Ahead of the 2023 presidential election in Nigeria, political analysts have revealed why former president, Goodluck Jonathan, has become a preferred candidate for the All Progressives Congress in the 2023 general elections.
Recall that governors under the ruling party in last year November visited the former president to celebrate his birthday with him in his Abuja residence.
However, ever since the visit from the APC governors there had been speculations that Jonathan would dump the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the APC ahead of the 2023 elections.
The ruling party is all out to capture important members of the main opposition party to its fold ahead of the elections.
Recall that the Acting National Chairman of the PDP, Yemi Akinwonmi, last week led a delegation of party leaders from the South on a visit to Jonathan’s residence in Abuja.
The party leaders in PDP appealed to the former president not to dump the party for the APC ahead of the 2023 general elections.
The South is demanding for power shift to the region at the end of President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure in 2023.
According to Daily Trust, a source in the ruling party disclosed that the APC wants Jonathan to join the party to pick the party’s presidential ticket to win the 2023 poll and hand over power to the North in 2027.
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The source said, “It is the northern calculation to retain power for long. But the request, the agitation for the presidential seat to be rotated to the South in 2023 is becoming louder. So they want to use Jonathan as a very soft bride to quickly cross a very long ocean.
“What I mean is that Jonathan has already done four years as president, so he would be the only candidate from the South that constitutionally is not permitted to do eight years. So what they want to do now is to use him to achieve that aim so that after governing for four years, the power will shift to the North in 2027.”
He further stated that politicians in the North feel the South had spent more years in Government than the North since the return to democracy in 1999.
“This is the reason the North is agitating: Obasanjo did eight years from the South, then power shifted to the North, but Yar’adua didn’t complete his tenure. Jonathan completed that tenure and enjoyed a fresh tenure of four years as president.”
“So eight years of Obasanjo plus six years of Jonathan, that is 14 years. Two years of Yar’adua and eight years of Buhari will be 10 years. So the South is still ahead of the North by four years.”
A source in the PDP who spoke on the development said, “I agree that Jonathan will be a very good material and will be good for this permutation to have stability for democracy.
“For Jonathan to do one term of office and leave power to return to the North in 2027 is a better calculation if the northerners will be patient.”
A political analyst, Jackson Lekan Ojo, in his reaction to the speculation said, “How on earth is it that Jonathan who was the target of political destruction in 2015 is now becoming a bride for the same party that ousted him?”
“I want to advise Jonathan, the kind of honour they are giving to him across the globe now, I think he is worth it. But if by any chance Jonathan contests election in 2023, he might eventually lose to a PDP candidate who emerges from the North and that will be politically suicidal for him.
“So for me, as he has retired, and as an elder statesman, he has been deputy governor, he has been governor. He was vice president, he has been acting president, he has been president. What else does he want? He should not allow APC to use him.
“It’s not that they love him; they don’t love him. It’s just that they want to use him because he has proven himself to be a winning tool. It may be politically suicidal for him at the end of the day.”
