Ahead of the 2023 Presidential election, insinuations are rife that President Muhammadu Buhari is secretly wooing his predecessor in office, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan to the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
Jonathan, it would be recalled, conceded defeat while official results of the 2015 Presidential elections were being announced, a development that fetched him national and global acclaim
After a few months of throwing jibes at each other particularly on how the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, allegedly mismanaged the affairs of the nation while in power, President Buhari appears to have made up with Jonathan as the two have been regularly meeting at the Aso Rock Villa behind-closed-doors.
To further fuel the rumors, Buhari would time and again shower praises on Jonathan, saying his decision to throw in the towel saved the nation’s democracy.
Although Jonathan is yet to address the speculations of his flirtation with the APC, Southern leaders have taken turns to counsel him against the move, saying doing so would not only tarnish his legacy but weaken the chances of a Southern President staying beyond 2027, in the event that Jonathan falls for the bait and win the poll.
In the past few years, Jonathan did nothing to dismiss these speculations as he avoided PDP events including the well-attended expanded national consensus meeting as well as the national elective convention in 2021.
Of late, Dr. Jonathan, according to reports, has been locked in moves to return to power. He was said to have met with leaders of his South-South zone that are coordinating the quest. One of the meetings was held on December 27, 2021, at Aridolf Hotels and Spas in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital.
The meeting was held after Jonathan’s December 23, 2021 visit to President Buhari in Abuja.
Also, Jonathan’s political associate, Dikivie Ikiogha, was said to have formed a South-South 2023 Presidency group and had held consultative meetings with stakeholders. Coordinators of the group plotting for Jonathan to return to Aso Rock in 2023 reportedly met recently with Jonathan at his wife’s Aridolf Hotels.
Two North-west governors are said to be championing the move. Part of the plot is to reconcile Jonathan with South-South ministers considered unfavorably disposed to his joining the APC and flying the party’s 2023 presidential flag.
A presidency source said President Buhari is happy with the former president and may not oppose him if Jonathan chose to run in 2023.
‘’Former President Jonathan has been coming to Aso Rock regularly in recent times to brief President Buhari on his ECOWAS duties. President Buhari talks highly of Jonathan, praising him for the way he relinquished power in 2015 without bitterness. I will not be surprised if President Buhari supports Jonathan’s ambition,” the source said.
Jonathan didn’t hold any consultative meeting over 2023 – Aide
Speaking on the issues, Mr. Ikechukwu Eze, a media aide to the former president, dismissed as false, reports of the meeting at Aridolf Hotels. He refused to confirm overtures to Jonathan to join APC to pursue the 2023 presidential quest saying ‘’the rumor is there” nevertheless.
His words: ‘’There was a 2023 consultation meeting at a hotel. People paid him homage during the Yuletide and the visits were at his home in Bayelsa. He did not receive people in a hotel.
“The rumor of overtures to join the APC is there but the truth is that he celebrated Christmas and New Year in Bayelsa and people were coming to greet him. It had nothing to do with 2023
—Vanguard