Adams Oshiomhole, former governor of Edo State and Senator representing the Edo North senatorial district, has said that only the enemies of former President Goodluck Jonathan will want him to contest in the 2027 presidential election.

Oshiomhole, a former national chairman of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC), gave the advice to former President Jonathan on Sunday while featuring during Channels Television’s Sunday Politics on October 5.

In recent weeks, there have been reports suggesting that former President Jonathan may contest the 2027 elections against President Bola Tinubu.

Although Jonathan is yet to make an official statement regarding his intentions, several leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have been calling on him to run on the party’s platform.

Nigeria’s main opposition, the PDP, once regarded as the most formidable opposition has now disintegrated and become a shadow of itself.

While some Nigerians support the idea and even suggest alternative platforms for Jonathan to join the 2027 presidential race, others have advised him not to join the race, the recent being Oshiomhole.

He advised former President Jonathan not to contest in 2027 to save the current image he enjoys both in the political space.

According to Oshiomhole, Jonathan was defeated by APC even when the party (PDP) was the ruling party, not to talk of now that the party followership has reduced remarkably.

“The South-South is no longer PDP. Where’s he going to start from,” he responded among other questions thrown to him by Seun Okinbaloye, the host of Politics Today and Sunday Politics on Channels TV.

Like Oshiomhole, other key stakeholders in APC have shown their support for President Tinubu’s second term. For instance, ahead of the 2027 general elections, members of the zonal executive committee of the APC have designed programmes for the success of President Tinubu’s second term ambition, saying he deserves a second term to consolidate what he is currently doing in the country.

The presidency recently said it welcomes former President Goodluck Jonathan to the 2027 presidential race.

Bayo Onanuga, special adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, stated this while reacting to a statement credited to Jerry Gana, former minister of Information, who revealed that the former President would contest the 2027 Presidential election on the platform of the PDP.

Onanuga noted that it is premature desperation of the opposition ganging up against President Tinubu despite his glaring giant economic strides.

“We are once again regaled with a cacophony of voices, most of them full of sound and fury, signifying nothing, to paraphrase inimitable Williams Shakespeare in one of his classic works, Macbeth.”

Unconfirmed report on Sunday suggested that former President Goodluck Jonathan is considering aligning with the African Democratic Congress (ADC) ahead of the 2027 general elections, as the party’s coalition of opposition forces gathers strength and intensifies consultations with key political stakeholders across the country.

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, a key contender in the opposition coalition ADC recently denied reports indicating that he would step down for anybody in the 2027 presidential race.

Atiku stated this in a statement by his media aide, Paul Ibe, on Thursday in Abuja.

Nasir El-Rufai, former governor of Kaduna State and key stakeholder in the ADC had said President Bola Tinubu will finish third in the 2027 presidential election.

“Tinubu will be third in the 2027 election. I have done my maths and I can tell you Tinubu has no pathway to win. The worst case scenario is that there will not be any winner in the first ballot,” he had said on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics. (BusinessDay)

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