presidency again. But twice, without as much as a whimper, the speculations fizzled out into thin air like a puff of wind. Recently, Jonathan issued an angry rebuttal to an allegation that he was offered N500bn to run against Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, to split the South-South votes. But such allegations only arose because of the cowardly manner Jonathan has pursued what’s truly his ambition to become Nigeria’s president again after failing to secure a second term in 2015, the only incumbent president, so far, to suffer that fate.
Ahead of the 2023 presidential election, former President Jonathan told supporters who urged him to run again: “The political process is ongoing. Just watch out!” Later, a group of pastoralists and Almajirai reportedly bought Jonathan APC’s N100mn nomination forms. Then, he held a long closed-door meeting with APC’s then national chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, presumably to see if the party would field him as its candidate. Leaving aside that it was APC that dislodged him from the presidency in 2015, Jonathan’s overture to the party was utterly naïve as the party would have to pick him over Bola Tinubu, APC’s co-founder, who strongly believed it was his turn to be president (“Emi lokan”), given he “made” Muhammadu Buhari president in 2015. Well, Jonathan abandoned his not-too-subtle, yet craven, attempt to join the race.
Fast forward to 2026, a year before the 2027 presidential poll. Speculations were rife again that Jonathan would run for the presidency. Earlier in October 2025, Professor Jerry Gana, a PDP chieftain and former information minister, said: “I can confirm that Goodluck Ebele Jonathan will contest the presidential election in 2027 as PDP candidate.” Jonathan did nothing to dissociate himself from Gana’s claim. Instead, he held closed-door meetings with some party leaders, including Senator David Mark, the national chairman of the African Democratic Congress, ADC. On May 7 this year, when a group of supporters called on Jonathan at his Abuja Office and urged him to run, he said: “Presidential race is not a computer game. But I heard you. And I will consult widely.” Then, a few weeks later, a faction of the PDP, led by Tanimu Turaki, nominated Jonathan as its presidential candidate by proxy, sending his “Certificate of Return” through Fred Agbedi, a Jonathan ally.
Of course, a certificate of return from the Turaki-led faction of the PDP is worth nothing if the faction’s legal status is still in doubt, as it is. The Supreme Court verdict in April this year created more ambiguity than clarity. While the court nullified the Ibadan convention that produced the Turaki-led national working committee of the PDP, it also upheld the earlier suspension of the key members that form the leadership of the faction backed by Nyesom Wike, indicating that those members lacked any standing to constitute the party’s NWC. Thus, technically, neither the Turaki-led faction nor the Wike-backed group is PDP’s recognised leadership. However, INEC, allegedly under Wike’s overbearing influence, has sided with his faction, recognising the faction’s NWC as PDP’s bona fide leadership on its website. So, the Turaki faction’s nomination of Jonathan as its presidential candidate is, without a Supreme Court verdict favouring the faction, purely academic.
But where does Jonathan himself stand? Well, he wants to be president again. Surely, he would like to emulate his good friend John Mahama of Ghana, who, after being defeated for re-election, returned to office for a non-consecutive second term. Needless to mention Donald Trump who also came back to power after a defeat. Truth is, Jonathan is still licking the wounds of his 2015 defeat and would like to redeem his bruised image. But he’s not Mahama and certainly not Trump, both of whom courageously took their destinies in the hands and drove the process leading to their comeback. Some would say Nigeria is not Ghana or the US. True, but it’s more about personality than national culture. After all, the same Nigeria produced the likes of Tinubu, whose philosophy, for good or bad, is “Who dares wins”!
Now, let’s be clear. Jonathan could legitimately have said he would stay out of partisan politics and not run for the presidency again. But that’s not what he’s been saying. Rather, he’s been telling people: “I’m not ruling out running, but I want to consult widely.” But do Nigerians, especially those who are invested in him, not deserve to know the outcome of the consultations? Or was Jonathan just stringing people along? Was he simply enjoying the buzz of being discussed as a likely presidential contender, knowing there’s no substance to it? Or how do we reconcile Jonathan’s purported consultations and closed-door meetings with his wife’s categorical statement that they would never return to Aso Rock?
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In May last year, Patience Jonathan said: “I’m not going back to the villa, if you call me, I will not go.” She added that she would campaign “vigorously” for President Tinubu’s re-election, saying it would be a betrayal not to support Tinubu’s re-election, given how the Tinubus supported the Jonathans when they were in power. Except President Jonathan wanted to defy his wife, which most would consider very unlikely, he should have been equally categorical about not running for the presidency. But Jonathan’s public silence yet behind-the-scenes manoeuvrings fuelled speculations that he was keen to enter the race. He either lacks the courage to admit the truth and lance the boil on his so-called ambition, or he simply enjoys the attention the speculations gave him. Either way, it’s the trivialisation of politics; serious politicians elsewhere are more forthright about their politics and political aspirations.
Interestingly, there are no legal or constitutional barriers to Jonathan seeking the presidency again. In 2015, a Court of Appeal held that a 2018 constitutional amendment that prevents any president or governor from being sworn in a third time could not apply retroactively to Jonathan; in 2023, a Federal High Court in Yenegoa followed the Court of Appeal ruling and dismissed a suit seeking to ban Jonathan from joining that year’s presidential race; and in May this year, a Federal High Court in Abuja confirmed, based on the previous rulings, that Jonathan was eligible to run for the presidency in 2027. So, the only obstacles to Jonathan running for the presidency next year are political and personal, not legal or constitutional!
But in politics, Jonathan is not a fighter. Yet, thanks mostly to godfatherism, serendipity and happenstance, he has held six high political offices that, put together, no other Nigerian has occupied: deputy governor; acting governor; governor; vice-president, acting president; president! Of course, Jonathan ran for president in his own right in 2011 but under the shadows of godfathers like former President Obasanjo. The only time Jonathan attempted to be his own man was when he allegedly breached a “gentleman’s agreement” not to run in 2015 and did so. He lost that election. However, in his memoirs The Transition Hours, Jonathan blamed President Barack Obama for his defeat, saying Obama was determined to remove him from office. “They even brought some naval ships into the Gulf of Guinea in the days preceding the elections.” Jonathan effectively accused the American government of regime change. But why did he not speak out at the time? In a world where Iran is defying America, where Ukraine is fighting Russia to a standstill, Jonathan gave the impression that Nigeria under his leadership would simply cave in to superpower threat and bullying.
But as it was with geopolitics, so it is with domestic politics. Jonathan is extremely weak. His phlegmatism is not a virtue; it’s a weakness bordering on cowardice! Just as well that, after 2027, his name will never again come up as a likely candidate in any presidential election in Nigeria! Good riddance to an utter distraction!
*Dr Fasan is the author of ‘In The National Interest: The Road to Nigeria’s Political, Economic and Social Transformation’, available at RovingHeights bookstores.
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