Former President Goodluck Jonathan is currently in a meeting over the 2023 presidency. Jonathan, who has been tipped among those interested in vying for the highest office in the land, has not made any commitment to it publicly.
Jonathan became president in 2010 when President Umaru Musa Yar’adua died. In 2011, he ran for the same office, won the election and ran the country till 2015 when he was defeated by President Muhammadu Buhari.
If he contests and wins the 2023 polls, he would run the country for only four years in line with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
In the meantime, some of his supporters stormed his Abuja residence on Friday, asking him to declare for the 2023 presidency.
They wielded placards and banners with inscriptions such as ‘Goodluck Jonathan must run for president 2023?, “Jonathan is our candidate’, among others.
A spokesman for the group, Mayor Samuel, who is also the convener of the Youth Compatriots of Nigeria said, “We were deceived and brainwashed by those who claimed they could do it in 2015.
“Now, we know better, under Jonathan the minimum wage could buy one or two bags of rice. What do we have today? We are begging President Jonathan to forgive us, we have realized our mistakes, we want him back to complete what he started.
In his response, Jonathan asked Nigerian youths to show greater interest in the nation’s political process.
He said he was aware that they were “here to ask me to declare,” but he said, “I cannot declare because some process are still ongoing.”
“Yes you are calling me to come and declare for the next election, I cannot tell I’m declaring. The political process is ongoing just watch out. The key role you must play is that Nigeria must get somebody that will carry young people along.”
