His Excellency, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan

Human Rights Lawyer and former President of the Nigerian Bar Association NBA, Dr Olisa Agbakoba SAN has said that former Nigeria’s President, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is eligible to contest for the office of president in the forthcoming 2023 general elections. This therefore puts to rest speculations in some quarters that the ex-president is not eligible, having completed the tenure of the late President Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua as Vice President.

In a statement he personally signed and copy made available to our correspondent, the Senior Advocate declined to comment on the moral and ethical issues around the former President’s choice to contest or not, but would consider the issue strictly on legal basis.

Citing section 137 (3) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) which determines the eligibibility of a former Vice President, he noted that the purpose of the section is to resolve the dilemma of a Vice President, who completes the tenure of a President, who dies in office.

According to him, the section provides that such a Vice President if he decides to run for the office of President will be eligible for one term of four years only, even though ordinarily he will be entitled to two terms of eight years.

The former NBA President argued that the logic behind this is that if the Vice President fills the President’s void and runs for two terms, he is most likely to exceed the constitutionally prescribed maximum tenure of eight years.

He however argued that this section 137 (3) does not apply to the former President since it was not in existence when he was President and that laws cannot be backdated.

“But the question is whether Section 137 (3) of the Constitution applies to former President Goodluck Jonathan. I don’t think it applies to him because at the time former President Goodluck Jonathan was President, section 137 (3) of the constitution was not in existence and there is a rule that you cannot backdate laws. Former President Goodluck Jonathan is therefore eligible to run for the office of President.”

Recall that the former President had also refuted the allegation that a certain group purportedly purchased the Presidential Nomination and Expression of Interest forms of the All Progressives Congress APC in his name, saying there was nothing like that.

The ex-President, who was silent on whether he was planning to contest the 2023 presidential election, thanked Nigerians for their overwhelming call on him to contest the election.

A statement by the Media Adviser to the former President, Ikechukwu Eze entitled: Re: purported purchase of APC Presidential Nomination Form for former President Jonathan reads in parts:

“It has come to the notice of the office of His Excellency Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, that a group has purportedly purchased Presidential Nomination and Expression of Interest forms, of the All Progressives Congress APC in his name.

“We wish to categorically state that Dr. Jonathan was not aware of this bid and did not authorise it. While we appreciate the overwhelming request by a cross-section of Nigerians, for Dr. Jonathan to make himself available for the 2023 Presidential election, we wish to state that he has not in any way, committed himself to this request.

 “We thank the general public for their concern, as we continue to encourage citizen participation in the affairs of the country.”