Tuesday, September 30, 2025 - President Bola Tinubu’s administration says Goodluck Jonathan’s “disastrous” presidential tenure will be a major obstacle if he chooses to contest the 2027 election.
Presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga made this statement on
Monday, reacting to claims by former Information Minister Jerry Gana that Mr
Jonathan would run for president in 2027 on the platform of the Peoples
Democratic Party.
Mr Onanuga dismissed Mr Gana’s comments as “delusional,”
arguing that Nigerians will remember Mr Jonathan’s dismal record in office,
stressing that the former President cannot stage a comeback after 12 years to
defeat Mr Tinubu.
“As
we begin the march towards the 2027 elections prematurely foisted on the nation
by the desperation of the opposition ganging up against President Bola Tinubu
despite his glaring giant economic strides. One recent statement that stands
out in its absurdity is Prof. Jerry Gana’s.
The former minister of information and national orientation, moving to draft
former President Goodluck Jonathan into the 2027 presidential race.
“He
affirmed that the former president would contest the coming election on the
platform of the discredited PDP, which bequeathed a legacy of economic ruins,
after 16 years of bad governance. Gana even deluded himself, asserting that the
former President would defeat President Tinubu to reclaim power after 12 years,” said the statement.
Mr Onanuga noted that the courts may need to rule on Mr
Jonathan’s eligibility, given that he was sworn in twice as president and could
face constitutional hurdles in seeking a third term.
He warned Mr Jonathan against being misled by “sugar-coated” PDP loyalists like Gana,
saying their motives were selfish, ethnic, religious, and political—not patriotic.
Mr Onanuga claimed that the former president would be
abandoned by the same political elite mid-race, just as in 2015, leaving him
politically stranded again. He acknowledged Mr Jonathan’s constitutional right to run
but stressed that Mr Tinubu would welcome the challenge, trusting the legal
system to decide on eligibility.
“Let
us remind ourselves about Jonathan’s
record. We cannot forget in a hurry how his regime, devoid of any clear
economic agenda, engaged in frivolous spending, ran the economy aground, and
put the country in dire straits.
“The nation’s
economic downturn, which President Tinubu is working very hard to overcome,
actually began under President Jonathan. The Jonathan administration severely
damaged the economy, and all key indicators declined under his watch,” Mr Onanuga stated. “Under him, the so-called
business moguls allocated foreign exchange to import fuel, simply pocketing the
dollars without importing anything. Some of those big men still have court
cases on the issue today.”
The presidency also alleged massive corruption during Mr
Jonathan’s time,
particularly in security spending, citing his former National Security Adviser,
Sambo Dasuki.
“In
2010, President Jonathan inherited a total of $66 billion, of which $46 billion
was in foreign reserves and $20 billion in the noble-but-abused Excess Crude
Account,” said the
presidential spokesman. “By
2015, when the people democratically removed him from office, the foreign
reserves had fallen below $30 billion, and the Excess Crude Account had been
depleted to $2 billion, despite generating record revenue from crude oil sales
that the country had never achieved in more than 25 years combined.”
The presidency added that from 2010 to 2013, crude oil sold
for an average of $100 per barrel, yet by 2014, the government struggled to pay
workers.
“By
December 2014, however, the Jonathan-led federal government could no longer pay
salaries to federal civil servants. At least 28 states across the country owed
workers huge salary arrears,”
said the statement.
In contrast, Mr Onanuga said the incumbent president had
taken bold decisions to stabilise the economy in less than 30 months through
subsidy removal and exchange rate unification.
“The
president has stabilised the economy in slightly over two years in office. In
2025 Q2, the gross domestic product grew by 4.23%, the highest in four years,
outpacing the 3.4% projected by the International Monetary Fund.
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