Former President Goodluck Jonathan has discussed his presidential ambitions with Mallam Mamman Daura, President Muhammadu Buhari’s nephew and leader of the Aso Rock cabal.
The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential nomination and expression of interest forms for the former President had been purchased by a Northern coalition.
The forms were purchased just days after Jonathan warned his supporters to “be on the lookout” when asked if he would run for office.
Jonathan was also said to have joined the APC’s Bayelsa chapter.
However, sources later told Reporters that the former President’s claims that he did not authorize the purchase of the multi-million-naira forms were false.
“Contrary to his denials, former President Goodluck Jonathan gave over N200 million to the governor of Jigawa, Mohammed Badaru, to purchase the APC nomination and expression of interest forms for him,” a source privy to the arrangement had told journalists.
It was learned that the Jigawa governor agreed to buy one for Jonathan and one for himself in order to avoid any suspicion that the former President was indeed interested in running for president.
Jonathan is expected to run for the ruling party’s ticket alongside Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, former Lagos governor Bola Tinubu, former Minister of Transport Rotimi Amaechi, Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello, and former Minister of State for Education Emeka Nwajiuba, among others.
Though ruling party delegates are expected to choose a presidential candidate between May 29th and 30th, sources say the cabal is insisting on a consensus arrangement.
The consensus method will see President Buhari appointing one of the aspirants while the others simply step down for the aspirant, as was done during the APC’s March 26 national convention, which produced Senator Abdullahi Adamu as the party’s chairman.
In an attempt to impose the consensus method on others, the APC included a contentious provision in its forms allowing aspirants to resign.
According to sources, Jonathan was promised the party’s automatic ticket during his meeting with Daura and other cabal members.
It was also revealed that Buhari has endorsed him as the APC’s consensus candidate.
“Goodluck Jonathan has visited Mamma Daura to seek APC consensus candidacy,” a top source told NAIJA LIVE TV on Tuesday.
“The cabal members have told Buhari to back Jonathan. The President, some NWC members led by the chairman, Adamu, APC governors and other key leaders of the party would soon meet with all the presidential aspirants at the villa,” another source in the Presidency said.
“The cabals don’t want Tinubu, Osibanjo or Amaechi.”
Previous reports show that the Aso Rock cabal was pressuring Jonathan to defect to the APC.
He was said to have surprised the Northern elite and the cabal with his attitude toward the Buhari presidency, despite all the dirt and calumny thrown at him and the PDP before the 2015 presidential election, which gave Buhari an unprecedented victory over an incumbent.
Some cabal members were also impressed that, despite the Buhari administration’s obvious failures, Jonathan had not openly criticized his predecessor or his administration, unlike ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Obasanjo had written open letters condemning the Buhari administration and verbally chastised it at every opportunity.
According to sources, Jonathan’s establishment of ‘Almajiri’ schools to reduce the large number of out-of-school children in the North also earned the former president brownie points with the northern cabal in the APC, especially since most of it is now rotting away, even with a Northerner as president.
