Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan has dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the All Progressives Congress (APC), seven years after he was booted out of the Presidential Villa by the latter.
Rumours have been rife that Jonathan has been mulling a presidential bid ahead of the 2023 general elections.
Other sources say he has maintained a campaign office in Abuja, the nation’s capital city, for quite sometime now.
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The Chairman of the APC in Ogbia Ward 13, in Jonathan’s home state of Bayelsa, Mr Igori Freeman, told Daily Trust on Thursday that Jonathan registered with the party immediately after the short-lived victory of David Lyon, the APC candidate in the 2019 governorship election in the state.
The Supreme Court had voided the election, paving way for the PDP candidate Douye Diri to govern Bayelsa.
Jonathan’s Ward Chairman told Daily Trust that: “I know too well that Jonathan registered with APC, but registration is not about publishing to the whole world. The register was with me, it was not only him that registered during that period, some dignitaries from PDP also registered with APC after David Lyon’s victory during 2019 governorship election.
“You can go to the state Chairman and ask him that the ward Chairman believe that Jonathan registered with the party. We have finished with the registration, so I can’t give detail now because I returned all the data after everything. Meet the party Chairman, Chief Dennis Otiotio for more clarification.”
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) had earlier reported that Jonathan will run for President on the platform of the APC.
NAN reports that the former president joined the APC formally, having registered at his Otuoke Ward in Bayelsa.
The report also details that Jonathan is expected to submit the duly filled forms bought on his behalf on Thursday.
According to the source who spoke to NAN, the former president has secured the support of the required number of APC delegates from across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
“Several bigwigs of the party have also been calling Jonathan to pledge their loyalty and support to the former president,’’ the source revealed.
African leaders
The source also told the NAN political correspondent late on Wednesday that some influential African leaders had called Jonathan earlier on Monday to advise him “to contest the election in the interest of Nigeria.
“At least three top African leaders called the former president on the matter. They all urged him to run.
“One of them specifically told him that it didn’t make sense travelling all over Africa settling disputes, only to shy away from leadership responsibility in his home country.
“Another reminded him of the implication of failing to put the experiences he garnered as a former Nigerian president and as a continental statesman to good use,” the source added, without mentioning the names of the African leaders.
The source cited some of the African leaders as telling Jonathan that Nigeria was passing through challenging times and “needed a unifier like Jonathan at this time’’.
Jonathan, 64, who lost power to incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari, was born in 1957 in the Ogbia district in Bayelsa State.
He was previously of the PDP political party on whose platform he ruled Nigeria until he lost the presidential election to Buhari in 2015.
There has been a raging debate on whether Jonathan is constitutionally barred from running for president or not.
On May 9, Jonathan had rejected the N100 million APC Presidential form purchased on his behalf by Fulani herders, describing the move as an insult because he was not carried along before the purchase.
