TRIBUNE
SOME power brokers from the northern part of the country have initiated moves to draft former president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, into the 2027 presidential race.
The permutation is that Jonathan is only eligible for a term of four years, having served as president between 2011 and 2015. The project is led by a North East state governor and a retired General from the North West.
Saturday Tribune learnt that the leaders weighed their options based on the collective interest of the North before electing to bank on the fact that the 1999 Constitution (as amended) allows a maximum of eight years of four years each for president.
The move is part of latest efforts by those described as members of the highly influential caucus in the northern power bloc to abort President Bola Tinubu’s second term ambition.
There is, however, a counter-group which includes some governors and influential politicians who are rooting for another southern politician for the top job. Both groups are against Tinubu’s re-election.
Although talks and consultations are still at the exploratory stage, the promoters of the Jonathan-for-2027 project recently launched intense lobbying of certain critical stakeholders in the Nigeria project to get them to join in the bid to convince the former governor of Bayelsa State, who has been mostly engaged in diplomatic and other activities to foster peace and democratic norms around the world.
A source within the fold told Saturday Tribune that the northern leaders working behind the scenes on the Jonathan-for-2027-presidency lobby are bigwigs from across the political divide in the North who are united and determined to stop what they called Tinubu’s mismanagement of the country.
According to another inside source, to bolster the effort, forces within the coalition have reached out to like minds across the six geopolitical zones, civil and pro-democracy bodies and other pressure groups to rally their commitment and support for the project.
Jonathan, who served as the vice president from 2007 to 2010 under the administration of Umaru Yar’Adua, is said to be the choice of the northern leaders because he took the oath of office as president in 2011 after contesting and winning at the poll following his completion of the term of his boss, Yar’Adua, who died during a protracted illness.
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