Fact-Check: Is Former President Goodluck Jonathan Eligible to Contest for Presidency Again? 

BY: Oluwaseye Ogunsanya 

Claim

X user, Pastor Okezie @onsogbu claimed that former President Goodluck Jonathan is NOT ELIGIBLE to contest for presidency again.

Verdict

False. Former President Goodluck Jonathan is eligible to contest for the presidency again. A Federal High Court in Bayelsa held in 2022 that he is eligible to contest. 

Full Text

X user, Pastor Okezie @onsogbu claimed that former President Goodluck Jonathan is NOT ELIGIBLE to contest for presidency again.

Photo Credit: Screenshot of the claim/X

In the post, the claimant was addressing Peter Obi’s supporters popularly known as Obidients.

“Can somebody tell this Ob!diots that former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan GCFR is NOT ELIGIBLE to contest for presidency again as far as Nigeria is concerned?” he posted.

This follows the recent comebacks of former President Donald Trump of the United States and former President John Mahama of Ghana, both of whom lost their re-election bids in 2020 and 2016 respectively.

Verification

To check the veracity of this claim, FactCheckAfrica did a Google search and it led us to a 2018 report by The Cable which stated that former President Muhammadu Buhari has signed into law, a bill that prevents a vice-president who completes a president’s tenure from contesting twice.

According to Ita Enang, the then senior special assistant on national assembly matters (senate) to Buhari, the law also applies to a deputy governor who completes the tenure of a governor.

“The effect is that having taken the oath of president once, he can only contest one more time and no more. That is the intent of this amendment.” Enang said.

Recall that after the death of Mr Yar’Adua, Mr Jonathan was sworn in to complete that tenure. He was re-elected in 2011 but lost in 2015 to Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC). However, during the run-up to the 2023 general election, the media was awash with speculations that Mr Jonathan would compete for the ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) despite not being a member of the party. A coalition of Northern groups even went ahead to purchase the presidential expression of interest and nomination forms of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for Mr Jonathan in 2022. The forms were purchased days after he had asked his supporters to “watch out” when he was asked if he would contest the 2023 poll.

This resulted in a controversial argument over the eligibility of the former Bayelsa State Governor to contest based on the alteration to the 1999 Constitution with senior lawyers arguing for and against it. While Femi Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), had argued then that Mr. Jonathan is not eligible by virtue of 137 (3) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, other lawyers like Mike Ozekhome, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, and Abdul Mahmod also argued that Mr Jonathan is eligible to serve another term of four years.

Court Weighs in, Declares that Jonathan is Eligible to Contest 

The Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, had ruled that the former President, Goodluck Jonathan, is eligible to contest the 2023 presidential election.

Andy Solomon and Idibiye Abraham, believed to be members of the APC, had approached the court through their counsels, Egbuwabi Seigha and Timi Robinson, seeking the disqualification of Jonathan from the 2023 presidential polls. They argued that by virtue of the introduction of Section 137 sub-sections 1(b) and 3 of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria as amended, the former president was no longer eligible to vie for the office of the president because he had taken an oath to that office on two previous occasions.

But the presiding judge, Justice Isa Hamma Dashen, in his judgement, dismissed the reliefs sought by the plaintiffs and held that the swearing in of Jonathan as acting president on May 6, 2010, after the death of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, was a constitutional provision. According to him, the 2007 general election produced the late Yar’Adua as president and not Jonathan, he stressed that Section 137 could not have a retroactive effect to stop him from contesting the forthcoming presidential polls.

Dashen also ruled that there was no presidential election conducted in the country in 2010 and Jonathan could not be deemed to have been sworn into the office of the president that year. He said that Section 137, which came into effect on June 7, 2018, following the fourth alteration to the constitution, “cannot apply retrospectively except the legislature in clear terms expressly stated their intention for it to be so.”

Additionally, the judge rationalised that if Jonathan had won his re-election bid in the 2015 general polls, in which he lost to the former President, Muhammadu Buhari, he would have been inaugurated as president without any legal impediment. 

Conclusion 

Based on the Federal High Court, Bayelsa ruling, it can be concluded that Jonathan is eligible to run for the office of the president again.