The All Progressives Congress (APC) has responded to the invitation extended by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to former President Goodluck Jonathan, urging him to run for president in the 2027 elections on the PDP’s platform.
This invitation follows recent discussions, particularly from the PDP’s Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Ibrahim Abdullahi, who expressed the party’s eagerness for Jonathan to return for a second term. Abdullahi emphasized that it would be a disappointment if Jonathan chose to pursue his presidential ambitions under another party’s banner.
However, in a counter-response, the APC’s National Director of Publicity, Bala Ibrahim, made it clear that the ruling party is not concerned about the possibility of Jonathan entering the race again. Ibrahim stated that if the former president heeded the PDP’s call, he would face another defeat, just as he did in 2015. He reassured that the APC would not be “jittery” about Jonathan’s potential candidacy, stressing that the party had previously defeated Jonathan when he was in power, and it would do so again if he ran in 2027.
“There is just no way the APC will be jittery, if at all, there is such a plan to bring former President Goodluck Jonathan into the race. The APC defeated him when he was in power. Defeating him when he’s out of power will be a walkover,” Ibrahim said. He further emphasized that the APC was not losing sleep over the speculation, and he questioned the motives behind any attempt to “scare” the party. “So, whoever is making this permutation, if the intention is to scare the APC, I think he needs to go back to the drawing board and think again. We are not worried.”
Ibrahim also remarked that it is too early to focus on the 2027 election, as less than 40 percent of the mandate given to President Bola Tinubu under the APC has been fully realized. He urged that the APC should first focus on fulfilling its promises to the electorate, rather than getting ahead of itself with discussions about the next election. “Let’s get to the river before we start thinking of crossing it,” Ibrahim added. “But if you bring 10 former President Jonathans, they cannot defeat the APC as of today.”
The APC spokesperson also made a point of differentiating the current political landscape from the 2015 election. He stressed that while Jonathan lost to Muhammadu Buhari in 2015, it was not due to the influence of any personal “cult followership” but rather the strength of the APC as a party. “The APC defeated Goodluck Jonathan when the president was the leader of the party. The APC will defeat him again now that Tinubu is the president and the leader of the party. It is not Buhari’s cult followership that matters. It is the party arrangement. Buhari did not contest on an independent candidature status,” Ibrahim noted.
To put things in context, in the 2015 presidential election, Jonathan, running on the PDP platform, was defeated by APC candidate Muhammadu Buhari. Buhari won the election with 15,424,921 votes, while Jonathan received 12,853,162 votes, marking the first time in Nigeria’s history that an incumbent president lost re-election. This historic loss solidified Buhari’s status as the leader of the APC, a victory that Ibrahim argues was more about the strength of the party rather than individual loyalty to Buhari.
As for the 2027 elections, the APC’s position remains clear: they are not concerned about a potential Jonathan candidacy, and they believe the party remains strong enough to win another election, regardless of who opposes them. With less than half of President Tinubu’s mandate completed, the APC is focusing on its current priorities while dismissing any early talk of the next presidential race as premature.
The ongoing political back-and-forth about Jonathan’s future has sparked interest across Nigeria, but the APC’s response underscores their confidence in the party’s ability to retain power in the upcoming elections. The party’s leadership is more focused on advancing President Tinubu’s agenda for now, leaving speculation about 2027 for later discussions.
