THE identity of those calling on former President, Goodluck Jonathan to run for the Presidency in 2023 is now known, fueling speculations about the quiet moves to conscript him into the presidential race on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
The group, operating under the aegis of Citizens Network for Peace and Development (CNPD), said it wanted the immediate past President to dump his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and join forces with President Muhammadu Buhari in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to consummate the sucession plot in 2023.
Addressing journalists in Abuja at the weekend, National Coordinator, Okorie Raphael said the group was ready to mobilize at least eight million citizens to return Jonathan to Aso Rock seat of power.
The group extended the invitation to the former President, calling on him to accept its offer to serve Nigeria at this crucial moment.
“We call on former President Jonathan to once again avail himself to be of service to the country he loves so much!
“He should bear in mind the popular Latin saying: Vox populi, vox Dei( meaning, the voice of the people is the voice of God). This is a rescue mission you cannot refuse to lead sir”.
Buhari had in 2015 defeated Jonathan and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP); ending sixteen years of PDP’s reign in a massive electioneering that portrayed Jonathan’s era in power as not only laden with corrupt but also underscored by cluelessness.
Under Buhari, the APC has spent considerable energy and time blaming Jonathan and PDP for their seeming inabilities to deliver on many of their election promises to the Nigerian people.
With less than one and a half years to the end of Buhari’s eight years reign, the invitation extended by this group to Jonathan to succeed Buhari-the same man who sacked him from office in 2015 would appear somewhat absurd.
The absurdity notwithstanding, the group insisted that Jonathan remained its best candidate to take over from Buhari given his track records.
“Looking closer home, Goodluck Jonathan’s track records as an achiever, nationalist and visionary leader are clearly evident around us.
“A good number of mega projects initiated by his administration litter the landscape and though quite a number stand today in credit to the present administration in the spirit of continuity, the fact remains that he has left indelible footprints in the sands of time.”
The group further noted that with the level of mutual ethnic mistrust in the country; what Nigeria needed was a time-tested and trusted man like Jonathan to steer the ship.
“We do not need leader who is coming onboard with hangers-on who at best will constitute themselves into nuisance as d unwanted distraction.
“We do not need a leader whose history is chequered by more questions than answers and we certainly do not need a leader whose ambition is just to be President and nothing more.”
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