Special to USAfrica magazine (Houston) and USAfricaonline.com, first Africa-owned, US-based newspaper published on the Internet.
The swiftly changing landscape of Nigeria’s politics of the 2023 presidential election took another dramatic turn when it was reported several hours ago that Nigeria’s former President Dr. Goodluck Jonathan has “finally” move from the PDP (on whose platform he served as Deputy Governor of Bayelsa to Vice President and then President until 2015) to the ruling APC of President Buhari.
Apparently, this was a deduction many made when Bashir Ahmad, the social media special assistant to Nigeria’s incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari affirmed in a tweet that Jonathan has joined the APC.
Preceding that was the indication with copies of correspondences between the APC and Heritage bank about the alleged payment and acquisition of the N100 Million form for Jonathan by a “Fulani group”.
This evening, Jonathan’s media adviser, Ikechukwu Eze, dismissed the moves ascribed to the former president. He wrote that: “It has come to our notice that a group has purportedly purchased Presidential Nomination and Expression of Interest forms, of the All Progressives Congress APC, in the name of former President Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.”
“We wish to categorically state that Dr. Jonathan was not aware of this bid and did not authorize it. We want to state that if the former President wanted to contest an election, he would make his intentions clear to the public and will not enter through the back door.”
“While we appreciate the overwhelming request by a cross-section of Nigerians, for Dr. Jonathan to make himself available for the 2023 Presidential election, we wish to state, that he has not in anyway, committed himself to this request. Buying a presidential aspiration form in the name Dr. Jonathan without his consent, knowing the position he had held in this country, is considered an insult to his person. The general public is therefore advised to disregard it.”
USAfrica and USAfricaonline.com tally of the almost daily emergence of presidential aspirants has reached more than 50, many of them Governors, former Governors, former Senators, a few technocrats and federal Ministers.
