President Goodluck Jonathan’s cousin has joined issues with Aviation Minister Festus Keyamo who said the former leader was not constitutionally and legally qualified to contest the 2027 Nigerian general elections, if presented by the ruling .
Robert Azibaola spoke amid growing calls from stakeholders who view Jonathan as the only opposition figure capable of challenging President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the upcoming election cycle.
Responding to Keyamo’s position supported by Human Rights lawyer, Chidi Odinkalu, Azibaola said on Facebook: “GEJ is 100% constitutionally and legally qualified to contest if he chooses to. If he chooses not to yield to his overwhelming calls to contest, it would not be because he is not qualified.”
Former Vice President Jonathan served as President of Nigeria from 2010, upon the illness and death of President Umar Musa Yar’Adua, won the election in 2011 until 2015 when he lost to Muhammadu Buhari.
However, Jonathan’s potential candidacy seems to be unsettling the ruling party.
In his reaction, Robert Azibaola, who is a cousin of the former President, defended Jonathan’s constitutional right to contest the next elections if he so chose.
AZIBAOLA WROTE ON HIS FACEBOOK PAGE:
“Dear Festus Keyamo, SAN, Chidi Odinkalu(Prof.), I greet both of you. For the record, we are three lawyers.
“We all were pro-democracy activists in the 90s, and I was a better activist than both of you combined.
“RULE NO. 1: Do not offer legal advice where none is solicited. Goodluck Jonathan has numerous, more celebrated, more experienced SANs at his disposal who give him sound, unblemished, professional legal advice only.
“GEJ is 100% constitutionally and legally qualified to contest if he chooses to. If he chooses not to yield to his overwhelming calls to contest, it would not be because he is not qualified.
“Your screwed, unsolicited legal view is not of any concern in his bucket list, and it will never be. Don’t waste your precious times further dwelling on this.
“Or should you schedule a meeting with me so you can get properly educated on the subsisting court judgements on this, one of which your party, APC, was a party?
“I beg una, make we no dey put too much water inside belle for another person disco dance, make long line no form for latrine door.
“#This is not a confirmation that GEJ is running, though.”
MINISTER OF AVIATION AND AEROSPACE DEVELOPMENT, FESTUS KEYAMO, WROTE ON X:
“Let me poke my nose a bit today: the position of PDP is not an enviable one at all.
“SCENARIO ONE: In 2023, PDP lacked the balls to deliberately zone its Presidential ticket to the South, so it woefully lost its decades-long stranglehold on the S/South and S/East, the two of its most loyal regions since 1999. To correct that, it has now deliberately zoned its 2027 Presidential ticket to the South to win back the southern regions into the Party.
“SCENARIO TWO: One of its attractive targets as a Presidential candidate is ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, because of his purported eligibility to run for only one term. But, if he is fielded, the Party runs the RISK of NOT HAVING A CANDIDATE AT ALL by virtue of section 137 (3) of the 1999 Constitution (Fourth Amendment). The constitutional amendment was made AFTER the court judgment which cleared him to run in 2015, so nothing is decided yet on that new amendment, hence I use the word ‘RISK’ advisedly. All the arguments as to whether the section can be interpreted to affect him will not be decided on Social Media, but at the Supreme Court. If he is barred from running AFTER nominations have closed and the PDP is declared as having no candidate, nobody should scream ‘judiciary is corrupt’ because such a large party saw the judicial danger ahead and deliberately ignored it.
“SCENARIO THREE: If the PDP decides to field its most attractive S/West candidate, no other region of the country will vote for a fresh Yoruba candidate who would be eligible for fresh two terms in office. And that candidate will battle with the well-oiled APC structures in the S/West. You need a majority of at least 3 to 4 regions in Nigeria to win the Presidency.
“SCENARIO FOUR: If the PDP woos back Peter Obi, scenario three above will still apply to him, hence all his shout of serving one-term of recent. In addition, the principled ones amongst the ‘obidients’ will see him as going back to his vomit of ‘structure of criminality’ and may not be too vociferous in their support anymore.
“This is happening to PDP because it committed an original sin in 2023 by lacking the balls to zone its Presidential ticket to the South.
“The young social media warriors may lampoon anyone talking about these zoning sentiments, but that is the REALITY of our politics and it is not about to end.
“EXCEPT something EXTRAORDINARY happens, the Party may have to wait till 2031.”
