SOME members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) staged a protest at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja on Thursday against alleged plans to present former President Goodluck Jonathan as the presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections.
The group known as the APC North-South Patriotic Coalition, warned that any attempt to impose Jonathan as the presidential candidate would lead to the destruction of the party.
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Speaking to journalists, convener of the group, Toyin Rahim noted that the alleged plan could also push the ruling party out of power.
“What began as a mere rumour seems to be gathering momentum so close to the presidential primary of our great party.
“This Jonathan project cannot fly simply because it cannot help our party and we want to do our best to ensure that our party does not fall victim to ill-advised action that can push the party out of power,” he said.
Rahim added that presenting Jonathan as the candidate for the APC would imply that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration had performed worse than the Jonathan-led government.
“In APC today there are presidential aspirants with credible pedigrees and humongous electoral value and capacity.
“It is not only unnecessary to smuggle Jonathan into our great party, but it is also self-indicting and means that our party’s performance in office has been worse than an administration that Nigerians thoroughly rejected and voted APC in 2015,” Rahim said.
Jonathan was defeated by Buhari in the 2015 general elections.
There are speculations that he will contest the 2023 presidential elections on the platform of the APC.
Two weeks ago, a group of youths had converged at the ex-President’s Abuja office with placards, asking him to contest the election.
After a closed door meeting with leaders of the group, Jonathan had said the political process was still ongoing and asked them to watch out.
Though his plans concerning the presidential race remain unclear, The ICIR had reported that a 2023 presidential election campaign poster of the former president, produced by a support group, appeared online in January.
Ijeoma Opara is a journalist with The ICIR. Reach her via vopara@icirnigeria.org or @ije_le on Twitter.