News Investigators/ The Democratic Front (TDF) has aligned with the position of the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, on repeated calls by some politicians on former President Goodluck Jonathan to join the race for the presidency in 2027.
In a statement signed by its Chairman, Mallam Danjuma Muhammad and Secretary, Chief Wale Adedayo, TDF argued that it would be a good opportunity to remind the former President of how his poor handling of multiple oil booms boomeranged and stunted the country’s economic development.
The statement read: “We posit that Mr Bayo Onanuga was on point when he said that the former President’s entrance into the 2027 presidential race will remind Nigerians of his dismal record of service as President.
”TDF believes that former President Goodluck Jonathan’s entry into the 2027 presidential race will reawaken a national memory of the monumental corruption and inefficiency that defined his tenure between 2010 and 2015.
”Nigerians would be reminded of the self-indicting opinion expressed in a book written by the Jonathan era Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, ‘ Fighting Corruption is Dangerous’, on the brazen diversion and mismanagement of public funds during Jonathan’s regime.
”As a matter of fact, the former President’s attempt to stage a comeback in 2027 will offer Nigerians ample opportunity to review Okonjo Iweala’s book, which many believe was a summary indictment of the administration she served as Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister for the economy.
”We are of the view that a politician like Goodluck Jonathan, who presided over Nigeria at a time crude oil sold at $100 per barrel over a lengthy period of time during which Nigeria was doing about 2 million barrels per day, yet had little to show in terms of critical infrastructures, does not deserve re-election
”Furthermore, Jonathan’s ambition for the presidency in 2027 would remind the public of how his cluelessness and official negligence in the handling of national security breaches, led to the loss of thousands of Nigerian lives in the hands of the Boko Haram Terrorists.
”Nigerians would be too glad to request former President Jonathan to explain his inability to optimise national revenue by allocating enough money to state and local governments for the payment of workers’ salaries. It could be recalled that Okonjo Iweala’s book identified the dismal performance in revenue generation as a major reason for the government’s inability to pay salaries, both at the federal and sub-national levels.”
The group also took potshots at opposition elements, pushing the former president to go against President Tinubu in 2027.
”We consider it a delusion of grandeur for a politician like Professor Jerry Gana and his ilk to think that the former President’s entry into the presidential race on the platform of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) would turn the tide of victory against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the forthcoming election.
”In case opposition politicians are not aware, the 2027 presidential election would not be an ordinary contest of personality. It will be a national referendum between an established history of monumental waste of resources and corruption by the PDP, and a rescue mission that has resulted in landmark economic growth and resurgence for Nigeria, under the Tinubu presidency.
”Indeed, former President Goodluck Jonathan’s entrance into the 2027 contest would create a major political setback for the opposition, as a result of his legacy of underperformance which was foisted on PDP’s culture of underachievement. TDF is, therefore, not in doubt that Nigerians would vote for the continuity of the success of Tinubu’s economic reforms in 2027,” the statement added.