Former President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday left the door open to a 2027 presidential run, telling youth groups who visited his Abuja office to press him for a comeback that he would “consult widely” before making any decision but cautioned that seeking the nation’s highest office is “not a computer game.”
Jonathan, who lost the 2015 election to Muhammadu Buhari, declined to commit to a candidacy, saying he could not “just wake up and say I want to be president of Nigeria again.” He urged the visiting youths to first prove their civic commitment by obtaining voter cards, noting that roughly half of those in the room likely did not have one.
“You are asking me to contest the next election, but you must participate in the electoral process,” he told them.
The former president used the occasion to raise concerns about Nigeria’s chronically low voter turnout, saying the country records the worst electoral participation of any he has observed across more than 14 African nations and parts of Southeast Asia. He called on the Independent National Electoral Commission to commission consultants to investigate the causes.
Jonathan also warned that without peaceful and credible elections, qualified Nigerians would continue to shun public office and decried the treatment of Nigerian nationals abroad, linking it to decades of leadership failures at home.
He closed with a cautious but open-ended commitment: “I will consult. If there is a need to, I will wait.”
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