Nigerians have urged former President Goodluck Jonathan to come clean on his alleged ambition to run for the country’s presidency in 2019, saying only his refutation would permanently rest the apprehension the speculations have already engendered in the polity.
The call was a reaction to the news making the rounds that the former president, who hails from Bayelsa State of the South-South geo-political zone, maybe nursing an ambition to pick the presidential ticket of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for the 2019 election.
Although Jonathan had ruled out contesting the 2019 presidential elections, he, however, admitted in an interview with Nigerian journalist/publisher, Dele Momodu, last month that Nigerians are pressuring him to run. The immediate past president who was defeated in the 2015 general elections by President Muhammadu Buhari, also informed his kinsmen who paid him a visit in his hometown, Otuoke, that he received calls, messages, emails, and groups from both local and international communities asking him to contest in 2019. Jonathan had said: “I’m not God but I sincerely doubt the possibility. People come to me every day saying they want me back. I’m always moved to tears whenever I go out and see the huge crowds shouting GEJ, we want you, even in the north.
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“Instead of getting swollen headed, I actually reflect on my achievements and mistakes and feel humbled and feel very sober… “I have never been a man of inordinate ambition. I’m a man of very modest means. I hardly travel because of logistical costs. I’ve played my part and I have moved on.”
He also foreclosed the chances of his getting the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), saying: “Are you not aware that our party has zoned the presidency to the north, and the chairmanship to the south?”
However, some of the observers who advised him to disown the speculations if indeed he has no such ambition also hinged their argument because such an ambition could jeopardise the chances of Uche Secondus, a front contender for the position of national chairman in the December 9, 2017, national elective convention of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
According to them, since both Jonathan and Secondus are from the South-South geo-political zone, any strong interest on the part of Jonathan to contest the next presidential election may not augur well for the main opposition party, especially as the party had already zoned the presidency to the North.
Recall that in 2016, the former president was greeted with banners by Northern Nigerian youths with the inscription “Come back Jonathan” when he visited the North-Western part of the country to condole with the family of his former National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki, who lost his father.
A political observer, who craved anonymity, said Jonathan must as a matter of fact sufficiently make a statement to say that he will not run.
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“My appeal to Jonathan is that he should come clean on this issue by stating that he does not have any interest in the presidential race and that he will not. It is dangerous for speculations to be flying. It is not right for him to be making conflicting statements. Today he will say, there is pressure on him to run and tomorrow he will say another thing. Let him make a definite statement on the issue,” says the observer Birma Dauda, a former Education minister in the Sani Abacha regime, warned Jonathan not to commit a political suicide. “My advice to Jonathan is that he should not commit political suicide. He presided over this country for six years; God has been kind to him, he should not be unkind to himself. Mind you, there are lots of controversies about the kind of legacy he left behind, but no matter whatever anybody may say about him, we must give him the benefit of the doubt. A person of high intellectual background and height should not allow ordinary people to mess him up for their own selfish interest,” Dauda said.
“Don’t also forget that a lot of people in the North are not happy how after he completed the Yar’Adua tenure went ahead against the agreement, and contested another election and spent four years. Now, President Muhammadu Buhari is there, we should allow him to complete the eight years slot for the North. It would be a political suicide which history will remember him for if he tries to truncate that arrangement again,” the former presidential aspirant on the platform of the defunct All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP), further said.
Speaking with BusinessDay, Joel Akinkunmi, a Lagos-based policy analyst, said it has become necessary for Jonathan to address a press conference to disown the festering rumour.
“I urge the former president to use every possible means, including addressing a press conference, to dissociate himself from any attempt by anybody or group to sing into his ears the idea of contesting the presidency in 2019,” Akinkunmi said.
Zebulon Agomuo
