By Our correspondent
Barring last-minute change, Nigeria’s former president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, will once again vie for a second shot at the Presidency to lead the oil rich West African nation, a well-placed source has confirmed to Newsdiaryonline.
The sources who incidentally played key roles for a political support group and media campaign in 2019 told Newsdiaryonline that, ‘‘we have reached out to him (Jonathan) and his responses are positive concerning the 2023 presidential election.
‘‘I can confidently tell you that Dr, Jonathan will contest to lead the country again for good,’’ one of the sources who does not want to be named in this report said in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
According to him the fact ‘‘that former president Jonathan will run for 2023 presidency is a done deal.’’ He added that judging from the assurances from the country’s erstwhile leader to stage a comeback ‘‘the next line of action is to go back to the drawing board and plan how to return Nigeria to a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) controlled nation.’’
When asked whether Jonathan’s return will be blocked by the PDP presidential candidate in the 2019 general election, former vice president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who from every indication is poised for another attempt at the presidency, the source said ‘‘that Jonathan is at a very advantageous position in the party in the sense that top PDP leaders are inclined to zoning the party’s presidential ticket to the South.’’
Besides, he noted, if the 2023 presidential ticket of the party is ‘‘made open’’ the source said Dr. Goodluck Jonathan ‘‘will still not lose sleep as to his presidential ambition.’’
Newsdiaryonline reports that the Peoples Democratic Party has not yet come out with a clear -cut position on where its presidential candidate for 2023 election will come from. But many believe that zoning it to the south or throwing it up for grabs by aspirants appears to be the party’s best bet for now.
It would be recalled that Jonathan, ‘a minority’ from Bayelsa State in the oil rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria became president in 2010 following the death of president Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua whom he had served as vice after their election in 2007.
Jonathan ran for and won the 2011 presidential poll but lost his re-election bid to President Buhari in 2015.
