Shehu Sani Warns Jonathan Against 2027 Presidential Bid, Says Politics Has Changed

A former Kaduna Central lawmaker, Senator Shehu Sani, has advised ex-President Goodluck Jonathan against contesting the 2027 presidential election, warning that the political landscape is no longer what they used to be.

Speculations about Jonathan’s return have continued to grow within political circles, particularly in light of ongoing debates about a one-term Southern presidency and the emergence of a new opposition coalition floated by the African Democratic Congress.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, Sani argued that the Peoples Democratic Party, which Jonathan rode to victory with in 2011, is now fragmented and weakened.

“Each time there is an election, the name of Jonathan comes up, but it is his volition to contest, but I advise him not to do that. The reason is very simple: the PDP he used to know is not the PDP now.

“The PDP in the South-West is endorsing the president. Some members of the party are in the coalition. So, it is the party he used to know, so he shouldn’t waste his time,” he said.

Sani further dismissed the strength of the emerging coalition, stressing that its members lack ideological depth and are not distinct from President Bola Tinubu’s political philosophy.

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“We are in a democracy, and it is within the right and ambit of our democratic experiment or law to have an opposition that will give an alternative, but if their only cause for power is to remove Tinubu without providing any alternative to governance and his style, then, they have no agenda.

“The people that constitute the coalition today are not ideologically and philosophically different from the programmes which the Tinubu administration is prosecuting. So, it’s not like we have a Marxist and a Capitalist or a Neo-Liberal and a Conservative.

“During their campaigns and in their dear lives, you can see those liberal values of devaluation and removal of subsidy and some other party,” he added.