How Jonathan Paid For APC Nomination Form, Backout When Party ‘Dashed His Hope’ On Consensus Candidate

The last has not been heard of the current activities resulting in former President Goodluck Jonathan’s Tuesday rejection of the All Progressives Congress, (APC) Presidential nomination form allegedly bought for him by a coalition of farmers and herdsmen in the Northern region of Nigeria.

Raye24repprters gathered that the
nomination form was bought by Jonathan, using the groups, only to change his mind and resort to public rejection of the APC form after failed Monday’s late night meeting with APC National Chairman, Senator Adamu Abdullahi who told him plain truth that he cannot guarantee Goodluck Jonathan been adopted as the party’s consensus candidate later this month at the part convention.

Recalled there have been reports that a coalition of northern socio-cultural groups, basically of Fulani extraction, purchased N100 million nomination and expression of interest forms of the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), for former President Goodluck Jonathan to contest for President again in 2023.

Following the reports, Jonathan rejected the presidential form of the ruling APC purchased for him on Monday, purportedly by a group of supporters from the northern region.

Speaking through his Media Adviser, Ikechukwu Eze, the former president said it was an insult for the group to have bought him the forms without his permission.

However, sources hinted Raye24reporters late on Tuesday that claims by the former President that he did not authorise the purchase of the multi-million-naira forms are far from the truth.

“Contrary to his denials, former President Goodluck Jonathan gave over N200 million to the governor of Jigawa, Mohammed Badaru, to purchase the APC nomination and expression of interest forms for him,” a source privy to the arrangement confided in our correspondent.

Interestingly, the Jigawa governor, Badaru last week joined other interested presidential aspirants to vie for the ticket of the APC by buying the N100 million nomination and expression of interest forms to confuse Nigerians while working for Jonathan underground.

His media aide, Auwalu Sankara, said his principal had sought President Muhammadu Buhari’s blessings before buying the forms.

raye24reporters was reliably informed that Jonathan backed out of the plan and swiftly came up with the denial after the APC National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, had refused to guarantee that the former President would be the consensus candidate of the ruling party.

Jonathan was Nigeria’s leader as a member of the People’s Democratic Party, (PDP), which is now an opposition party.

“The reason why he (Jonathan) gave him that much money – over N200 million – was that he asked the governor to buy himself a form too in order to cover up the deal,” the source said.

“And upon purchasing the form, Jonathan alerted Buhari. Buhari told him to meet with the APC National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, but Adamu said he can’t guarantee him as a consensus candidate.

“At that point, GEJ (Goodluck Ebele Jonathan) started denying that he purchased the form,” another source said.

Recalled that it has been in the news how a cabal in the ruling APC had pushed for Jonathan to succeed Buhari, after being impressed by how the former President never openly criticised Buhari government despite its ineptitude and the insults the APC, as an opposition party, hurled at him (Jonathan) ahead of the 2015 presidential election.

The fact that Jonathan cannot spend more than one term in office, if they can manage to get him there, is also not lost on the cabal.

However, the former President ‘s problem started when Jonathan was later called a betrayer by the cabal after he failed to fulfil some of the conditions given to him, including convincing some PDP governors to defect to the APC.

Raye24reporters had also reported how President Muhammadu Buhari has reportedly denied fronting Goodluck Jonathan to succeed him as he was not at home with his style of leadership bit only happy with his disposition of conceding defeat when he (Buhari) won the 2015 Presidential Polls.