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Jonathan Not Our Member – APC
The National Vice Chairman, North-West of All Progressives Congress, Salihu Lukman, has said former President Goodluck Jonathan is not a member of the party.
Lukman, disclosed this in a telephone interview with The PUNCH at a time media reports are suggesting that some leaders of the ruling party are dragging Jonathan into the APC presidential race.
He said he found the news touting Jonathan as the party’s joker or anointed candidate annoying.
He said, “I can tell you this straight away. Jonathan is not a member of the APC as far as this party is concerned. What is being discussed in the media is very strange to many of us. We are not even aware that anybody has bought form in the name of Jonathan and we have closed the sales of forms.
“All those media speculations, yes we know everything can be possible in this country. But as far as this party is concerned and some of us are there in critical structure, that is not going to be possible.
“You can quote me on this that I said it is not going to be possible. Anybody who is talking about it is just talking nonsense.”
When reminded that there are still some high ranking members of the party and in the presidency who are still keen on his candidacy, Lukman disclosed that he was unaware of it.
“I am not aware whether the chairman or any member of the National Working Committee makes such a statement. But where such a statement was made, it must have been done out of error. It is not possible.
“Jonathan is not a member of APC as far as we know. Besides, our membership in the political party is not a secret. Feel free to quote me please,” he said.
Lukman slammed media reports saying the party has settled for consensus, saying the APC is willing to give every presidential aspirant a level playing field.
As of the time of filing this report, the camp of the former president could not be reached for reaction.
Efforts made to contact Jonathan’s spokesman, Ikechukwu Eze, proved abortive.
He neither picked the calls of our correspondent nor replied his sms.
A Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, had ruled on Friday that the former President is eligible to contest the 2023 presidential election.
The Punch
The Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, has thrown the 2027 race wide open by zoning
its presidential ticket to the South for a single four-year term, a move that instantly puts Peter Obi and other southern aspirants in play.
The decision came at the party’s national convention on Saturday after a motion by Rep. Afam Victor Ogene of Anambra’s Ogbaru constituency. Delegates adopted it without dissent.
Under the arrangement, the South gets the ticket for 2027 only. Once that four-year term ends, the ticket automatically shifts back to the North.
The zoning formula settles months of backroom jostling inside the NDC over where the party should field its standard-bearer. By locking the North into a wait-and-hold position, the convention has effectively cleared the runway for southern heavyweights to move.
For Obi, the former Anambra governor who ran in 2023, the resolution removes the biggest structural hurdle to picking up the NDC’s form. Other southern aspirants now have the same green light to purchase and process nomination forms.
Party leaders framed the deal as a balance between regional equity and political strategy ahead of 2027. Critics inside the party will watch whether the “automatic” handoff to the North holds once the race gets hot.
For now, the South has its window. The question is who walks through it first.
The Senate has amended its Standing Orders, limiting eligibility to contest for its presiding officers and principal officers to only members of the 10th Senate.
In the new rules, a senator shall only qualify to contest for Senate Presidency and Deputy Senate Presidency if he/she has won election to the Senate for at least one term of four years.
To be eligible to contest for any principal office, a senator must have won election for two consecutive periods, the last one must immediately precede the inauguration of the next Senate.
By implication, any senator who plans to vie to become a presiding officer in the 11th Senate (2027-20231) must have been a senator for at least one term preceding the inauguration.
For principal offices (chief whip, deputy whip, minority whip, etc), the senator must have been a member of the current 10th Senate, or they are not eligible to contest.
Under the new provision on “qualification of presiding officers”, it is stated in Order 3,”A Senator vying for the Office of the President of the Senate and the Deputy President of the Senate must have served at least one term of four (4) years in the Senate as a senator of the Federal Republic.”
Similarly, nomination for the positions shall strictly follow ranking in the following order: former president of the Senate; former deputy president of the Senate; former principal officers of the Senate; senators who had served for at least one term of four (4) years; and senators who had been members of the House of Representatives.
According to the provision, it is only the absence of the above that a first-term senator can be nominated to contest for the positions of presiding officers.
Under Order 5, a senator seeking to be a principal officer must have “served as a senator for at least two consecutive terms immediately preceding such nomination. “
The Senate passed the rules after a lengthy executive session presided over by the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, on Tuesday.
The new rules impliedly gives Akpabio, other former presiding officers, principal officers and ranked senators the right of first refusal.
Findings indicated that the new rules might be what some sources described as “self-serving” or designed to serve the interest of the present presiding officers and members of the 10th Senate.
For instance, some State governors contesting the 2027 election to the Senate in the hope of vying for the presidency of the Senate, are effectively barred by the new rules.
It was also learnt that even within the Senate, the new rules will stop some senators from vying to become principal officers as they would not have attained two consecutive terms prior to 2027.
The National Publicity Secretary of African Democratic Congress (ADC), Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, has claimed that the party favoured Peter Obi more than any other aspirant while with them.
Abdullahi said this while faulting Obi’s claim that internal wrangling was part of the reason he defected to the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC).
Featuring on Arise Television’s Prime Time, Abdullahi said Obi and Kwankwaso’s defection means a lot because they are significant politicians.
He said: “I will be lying to say that their defection didn’t mean anything because these are two significant frontline politicians in this country and when you lose those two politicians then you will fill that you have lost something.
“But it’s not a mortal blow because what we are trying to do is to build a broad based coalition that would include everyone.
“The reason we are building this coalition is because our individual parties have been destabilized and the only way out was to come together.
“There was a consensus among us that the direction this country is going was quite precarious and the only way we can win election and rescue the country from the misrule of the APC is to build a party that is formidable enough.
“Obi and Kwankwaso have a different political idea of what the party should be doing.
“Obi said himself that once we present two candidates against President Tinubu, we have given him a chance. I wonder what has changed.
“So if the legal challenges are the reason that we have left after creating the impression that ADC is drowning in these mountains of legal challenges, the answer is no.
“At the moment, we have only three cases which are flimsy without trying to be prejudicial, as the National Publicity Secretary of ADC.
“I can tell you that none of the aspirants and leaders have been favoured like Peter Obi.”
