By Olusegun Olanrewaju
Plot to draft former President Goodluck Jonathan as the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) may be gathering momentum. Even with denials, refusals, and rebuttals here and there, clandestine footwork by friends and sympathisers to the “Jonathan 2023 project” is afloat Credible inside sources confided in ThisNigeria that part of the plot is to have some of his loyalists defect to the ruling party, APC, to “test the waters before the dance of the big masquerade”

A source close to the former president said he (Jonathan) will “seriously consider” contesting for the presidency in 2023 if he gets the firm assurance of President Muhammadu Buhari, to “smoothen the path for him”. Already, lobbyists are said to be rallying around political blocs in the North to persuade northern elites to support the alleged presidential bid of Jonathan. It was learnt over the weekend that some northern traditional rulers have reportedly begun lobbying Jonathan to defect to the APC and contest for the presidency following the ongoing debate of zoning between the north and the south.

A source told ThisNigeria that the reason the northern leaders have suddenly picked interest in Jonathan is that if given the mandate, Jonathan has only one term to rule after which power will return to the north. “The debate on the rotational presidency is over-heating the polity and some powerful blocs in the north are of the view that a Jonathan presidency under the platform of APC will be a stabilising factor for the country. So, the serious lobby is currently ongoing to actualise that plot under the ruling party,” he said.

As a precursor to his defection, ThisNigeria learnt yesterday that a former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godsday Orubebe, and a former Director of Finance in the defunct President Goodluck Jonathan’s Campaign Organisation, Ngozi Olejeme, have secretly defected to APC. Orubebe, who caused a national stir during the 2015 presidential election when he interrupted the collation of votes in Abuja by the Independent National Election Commission (INEC), has allegedly moved to the APC even though there is no official confirmation.

This is coming five months after Stella Oduah, a senator representing Anambra north and minister under Jonathan’s administration, defected to the APC from the PDP because she wants to be part of the process of changing the political narrative in the South East.

The defection of the two former top government officials who hail from Delta State, and were visible loyalists of Jonathan during his administration, according to sources, was done in secret and yet to be formally brought to the public.

Only recently, the Chairman, APC Caretaker and Extra-ordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC), and Governor of Yobe, Mai Mala Buni, led the party’s delegation to visit Jonathan. It was recently raised that the former President has not been attending PDP functions lately.

This may have given room why a former governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, said Jonathan had been inactive and when a new chairman was also elected, Jonathan had been lukewarm. According to Lamido, ex-President Jonathan may have clandestinely resigned his membership of the PDP Lamido hinged his assertion on the conspicuous absence of Jonathan at major national events of the party.

“I doubt it; he has not been attending recent activities of our party,” Lamido said during an interview with the BBC. Jonathan has kept an unusual distance from the party, a move that reached its crescendo after his absence at the party’s October 2021 national convention where Iyorchia Ayu was elected national chairman. “His absence from the party’s convention raised questions about his commitment to it and affirmed the misgivings many had harboured about his half-hearted association with it. Before that, there’s pervasive speculation, that the former president might be President Buhari’s choice to succeed him in the forthcoming 2023 elections.”

But before the convention, the former President’s media aide, Ikechukwu Eze, released his itinerary, disclosing that Mr Jonathan would be in Nairobi, Kenya, for a three-day peace and security event organised by the African Union.

•Jonathan won’t quit PDP, says Reno Omokri
However, a former presidential aide, Reno Omokri, yesterday expressed his views about the claims by Lamido regarding the membership of Jonathan in the PDP.

Omokri wrote, “The news floating around that former President Jonathan has resigned from the PDP is false. Very false! This news is being floated by people who have been thoroughly rejected in their state and amongst their kith and kin, and went to their slave master’s town to receive dubious ‘honours’. Ignore it”

“Sule Lamido, you have nothing to fear. Former President Jonathan is 64 years old. Throughout his life, he has only been a member of one political party. His character is distinct. He is stable. He does not jump from party to party. Relax, Mallam Lamido!”

“Truth be told, Sule Lamido is right to think that Goodluck Jonathan is no longer a member of the Peoples Democratic Party. You may recall that during the last National convention of the Peoples Democratic Party, Goodluck Jonathan who has been a member of the party since 1999 was not in attendance.

“And he has not been involved in party activities as well. Moreso, his close relationship with the current administration has called his commitment to the activities of the party into question.

Jonathan lost his re-election to Buhari and went ahead to concede defeat, but had recently been spotted several times lately visiting Buhari and holding private meetings at the State House, Abuja.

Jonathan has spent his time after office mediating in political conflicts across Africa and has not declared to be running in 2023 but the All Progressive Congress (APC) has said it would not deny him its platform if he wishes to contest in the elections.

•He’ll contest if Buhari gives assurance- Source
A source close to Jonathan said he can only run if he gets assurance from the ruling party that there will be a smooth sail for him. “I can tell you that Jonathan will contest if he gets the assurance of President Muhammadu Buhari that he will get the APC ticket. Talks are still ongoing,” he said.

•Why his return will not fly, Otubanjo, others advise
But pundits are of the view that Jonathan will be a hard sell for APC because they had demonised him, hounded him, and called him incompetent, among others. A retired professor of Political Science at, the University of Ibadan, Femi Otubanjo, said though the ex-president has the right to contest for the presidency, there is a problem of platform for him to do so.

According to the university don, “Goodluck Jonathan was a former president on the platform of the PDP, and to this moment, he has not renounced his membership of the PDP. People, in their mischief and political manoeuvring, have decided to come and get him involved. So many groups will start talking, but it does not matter. I can assure you that the most important element in the choice of president in any election is the incumbent President. “Most political parties are beholden to the President and it is whatever he says that they will go, there is nobody that can challenge it- that is the way it has been.

“So, don’t let us deceive ourselves, if the President wants Jonathan, of course, he would come up but if there are groups who are trying to manoeuvre the President to frustrate the Bola Tinubu agenda, which appears to be an agenda that was set before 2015 because Tinubu would have been Buhari’s deputy if not for the Muslim/Muslim ticket. Knowing the role Tinubu played in the establishment of APC and the funding of Buhari’s presidential election, there is reason to believe that when Buhari finishes he would hand it over to Tinubu. “So, that is a more viable proposition than the Jonathan one. What is Jonathan going to offer APC that will make them need him so badly? Is it his popularity in the North, South-West, South-South, or South-East?

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“What will be the advantage of the APC fielding Jonathan that they will go and call him from his semi-political retirement, force him to defect to the PDP, which will be a shameful thing to do for a man of his status because it will smear his legacy for life.”

Also, a former Chairman of Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) and chieftain of the PDP, Chief Bode George, said: “We know that those who want to use him will throw all kinds of things at him like bait, but we appeal to ex-President Jonathan to drop that proposal like a hot potato.

“Jonathan is part of the founding fathers of the PDP and he rose to that level. I recall that after winning a governorship election in Bayelsa in 2007, somehow fate landed the vice-presidency on his lap, and he became the President on this same platform. He rose to the highest level in this country through this platform and if, for any reason, I want to appeal to him to drop it like a hot potato.

“This is the time this nation needs the best in power. Jonathan should just quietly back off no matter how they try to woo him. What is he going back there to do? I hope all our people in this country should be able to talk to him, from the humble beginning, God anointed him, so he should respect himself. He has done his part and he should be waiting for God’s righteousness.”