The presidency declared yesterday that former President Goodluck Jonathan is free to enter the 2027 presidential race.
It however argued that Nigerians will judge the former leader on what it described as a “dismal” record in office and compare his tenure with what it called the “giant economic strides” of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
In a statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, the Presidency blamed the early presidential campaign on those angling to unseat the incumbent.
The Presidency spoke on a day that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ruled out its automatic 2027 presidential ticket to the former president, describing him (Jonathan) as one of the “numerous options” on its radar.
They also said the early jostling for 2027 had been prematurely foisted on the nation by the desperation of the opposition ganging up against President Bola Tinubu.
Onanuga, in the statement, dismissed recent political rhetoric as “a cacophony of voices, most of them full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
The statement singled out former Information Minister, Prof Jerry Gana, over his reported move to draft Jonathan into the 2027 presidential contest on PDP platform, which it described as “discredited” and responsible for “a legacy of economic ruin after 16 years of bad governance.”
According to the Presidency, Gana “is free to delude himself and engage in his usual comedy,” adding that Jonathan’s entry would “provide another job” for the former university don.
Jonathan, according to sources, has intensified consultations on his ambition to return to power in 2027.
He was defeated in 2015 by former President Muhammadu Buhari in a historic election that was a referendum on his performance in the highest office.
