By Olusegun Olanrewaju
Northern group, Arewa Peoples’ Forum (APF), yesterday accused Kebbi State Governor, Atiku Bagudu, of plotting to facilitate the emergence of former President Goodluck Jonathan as the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2023 elections.

The group alleged that the Kebbi State helmsman has been pulling strings behind the scene to complete the defection of the ex-president to the party.

In a statement, APF chairman, Ishaku Ahmed, urged APC’s northern and other members to “face the governor and save the party from a humiliating implosion”.

The terse statement read: “It is high time the north and other members of the party interested in the continued existence of the APC as a united political entity rose to challenge Governor Atiku Bagudu over his plot to hand over the party’s ticket to former President Goodluck Jonathan.

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There have been back and forth arguments of late over Jonathan’s alleged moves to entice the former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president to recontest for office.

The closest he has admitted to falling for the bait was when Jonathan himself told some supporters asking him to put his hat in the ring in Abuja during the week that he was still mulling calls, calling on them to ‘watch out.

His yet-to-be-disclosed ambition has been drawing flak over an ambition to join and run for the topmost job in the land from which he was rubbished out of power by an opposition party in 2015.

The social media was abuzz yesterday with revolting comments on the northern group’s claim on Bagudu’s drive.

One of such posts by one Prince Ayoade had it, sarcastically, “two presidential aspirants may endorse Obasanjo for 2023 presidential race”.

Another posted a mock headline, “Buhari Makes New Appointment, I Will Support Jonathan If APC Presents Him -Ben Ayade”

Yet another tried to warn the President: “Governors that left PDP for APC will sit down and cry, saying PDP, forgive me, God forgive me -Lamido”.

Jonathan’s push by a northern group, pundits noted yesterday, could throw up a new barrage of undercurrents darted at dissuading the Ijaw-born former president who handed over to President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015.

There have been suggestions that the north is seeking a one-term prone southern president in 2023, as a strategic plot to hold on to power, to which calculations Jonathan fits the bill having spent only one term in his first tenure in power.

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Earlier reports had also followed the same trend of the allegation, in which two northern governors are behind Jonathan’s return bid.

Of late, there have been renewed efforts in the north to break the ranks of southern solidarity on power shift away from the north.

During the week. a powerful politician in the APC ranks was alleged to have caused a ‘heartbreak’ when he reportedly ‘choose’ Jonathan over some of the leading contenders from the South, particularly Bola Tinubu, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, and Transportation Minister, Rotimi Amaechi.: Heartbreak, Pain as Powerful APC Politician Chooses Over Tinubu, Osinbajo, Amaechi

How Jonathan will alter the 2023 presidential race has been an object of worry for politicians across the spectrum of the political divide.

Snippets of this still ricocheted on social media yesternight.

A notable one crafted by Godwin Etakitebu at thenewsguru.com, said, “While Tinubu and Osinbajo are dancing in Lagos, APC presidential plane may overfly South West”

Another one attempted to trace “How APC stakeholders sold Jonathan to Buhari”

The PDP, the political machine on which Jonathan made himself progressively as a deputy governor, governor, vice president, and eventually president from the classroom, is not taking matters lying low with the seemingly ambitious former president.

Speaking on Jonathan’s rumoured imminent defection to APC, PDP leaders offered varying degrees of opinion.

A party spokesman simply darted, “We won’t react to speculations”.

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National Publicity Secretary of PDP, Debo Ologunagba, said the party will not react to speculations on whether the former President will defect or not.

Chairman of the PDP presidential election power zoning panel, Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, went philosophical when he said, “Politics is all about interest.”

A former Kaduna State governor and former PDP national caretaker chairman, Ahmed Makarfi said of Jonathan, “It’s his life”.

Another alleged presidential aspirant, former governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, simply submitted, “I’m not in his mind”.

A presidential aspirant was quoted by a national daily as wrapping it all up: “Let’s not pre-empt him”.