…Says constitution disqualifies Jonathan
As politicians battle for parties’ presidential tickets, ahead of 2027, Festus Keyamo, the minister of aviation on Sunday, said Nigerians will not be willing to vote for any eligible candidate from the South West, with possible chance of two terms in office.
Keyamo in an apparent reference to the widely held speculations that Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State may emerge as the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP, noted that who ever will emerge as the President in 2027, will need the support of about 3 to 4 regions out of Nigeria’s six regions, in Keyamo’s calculation.
“If the PDP decides to field its most attractive S/West candidate, no other region of the country will vote for a fresh Yoruba candidate who would be eligible for fresh two terms in office,” he said.
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“That candidate will battle with the well-oiled APC structures in the S/West. You need a majority of at least 3 to 4 regions in Nigeria to win the Presidency.”
Keyamo, while rating the chances of the PDP in the 2027 election , noted that , in 2023, the part had “lacked the balls to deliberately zone its Presidential ticket to the South, so it woefully lost its decades-long stranglehold on the S/South and S/East, the two of its most loyal regions since 1999″.
Perhaps, in a bid to correct that, it has now deliberately zoned its 2027 Presidential ticket to the South to win back the southern regions into the Party.
” One of its attractive targets as a Presidential candidate is ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, because of his purported eligibility to run for only one term.
He warned that if Jonathan is fielded, the Party runs the RISK of “Not having a candidate at all by virtue of section 137 (3) of the 1999 Constitution (Fourth Amendment)”.
He recalls that the constitutional amendment was made after the court judgment which cleared him to run in 2015, adding that ” so nothing is decided yet on that new amendment, hence I use the word ‘RISK’ advisedly”.
He also noted that all the arguments as to whether the section can be interpreted to affect him will not be decided on Social Media, but at the Supreme Court.
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“If he is barred from running AFTER nominations have closed and the PDP is declared as having no candidate, nobody should scream ‘judiciary is corrupt’ because such a large party saw the judicial danger ahead and deliberately ignored it.”
Keyamo also noted that should the PDP woo back Peter Obi, Nigerians will still be skeptical, adding that the argument as the South West candidate will affect him, despite ” all his shout of serving one-term of recent.
” In addition, the principled ones amongst the ‘obidients’ will see him as going back to his vomit of ‘structure of criminality’ and may not be too vociferous in their support anymore.”
“This is happening to PDP because it committed an original sin in 2023 by lacking the balls to zone its Presidential ticket to the South.
“The young social media warriors may lampoon anyone talking about these zoning sentiments, but that is the REALITY of our politics and it is not about to end.
According to him “except something extraordinary happens, the Party may have to wait till 2031”.
