Misleading! Video of Patience Jonathan Advising Husband Against Returning To Aso Rock Is Not Recent
BY: Mustapha Lawal
Claim: A viral post on X shows a video of former Nigerian first lady Patience Jonathan advising her husband, ex-president Goodluck Jonathan, not to contest for the presidency again.
Verdict: Misleading! While the former first lady did make the remarks, the video is not recent. It was first recorded and broadcast in June 2024, not in 2025 as implied by the current posts circulating online.
Background: Speculation about former president Goodluck Jonathan’s possible return to the ballot in the 2027 general elections has gained traction in recent months. Reports of closed-door consultations and denials from individuals close to the former leader have only fuelled public interest.
Against this backdrop, an X account, Nairametrics (@Nairametrics), shared a video clip of Patience Jonathan cautioning her husband not to return to the Aso Rock villa.
The clip was shared with the following caption:
“The Lord has taken you there once; why do you want to go again? Me, I won’t go o.” Former First Lady Patience Jonathan shares her candid thoughts in a heartfelt message to her husband, ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, amid growing speculations of him returning to contest. 🎥: TVC News
In the clip, the former first lady is heard saying, “Because for me, if you call me from the villa (Aso Rock), I would not even go there… The stress for Nigeria is so much… He (God) has taken you there once; why do you want to go there again? Me, I won’t.”
The same post shared by another X user, Nigeria Stories (@NigeriaStories), has since gone viral, drawing over 269.4k views and hundreds of comments, retweets, and likes as of the time of this report. It has also surfaced on multiple other social media platforms (here, here and here).
Many commenters reflected on her outspokenness and candid style, while others interpreted the clip as evidence that Jonathan may indeed be preparing for a comeback bid. However, some users quickly raised doubts, noting that the video seemed older than claimed.
Verification: To establish the context of the video, FactCheckAfrica conducted a keyword search using phrases from Patience Jonathan’s remarks. The search returned a Television Continental (TVC) broadcast dated June 28, 2024, showing the same clip from a colloquium put together by the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations to commemorate their 60th anniversary.
In the footage retrieved from the TVC YouTube page, Patience Jonathan was addressing the gathering at the event when she openly declared she was not interested in returning to the presidential villa, citing the stress of governance. She also questioned her husband’s potential interest in running again, implying she had no desire to go back to Aso Rock.
Further checks revealed that the same remarks were shared by other platforms at the time. Crest 106.1 FM, a local radio station in Akure, Ondo State, posted the clip on its Facebook page on June 29, 2024.
This confirms that the video is not recent but is being recirculated in 2025 in the context of renewed political speculation.
Conclusion:
The claim that Patience Jonathan only recently advised her husband not to run for president again is misleading. While she did make the comments, the video is over a year old, originally recorded and broadcast in June 2024. Recirculating it in September 2025 without this context creates a false impression that the remarks are new.
