The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has warned that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) faces serious risks in its 2027 presidential calculations if it banks on former President Goodluck Jonathan or ex-Anambra governor Peter Obi as its candidates.
Keyamo, in a lengthy post on his X handle on Sunday, said the opposition party was in a “non-enviable position” because of the mistakes it made ahead of the 2023 elections when it refused to zone its presidential ticket to the South.
“In 2023, PDP lacked the balls to deliberately zone its Presidential ticket to the South, so it woefully lost its decades-long stranglehold on the S/South and S/East, the two of its most loyal regions since 1999,” Keyamo wrote.
He said while the PDP had now attempted to correct that by zoning its 2027 presidential ticket to the South, fielding Jonathan carried a major constitutional risk.
“One of its attractive targets as a Presidential candidate is ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, because of his purported eligibility to run for only one term. But, if he is fielded, the Party runs the RISK of NOT HAVING A CANDIDATE AT ALL by virtue of section 137 (3) of the 1999 Constitution (Fourth Amendment),” he noted.
Keyamo explained that the constitutional amendment, which bars anyone who has been sworn in twice as president from seeking another term, came after the 2015 court ruling that cleared Jonathan to contest.
“All the arguments as to whether the section can be interpreted to affect him will not be decided on Social Media, but at the Supreme Court. If he is barred from running AFTER nominations have closed and the PDP is declared as having no candidate, nobody should scream ‘judiciary is corrupt’ because such a large party saw the judicial danger ahead and deliberately ignored it,” he warned.
