The Presidency on Monday, September 29, declared that former President Goodluck Jonathan is free to contest the 2027 elections but warned that Nigerians would not forget what it described as his “disastrous six years in power.”
In a statement signed by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, the Presidency responded to calls by former Information Minister, Prof. Jerry Gana, urging Jonathan to join the presidential race under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The statement dismissed Gana’s prediction that Jonathan could defeat Tinubu, describing it as an exercise in delusion.
“One recent statement that stands out in its absurdity is Professor Jerry Gana’s… Gana even deluded himself, asserting that the former President would defeat President Tinubu to reclaim power after 12 years,” the presidency noted.
Onanuga cautioned Jonathan to recall his sour experience with the PDP in 2015, warning that the same political actors trying to draft him now could abandon him again.
“Politicians of Jerry Gana’s ilk merely want to lure him into the race to satisfy their personal, political, religious, and ethnic interests. They will abandon him midstream, as they did in 2015, and leave Gentleman Jonathan in the lurch,” the statement read.
While affirming Jonathan’s constitutional right to seek office, the Presidency hinted at a legal hurdle awaiting him.
According to Onanuga: “President Tinubu will wholeheartedly welcome him if he decides to enter the race.
“But Jonathan will have his date in the court of the land. Indeed, the jury will determine whether Jonathan, who was sworn in twice as president, satisfies the constitutional requirements and is eligible to contest the presidency and be sworn in, if successful, for a third term in office.”
The statement launched into a sharp critique of Jonathan’s tenure, blaming him for plunging the country into economic crisis.
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“We cannot forget in a hurry how his regime, devoid of any clear economic agenda, engaged in frivolous spending, ran the economy aground and put the country in dire straits.
“The nation’s economic downturn, which President Tinubu is working very hard to overcome, actually began under President Jonathan,” it said.
It cited Jonathan’s depletion of the nation’s reserves despite record oil revenues as evidence of mismanagement.
“In 2010, President Jonathan inherited a total of $66 billion… By 2015, when the people democratically removed him from office, the foreign reserves had fallen below $30 billion, and the Excess Crude Account had been depleted to $2 billion, despite generating record revenue from crude oil sales that the country had never achieved in more than 25 years combined,” Onanuga stated.
In contrast, the Presidency highlighted what it described as Tinubu’s economic recovery measures over the last two years.
It pointed to the removal of fuel subsidy, reform of the foreign exchange regime, and rising investor confidence.
“In plain language, the nation has turned the corner. And our people have started reaping the gains of the bold reforms instituted by the Tinubu administration,” the statement asserted.
While projecting a good chance for Tinubu in the next election, the government insisted that voters would not easily forget the past.
“President Jonathan and others are welcome to the 2027 race. They broke the economy before, but millions of Nigerians, who will not easily forget the recent past, will not allow them to return and run it down again,” the statement concluded.