Azibaola Robert, cousin to former President Goodluck Jonathan, has insisted that Jonathan is “100% constitutionally and legally qualified” to seek election in 2027.
Robert made the point as debates continue over whether the ex-president should return to the ballot.
Some political actors see Jonathan as the only opposition figure capable of mounting serious resistance against President Bola Tinubu and the APC.
Jonathan, who was president between 2010 and 2015, first stepped in as acting president after Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s death before winning the 2011 election on the platform of the PDP. He later conceded defeat to Muhammadu Buhari in 2015.
As the opposition remains divided between the PDP and Labour Party, questions still hang over the political futures of Peter Obi and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar. For some stakeholders, Jonathan’s stature makes him the only possible consensus candidate.
But not everyone agrees, Aviation Minister Festus Keyamo, SAN, has cautioned the PDP against fielding Jonathan, while rights advocate Professor Chidi Anselm Odinkalu maintains he is not eligible to run again.
Robert, responding to both, countered that Jonathan retains the legal right to contest. He noted that his intervention should not be read as confirmation of Jonathan’s ambition but rather as a reminder of his eligibility.
On Facebook, Robert wrote:
“Dear Festus Keyamo, SAN, Chidi Odinkalu (Prof.), I greet both of you. For the record, we are three lawyers.
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“We all were pro-democracy activists in the 90s, and I was a better activist than both of you combined.
“RULE NO. 1: Do not offer legal advice where none is solicited. Goodluck Jonathan has numerous, more celebrated, more experienced SANs at his disposal who give him sound, unblemished, professional legal advice only.
“GEJ is 100% constitutionally and legally qualified to contest if he chooses to. If he chooses not to yield to his overwhelming calls to contest, it would not be because he is not qualified.
“Your screwed, unsolicited legal view is not of any concern in his bucket list, and it will never be. Don’t waste your precious time further dwelling on this.
“Or should you schedule a meeting with me so you can get properly educated on the subsisting court judgements on this, one of which your party, APC, was a party?
“I beg una, make we no dey put too much water inside belle for another person disco dance, make long line no form for latrine door. This is not a confirmation that GEJ is running, though.”