Presidency Denies Being Part Of Plot To Draft Jonathan Into Presidential Race

President Muhammadu Buhari has no hand in the plot by some stakeholders in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to bring in former President Goodluck Jonathan into the party and lure him into the presidential race for the 2023 general elections, The Tide source has gathered.
Some of the supporters of the former president had last week said Jonathan has the full backing of President Buhari to join the APC, adding that everything has been perfected to ensure he becomes the party’s presidential flag bearer.
However, speaking with The Tide source on Monday, a senior presidential aide who asked not to be named, said while President Buhari has great respect for Jonathan owing to the manner he handled the outcome of the 2015 presidential election by graciously accepting defeat and congratulating him (Buhari) despite pressures from some of his loyalists to do otherwise, Buhari does not want him to succeed him in 2023.
”It is pure mischief for anyone to say President Buhari is the one behind the move by some politicians to draft the former president into the party and make him contest the 2023 presidential election.
“Far from it! The Buhari I know will never make a move to allow Jonathan, a man he heavily criticised for mismanaging the affairs of the country while he held sway as president to take over from him. Doing so will reverse all the gains the administration has recorded since 2015.”
”For us in the presidency, one thing is very clear. President Buhari holds his predecessor in very high esteem as a true statesman due to the manner he handled the outcome of the presidential election in 2015.
Nobody believed that a ruling party with a sitting president which controls the security agencies and even INEC can lose the presidential election.
When that happened, some enemies of Nigeria who had earlier predicted doomsday that the country will cease to exist in 2015 asked him not to accept the outcome. He rejected their entreaties and called President Buhari to congratulate him.
“Even though President Buhari was not happy with the way Jonathan managed the affairs of the country, his being gracious in defeat really touched Buhari especially when you compare what Jonathan did with what some African leaders such as Laurent Gbagbo and Yahya Jammeh did in Cote d’Ivoire and Gambia, respectively.
”Also, this government has had its shortcomings and made some mistakes but you will not see Jonathan writing letters or publicly criticising the government just to score cheap political points. Rather, he knows he has free access to Aso Villa to see President Buhari and share his thoughts privately with him.
“These are the two reasons President Buhari greatly admires the former president. But saying President Buhari is working behind the scenes to lure him into the APC and impose him on party members as presidential candidate is pure mischief.