The Presidency has stated that former President Goodluck Jonathan is “welcome” to contest the 2027 election, but has promised a fierce political battle centred on what it describes as his “dismal” and “disastrous” record in office.
In a strongly worded statement released on Monday by Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, the government responded to moves by opposition figures to draft Jonathan into the presidential race.
The statement came after Professor Jerry Gana, a former Minister of Information, suggested that Jonathan would run on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and could defeat President Bola Tinubu. Onanuga dismissed this claim as “absurdity” and “comedy,” suggesting that politicians like Gana were “sugar-coated cheerleaders” who would abandon Jonathan “midstream, as they did in 2015.”
“Don’t get us wrong: President Jonathan reserves the right to run if he wishes. It is his inalienable right to contest the presidency again. President Tinubu will wholeheartedly welcome him if he decides to enter the race,” the statement read.
However, it immediately set out the terms of such a contest, highlighting two major hurdles for the former leader. Firstly, it pointed to a potential legal challenge, suggesting “the jury will determine whether Jonathan, who was sworn in twice as president, satisfies the constitutional requirements and is eligible to contest the presidency and be sworn in, if successful, for a third term in office.”
Secondly, and more significantly, the Presidency vowed to ensure the election becomes a referendum on Jonathan’s six-year tenure, questioning whether he has “anything new to offer after his disastrous six years, for which they voted him out in 2015.”
The statement then detailed a damning assessment of Jonathan’s economic management. It accused his administration of being “devoid of any clear economic agenda,” engaging in “frivolous spending,” and running the economy “aground.”
A central part of the attack focused on the nation’s finances. The Presidency claimed that in 2010, Jonathan inherited a total of $66 billion, comprising $46 billion in foreign reserves and $20 billion in the Excess Crude Account. By the time he left office in 2015, it stated that the foreign reserves had fallen below $30 billion and the Excess Crude Account had been depleted to just $2 billion.
“This was despite generating record revenue from crude oil sales that the country had never achieved in more than 25 years combined,” Onanuga noted, adding that at one point in 2014, the government could not pay federal civil servants their salaries.
The statement also revisited old scandals, alleging that under Jonathan, “so-called business moguls allocated foreign exchange to import fuel, simply pocketing the dollars without importing anything,” and that security funds were “freely distributed to friends and cronies.”
In sharp contrast, the Presidency laid out the economic achievements of President Tinubu, who it said has taken “bold decisions over the last 28 months to reset the economy.” It cited the removal of the “ruinous fuel subsidy” and the abolition of multiple exchange rates as painful but necessary reforms that are now paying off.
Specific figures were provided to bolster this claim: GDP growth of 4.23% in the second quarter of 2025, described as the highest in four years; inflation falling to 20.12% in August, said to be the lowest in three years; and foreign reserves now standing at $42.03 billion.
“In plain language, the nation has turned the corner,” the statement declared, pointing to new infrastructure projects like the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and improved investor confidence.
The statement concluded with a clear warning, framing the 2027 election as a choice between a past of failure and the present course of recovery. “President Jonathan and others are welcome to the 2027 race. They broke the economy before, but millions of Nigerians, who will not easily forget the recent past, will not allow them to return and run it down again.”
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