By our reporter| The ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, has denied speculations in the media and public space that it plans to draft former president Goodluck Jonathan as its presidential candidate in the 2023 general election.
There have been speculations that the former President who was who lost to President Buhari in the 2015 presidential election on the platform of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, is being courted by some interests in the APC to run for the presidency again.
The visits by some leaders of APC to the former President in his Abuja home during his last birthday celebration, further fueled the speculation.
However, Governor of Yobe State, Mai Mala Buni who is interim committee chair of the APC said in an interview with BBC Hausa service.
He said, “Those peddling such information, they are afraid. But for now, there is nothing in the APC which has anything to do with the aspiration for 2023,”
“Even if someone wants to base assumption on our recent visit to him during his birthday, we were there because of his capacity as a former President of Nigeria. Again, even if there is nothing, when we are talking of peaceful coexistence, we must give credit to former President Jonathan on the issue of peace. How he accepted defeat in 2015 and resigned to fate. That has qualified him to be a statesman and he is now among our fathers.”
According to Buni, the visit of APC governors to Jonathan during his birthday was because of his status as a former president and therefore should not be interpreted to have political undertone.
“There are numerous of such visits -to leaders of PDP, APC, why are others not being mentioned, but Jonathan?”
According to him, President Buhari indicated during the revalidation of his party membership in Daura last Saturday that it is party members from the grassroots level that will now select candidates of the party.
He said, “Then, who are we to say we are considering Jonathan? How? It has to be a party affair and once it is a party affair, then we are talking about the people. So we have nothing like that in our agenda. What we have now, and is of importance to us, is to ensure peace amongst party members.
“Also, to bring members of other political parties, whichever party it might be, whoever wants, should come in to the APC. This is our plan for now. We are yet to start talking about aspirants, we are not in any discussion about aspirants.”
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