I’ll Tell Jonathan My Mind If He Consults Me Over 2027 Presidency – Wike

Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, says he will speak his mind to former President Goodluck Jonathan if he approaches him over the 2027 Presidency.

Although Jonathan has not personally declared interest in the race, there are strong indications that the former president is plotting to stage comeback in 2027.

Last month, former Minister of Information and Orientation, Professor Jerry Gana, had said Jonathan would contest the 2027 presidential election on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Speaking to journalists shortly after the PDP Congress in Minna, Niger State, ,Gana said Nigerians had experienced two other leaders after Jonathan and know the difference.

“In 2015, former President Goodluck Jonathan said his ambition was not worth the blood of Nigerians. After him, another President ruled for eight years, and now another has ruled for two years.”

“Nigerians have seen the difference, and the difference is very clear. Nigerians are now asking us to bring back our friend, former President Goodluck Jonathan. I can confirm that Goodluck Ebele Jonathan will contest the presidential election in 2027 as PDP candidate, and we should be prepared to vote for him to return as President again,” he had said.

After then, Jonathan also held strategic meetings with key politicians.

But speaking during a session with journalists in Abuja, on Friday, Wike, a former ally of Jonathan, said the former president never discussed such intentions with him.

“Jonathan has never told me. He has never called me one day to say, ‘look, I’m being pressured to run.’

“If he calls me and asks me, I’ll be able to tell him my mind, what I feel,” the minister said.

Wike had earlier discouraged Jonathan from joining the 2027 presidential race.

While previously addressing journalists at a different session in Abuja, he charged the former president not to allow himself to be used by politicians who deceived him in the past.

“I know Jonathan very well. He has international respect and should maintain that. These same people weighing Jonathan down are the ones who played him in 2015. They are only trying to cause confusion in the party.”

“People pushing Jonathan, what strength do they have? Were they not the same people who worked against him in 2015?

“Those calling for a Jonathan candidacy are the same political actors who ‘played him’ during the 2015 elections.”(Daily trust)