2027: Jonathan Eligible To Contest, Azibaola Replies Keyamo, Odinkalu

Robert Azibaola, a relative to former President Goodluck Jonathan, has insisted that the ex-leader was constitutionally qualified to contest the 2027 presidential election.

Azibaola’s clarification followed remarks by the Aviation Minister, Festus Keyamo (SAN), and human rights lawyer, Professor Chidi Odinkalu, who argued that Jonathan was ineligible. He described their position as unfounded, stressing that Jonathan retains the right to run if he chooses.

“Dr. Goodluck Jonathan is constitutionally and legally qualified to contest the next elections. If he decides otherwise, it will not be because he is unqualified but by his own choice,” Azibaola stated in a lengthy Facebook post on Monday.

Jonathan, who governed from 2010 to 2015 after succeeding the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, is increasingly seen by some opposition stakeholders as the strongest candidate capable of uniting the opposition and challenging President Bola Tinubu in 2027.

Azibaola, himself a lawyer and pro-democracy activist in the 1990s, noted that while his comments do not confirm Jonathan’s candidacy, they reaffirmed his eligibility under the law.

Azibaola wrote: “Dear Festus Keyamo, SAN, Chidi Odinkalu(Prof.), I greet both of you. For the record, we are three lawyers.

“We all were pro-democracy activists in the 90s, and I was a better activist than both of you combined.

“RULE NO. 1: Do not offer legal advice where none is solicited. Goodluck Jonathan has numerous, more celebrated, more experienced SANs at his disposal who give him sound, unblemished, professional legal advice only.

“GEJ is 100% constitutionally and legally qualified to contest if he chooses to. If he chooses not to yield to his overwhelming calls to contest, it would not be because he is not qualified.

“Your screwed, unsolicited legal view is not of any concern in his bucket list, and it will never be. Don’t waste your precious times further dwelling on this.

“Or should you schedule a meeting with me so you can get properly educated on the subsisting court judgements on this, one of which your party, APC, was a party?

“I beg una, make we no dey put too much water inside belle for another person disco dance, make long line no form for latrine door.

“#This is not a confirmation that GEJ is running, though.”