Presidency 2023: Buhari, APC leaders renew lobby to draft in Jonathan for party’s ticket

There are emerging insinuations that President Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) may have renewed lobby to draft former President Goodluck Jonathan into the APC for the 2023 presidential election after the party’s national convention last Saturday.

The APC elected Senator Abdullahi Adamu, former Governor of Nasarawa State as national chairman. Adamu, a former PDP member, belongs to the nPDP bloc in the APC.

The ruling party, like the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is also in dilemma over zoning the presidential ticket to the South or throwing it open.

Meanwhile, Northern APC leaders were gathered to be in alliance with President Buhari to draft former President Jonathan into the party for the 2023 presidential ticket. Party sources said that the northern APC leaders may opt for consensus presidential as was adopted in the election of members of the APC National Working Committee (NWC) at the national convention.

The report has been lingering in the polity over the years with both stakeholders denying the negotiation in public while clandestine dialogue was said to be going on.

The northern APC leaders were said to be working behind the scene for a southern presidential candidate they can trust; with additional calculations that former President Jonathan can be trusted after the 2015 experience and will have one term to serve.

The Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), was gathered to have acknowledged the APC negotiation with Jonathan, alleging that the plot then was to pair Jonathan with Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State, former APC national chairman of the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC), as APC candidate and running mate, respectively, for the 2023 presidential election.

The PACAC further insinuated the plan also include the succession of Jonathan that after the one term  by Buni in 2027.

Prof. Sagay was cited to have said: “Now, we are hearing from the sides, former President Goodluck Jonathan wants to join APC…I hear that the conspiracy is to bring in Jonathan as APC presidential candidate and Buni as the vice-presidential candidate. If APC wins, Jonathan will go away after four years and Buni becomes the president. That is the rumour I’m hearing now.”

Also, a loyalist of former President Jonathan, a minister in his administration under the PDP, was quoted to have said that “with the convention of the party now over, Jonathan is set to make up his mind on where he belongs.” He was disclosed to have further stated that Jonathan is “technically out of the PDP as at today.”

He alleged that Jonathan has already given the presidency and northern APC leaders one condition to defect to the ruling party; and that is to adopt him as a consensus candidate.

The former minister was cited to have declared: “Yes, the former President was approached by APC leaders who sold him the idea of running on the party’s platform in 2023. They said they were happy with the manner he handled his defeat in 2015, conceding defeat even before the election results were fully announced without any form of bitterness and the cooperation, he has been giving President Buhari. They also said as true democrat, Nigeria needs him at this moment to unite the country.

“I am aware he gave them only one condition. And that is if they are ready to make him the consensus presidential candidate of the party. He doesn’t want any acrimony that will arise from contesting the presidential primary at all. That is the only condition I am aware he gave to the APC leaders who are in talks with him.”

Jonathan had earlier denied such negotiation with the Presidency and northern APC leaders. However, when former President of the Senate Bukola Saraki led the PDP reconciliation committee to see former President Jonathan, Saraki disclosed that the former President admitted some distractions. To many, that was a confirmation that Jonathan was being consulted by APC leaders to join the ruling party.

More so, APC stakeholders, including northern governors, had visited former President Jonathan on two occasions, in Bayelsa State and Abuja.

Meanwhile, several APC stakeholders have declared for the 2023 presidential election. They include APC national leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, former Governor of Lagos State; Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State, Senator Rochas Okorocha, Senate Chief Whip Orji Uzor Kalu, Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, have not declared for the presidential race but various groups have been mobilizing support for the VP and the CBN governor for the APC presidential ticket.

The zoning issue appears to remain a pendulum in the ruling APC as in the PDP, while the search for reliable candidates continues.