Former Edo State governor Adams Oshiomhole has warned former President Goodluck Jonathan against succumbing to pressure to run in the 2027 presidential election, warning that doing so will harm his legacy.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, Oshiomhole stated that only those who do not wish Jonathan well would push him to return to politics, claiming that the All Progressives Congress (APC) would easily defeat him if he ran.
“How can Jonathan be a threat? We defeated him before when PDP was truly PDP,” Oshiomhole said.
“If a man had PDP at its best, at its peak, and he was defeated, I think only his enemy will push him to go into election.”
The former APC national chairman encouraged Jonathan to save his reputation as a gentleman and avoid making a comeback that would damage the respect he acquired after losing in 2015.
“If I were able to advise him, I would say, ‘Sir, maintain this status. You governed for eight years; you don’t have to govern for nine,” Oshiomhole said.
According to him, Jonathan “has managed to demonstrate that out of power, you can be relevant and at peace.”
He lauded Jonathan’s historic concession speech in 2015, describing it as one of his most admirable legacies.
“Looking at how he ascended to that office, if I were him, I would spend the end of my life trying to find relevance, which he has already found, and speaking because of that conceding defeat, and that is a memorable quote about my blood—sorry, the blood of a Nigerian is not worth my ambition—he should just allow those legacies to be,” he said.
Oshiomhole also stated that Jonathan’s political base in the South-South has diminished since his departure from power, making a comeback unlikely.
“We will defeat him flatly if he comes out because now the South-South is no longer PDP. So where is he going to start from?” he asked.
Jonathan, the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) presidential candidate, lost the 2015 election to the late Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
