By Eteteonline
The pressure to come back in 2027
From 2010 to 2015, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan presided over Nigeria as president on behalf of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). The late General Muhammadu Buhari defeated him in the 2015 presidential election, making him the first Nigerian president to admit defeat. “Nobody’s ambition is worth the blood of any Nigerian,” Jonathan declared in a statement following his defeat.
Jonathan has not been actively involved in partisan politics since leaving office. As the African Union’s and ECOWAS’s special envoy, he kept himself occupied in a variety of roles. However, it was rumored that Dr. Jonathan might run for president in 2023 on behalf of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Dr. Jonathan never took part in the primary election process, despite a support group purchasing a nomination form for him to use.
Some segments of the population have been putting pressure on Dr. Jonathan to run for president in 2027 after expressing dissatisfaction with the APC administration’s policies. Several organizations and individuals have asked Dr. Jonathan to run against the incumbent president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the APC, in 2027, despite the fact that he has not publicly declared his intention to do so.
A Kano-based pro-Jonathan pressure organization named Bring Back Our Goodluck in August 2025 urged former President Goodluck Jonathan to make a political comeback and run for president in 2027, claiming that Nigerians had been “misled in 2015” into rejecting his government. Dr. Grema Kyari, the group’s national coordinator, told reporters at the Aminu Kano Centre for Democracy, Research and Training in Mambayya House that the former president was still the “surest path to rescue Nigeria” from the suffering, instability, and divisions caused by the All Progressives Congress-led administration.
Kyari used international instances of political comebacks, such as Donald Trump in the US and John Mahama in Ghana, to support his claim that Jonathan’s return was not only desirable but also required. “We were misled in 2015 by the APC under the late Muhammadu Buhari, Bola Tinubu, Yemi Osinbajo, and Chief Bisi Akande.” They made false promises to Nigerians that they never kept. Kyari told reporters that the nation had descended into poverty, starvation, and annoyance rather than growth.
The group maintained that Jonathan oversaw Nigeria’s most recent period of economic stability, citing generally steady food prices, reasonably priced petrol, agricultural reforms, and programs for youth development like YouWin! as well as SURE-P. Citing the dramatic increase in food prices, Kyari contrasted this with what he called the “biting hardship” of today.
A bag of rice used to sell for roughly N7,800 under Jonathan; now, it costs between N80,000 and N100,000. The coordinator said, Jonathan’s legacy as a unifying leader who appointed officials across ethnic and religious lines made him the right candidate to heal Nigeria’s divisions. “Millions have been forced into hunger.”
In addition to pushing Jonathan to run, the group urged other opposition figures, like as Rotimi Amaechi, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, Peter Obi, Nasir El-Rufai, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, to “shelve personal ambition” and support Jonathan as a consensus candidate. Kyari declared that 2027 will be a “rescue mission” to halt what he called the APC government’s deterioration of democracy rather than “just another election year.”
“In 2015, you chose peace over power,” Kyari said in closing, referring to the North-West as “the heartbeat of commerce and political influence in Northern Nigeria.” The campaign began in the Northeast and has since spread to the region. Nigeria will require you to select the populace once more in 2027. Let’s eradicate hunger, poverty, and bad luck. Let’s bring our Goodluck back.
It is anticipated that voters in the north will give Jonathan a resounding vote.
Though he has not yet confirmed the rumors, there has been a lot of conjecture recently that the former president would run for office in 2027 on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, or PDP.
Professor Jerry Gana, a PDP leader, stated in September 2025 that Jonathan will return to Aso Villa and run for president in 2027 on the party’s platform. Speaking to reporters in Minna, Niger State, Gana asserted that Nigerians had already seen two other leaders after Jonathan and were now eager for his return. “I can confirm that Goodluck Jonathan will contest the presidential election in 2027 as PDP candidate and you will vote for him to return as President again,” he said. The PDP’s National Working Committee rejected Gana’s comments.
Dr. Jonathan has not stated that he would not run for office in 2027, despite his silence regarding his ambitions and the rumors that he would do so. He has actually been around the nation doing strategic discussions. In the midst of increasing proposals for a unified opposition front ahead of the 2027 presidential election, one such discussion was with Mr. Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s (LP) presidential candidate in the 2023 election in Abuja. “Today in Abuja, I met with my very dear elder brother, statesman, and leader, former President Goodluck Jonathan @GEJonathan. We had a fruitful closed-door meeting and discussed the state of our dear nation.” Obi said following the meeting. The two well-known southern politicians have dominated conversations in recent weeks as possible rivals to APC President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. According to reports, both men admitted that they have the same political base and that Tinubu could win easily if each made a separate run.
Ahead of the 2027 presidential election, Jonathan has also held a crucial consultation with the leaders of the African Democratic Congress (ADC). At the residence of Senator David Mark, the National Chairman of the ADC, he had a meeting with the stakeholders.
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