By Eric Elezuo

Everything being equal, the immediate past President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, will be presenting himself again in 2023 for the highest office, which he vacated in 2015, after losing to the incumbent, Muhammadu Buhari, in a keenly contested election, marred by random victimisation and character assassination.

However, the former President may have to ditch his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and decamp to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to actualise this dream, according to findings by The Boss.

In the last couple of weeks, the media have been inundated with reports of the fact that the APC are wooing the former President to join their party, and run on its platform for the 2023 Presidential Election, to clinch the Presidency. Though Jonathan has continually maintained that he remained a PDP member, the plot of the APC to get him to their camp has remained alive.

Stakeholders and political observers, who spoke to The Boss on the condition of anonymity, said the plans of the APC, and by extension the North to lure Jonathan back to the Presidency is real, adding however, that the intentions are selfishly connected.

In their separate analyses, they maintained that the plans of the North is to pair Jonathan with the Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, as the Vice President. In so doing, the possibility of a northerner continuing after Jonathan will be secured.

Speaking, one of the sources said: “The North is not comfortable with staying out of presidential power for a whole eight years, and therefore, needs a decoy to hold forth for them for four years before they bounce back again.

“It’s obvious that Jonathan will not serve beyond four years or one term, having completed a first term in office before being ousted in 2015. This permutation is behind the North’s consistent wooing of the PDP stalwart, and they believe that Jonathan may not have the willpower to reject the offer, considering the trappings that come with being the number one citizen of Nigeria. More so, with el-Rufai as his deputy, there’s the possibility that he could be well checkmated while he runs his four years course as president.”

APC’s plans are made manifest by the announcement on Sunday by a chieftain of the party, Senator Abubakar Geiri, that the party has zoned the 2023 Presidency to the South-South; ostensibly to give Jonathan a leeway to make his decamping moves. Jonathan is from Bayelsa State, South-South, Nigeria.

Geiri, who is the Chairman of APC Registration and Revalidation Panel for Akwa Ibom State, made this known during the kick-off of the registration and revalidation exercise in Uyo, the state capital.

The party chieftain was quoted as saying that President Buhari and the Caretaker Chairman of the party, who is also the Yobe State Governor, Mai Mala Buni, are in the know of the decision.

He said: “In 2023, the presidency is coming back to the South. I am not saying this by myself. I have the authority of Mr President, I have the authority of the national chairman of the party, to tell you that the Presidency is coming back to the South. So, with this, the ball is now in your court.

“I am sure that very soon all of these mushroom parties would also copy us, and say their presidency would also come to the South. So, you can see that if you don’t come out en masse to register for APC, our candidate may still not win. So, come out and register, and vote for APC in all the elections that are coming.”

In the meantime, political observers are wondering why and how Jonathan will fall for the bait of defecting to the APC, a party that is unanimously believed to have damaged not only the country in all ramifications, but also his own reputation as an administrator and a person. Many have wondered what they would tell Nigerians during the campaigns. It would be another case of the Edo 2020 Election, where it was practically impossible selling Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu after he was thoroughly de-marketed in 2016 by the same party. A common denominator in the permutations is that Jonathan will not agree to such terms. Obviously, not with how the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and security apparatuses have treated his wife, Patience Jonathan, in the days succeeding the loss of the 2015 election, among other issues.

Again, observers have also said that the possibility is rife, adding that the Aso Rock Villa, the seat of power, has in recent times been a second home for Goodluck Jonathan, as the former President has remained a regular visitor to the Villa in his capacity as the ECOWAS Special Envoy on Mali Crisis.

“Do you think it is only Mali they discuss whenever he is in the Villa,” a source asked rhetorically.

It would be recalled as well that in the past days, a former Minister of Aviation and PDP chieftain, Femi Fani-kayode, has been seen frolicking with the APC, in what many people termed the final steps to becoming a member of the APC.

A source told The Boss that Fani-kayode is another trump card the APC and the North are playing to get Jonathan into the party and fulfill their political arrangement. It is believed that Fani-kayode, a known loyalist of Jonathan, can convince the former President to dance to the tune of the APC. His visits to the Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello, and APC Caretaker Committee Chairman, and Governor of Yobe State, Mai Mala Buni, seem to lend credence to the fact. And so, Bello was confident to publicly announce that Fani-kayode has finally joined the APC. Though he denied joining the APC, observers say there’s no smoke without fire.

As the APC continually cast their dragnet towards Jonathan and the South-South, it is difficult to say what will become of the Igbo, who majority of Nigerians believe should have a shot at the presidency, and of course the party’s National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, whose supporters are already rolling out the drums in readiness for the coveted presidential seat.

Whatever happens as the bells of 2023 chime, everyone agrees that it will surely be a paradigm shift.

The Boss Newspaper