Contrary to reports that immediate past president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, is out of the race for the presidential ticket of the ruling All progressives Congress, APC, because he did not submit his nomination form, Vanguard gathered yesterday that he is still in the race.
Sources said he submitted his expression of interest and nomination forms to the party. However, party leaders could not confirm, yesterday, if he has left the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for the APC.
Some leaders of the PDP, led by Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State, early in the week, met Jonathan to convince him to remain in the PDP and attend the party’s presidential convention on Saturday.
The move to include Jonathan in the race, sources said, last night, was partly responsible for the much-postponed screening of APC presidential aspirants.
Apart from the issue of raising a seven-man screening committee to be chaired by the National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, the panel has to be given a list of aspirants to be screened.
It was also gathered that the bid by some powerful Northern political leaders to draft Jonathan into the presidency of Nigeria in 2023 is gaining momentum, with the endorsement of the idea by a cross-section of Northern political stakeholders.
Vanguard however learned last night that although the idea has been pushed to President Muhammadu Buhari by his henchmen, he has neither rejected nor openly endorsed it as of the time of writing this report.
A source close to Jonathan’s camp confirmed to Vanguard that the bid by Jonathan to fly the APC flag in the 2023 presidential election is on the course but declined to give details of the process and who the promoters are.
The source was confident that barring any unforeseen political development, Jonathan might emerge the consensus candidate of the APC and win next year’s presidential poll with a wide margin.
The source said: “There have been a series of political stakeholders’ engagements and many more are still being held in a bid to finalise the details of the process and we are confident Jonathan will emerge the candidate of the party.
“Although there have been some back and forth developments relating to the project, there is clear hope now since the necessary contacts have been made and are still being made to advance the cause of the former Nigerian leader.
Why Jonathan is still in the race
Another source told Vanguard how and why Jonathan is still in the race.
“They (Presidency Cabal) persuaded him that he is the chosen one. He got the nomination form but when he could not get any guarantee from President Buhari, he hesitated.
‘’The party created room for those who collected the forms late to fill and submit. Jonathan took advantage of the window and submitted the forms.
“The cabal persisted. All sorts of stakeholders’ meetings were held to.