Two influential governors from the northern part of the country are behind the push for former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to contest the 2023 presidential election on the platform of the ruling APC.
According to Daily Trust report, multiple sources, said the two governors, currently out of the country and close to President Muhammadu Buhari, have secured the buy-in of a section of the presidency to actualise their agenda of drafting the former president into the presidential race.
While one of the governors is from the North West, the other is from the North East geopolitical zone.
According to the publication, the two governors began the moves last year but they jettisoned it to promote the candidature of the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele.
However, when the Emefiele’s project was not flying, the governors returned to the Jonathan bid.
The two governors have been playing key roles in the affairs of the APC in the last few years. The former president had since keyed into the move as evident in his body language.
He had last week told some of his supporters who were insisting he should declare to “be on the watch”, a disposition political pundits described as acceptance.
It was learnt that the Bayelsa-born former president is now waiting for the appropriate time to join the ruling party and declare for the race.
Citing a source familiar with the project, the publication said a former governor revealed that the two governors have reached out and sold the Jonathan project to the presidency.
“It is (withheld) that are behind it and they are promoting it to checkmate Asiwaju Tinubu when they discovered that the vice president does not possess the structures to put up a strong challenge,” the source reportedly told the publication.
Asked why the governors who are APC members are drafting the former president, he said, “They are doing it to advance their ambition. They want someone that would only be in power for a term. They also want him to pick one of them as running mate”.
An ally of the president, while corroborating the former governor’s statement, said the two governors brought the Jonathan project to advance their ‘’selfish interest.’’
But a source close to the former president claimed that Jonathan is being promoted by his successor.
“His number one backer is the president. Do you think he would start if he did not get the backing of Baba? He did not go and say I wanted to (vie for the presidency). He was asked to do so because they are more comfortable with him succeeding Buhari,” he said.
A former Chairman of the APC Elders Forum in Bayelsa State, Diekivie Ikiogha, said all is almost set for Jonathan’s exit from the PDP.
“His declaration would be based on an invitation by APC to come over and he is considering it. A lot of things have been done; the discussions are ongoing, so, he will be invited.”
“We are persuading him and it is still going on, but I believe that he can yield to it. What I am telling you is that, when the platform is clear, he will contest. If it is clear, he will contest,” he said.
APC Stakeholders kick against plan to adopt Jonathan
Meanwhile, the APC Presidential Support Group has said that the plan to adopt Jonathan as the APC presidential candidate for the 2023 election is a joke taken too far and unacceptable.
The Convener of the organisation, Mr. Owolabi Dauda, and Secretary, Abdullahi Bilal, told reporters on Tuesday in Abuja that adopting Jonathan by whoever is a disservice to the APC, especially that the importance of winning the 2023 presidential elections cannot be overemphasised, in the bid to ensure continuity in the laudable policies and initiatives of the APC led government in Nigeria.
“We are constrained to lend our voice to an ugly plot that is being hatched by some members of the APC concerning adopting former President Goodluck Jonathan as the presidential candidate of the party in the 2023 presidential election.
“By all stretch of the imagination, this plot is ill-timed and not in the party’s interest at large. Such a move implies that the party might be heading towards a resounding electoral defeat in the presidential election,” the group said.
With Daily Trust report
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