2027: ‘Don’t Waste Your Time, PDP Not The same’ – Sani Warns Jonathan On Return

Former federal lawmaker, Shehu Sani, has advised ex-President Goodluck Jonathan not to consider returning to the ballot in 2027, warning that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) he once led to victory is no longer united or formidable.

Sani, who spoke on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, said the political terrain had shifted significantly since Jonathan left office in 2015.

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

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

Jonathan, who became president in 2010 following the death of Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, won a full term in 2011 but was defeated by Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2015.

Though constitutionally eligible for one more four-year term, the former president has not publicly indicated interest in re-contesting.

Speculation around his possible return has, however, intensified in political circles—fuelled by talk of a one-term Southern presidency and the formation of a new opposition coalition spearheaded by the African Democratic Congress (ADC).

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Sani, who represented Kaduna Central in the 8th National Assembly, poured cold water on the coalition, arguing that it lacked ideological depth.

“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,” he stated.

According to him, the politicians forming the coalition are not different from Tinubu in philosophy or policies.

“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, removal of subsidy, and some other party,” he said.