Nigeria’s former President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, will be one of the leading candidates to confront incumbent President Bola Tinubu, in the 2027 presidential poll.

The Vanguard reported that Jonathan’s ally in the People Democratic Party, PDP, confirmed that the plan to draft the former President to contest on PDP’s platform had gone far, and that he had accepted, adding that the former president was going into the race to find ways of addressing Nigeria’s rising poverty, hardship and the general suffering that had gripped the citizenry in recent years.

The project to bring back Jonathan to reposition Nigeria was being driven by key Nigerian leaders and elders, who believed the former president had stabilised the country and its economy within the six years of his administration.

The source said it was in a bid to rescue the country and restore the dwindling economy and Nigeria to its pride of place that key PDP leaders and elders started ‘pleading with him’ to consider running against Tinubu in 2027.

Some believe that allowing him to run for a single term of four years remained the clearest pathway for power to return to the north in 2031 and remain there for eight years without a serious struggle by the south.

Going by the fact that Jonathan had already served out a term of four years, he cannot run for more than another four years in office if he wins the election in 2027, just like Tinubu if he gets re-elected.

(Vanguard)

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has handed new conditions for the proposed national convention of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and ultimately for the overall peace of the party

Wike, in a media chat insisted that he had not left the PDP, and that for the crises tearing the party into shreds to end, the resolutions at the south-south zonal congress that was held in Calabar must be upheld before the PDP convention scheduled for November.

“If they want another round of crisis, so be it. That congress moved that Chief Dan Orbih emerged as the National Vice Chairman South-south of the party.

The court allowed it for then congress to hold and the congress was held. The so called acting National Chairman of the Party went and wrote a letter to INEC.

“The congress was held on Saturday on the 15th and he went and wrote a letter on the 8th, for example, that the Congress had been postponed.

Chief Dan Orbih is the National Vice Chairman of PDP, South-south. If they don’t agree, that is another round of crisis. Two, the south-east congress which produced Chief Ali Odefa as the National Vice Chairman cannot stand because the court had affirmed that Odefa is no longer a member of the party.

“That is what I told the people that I cannot allow impunity and will fight it until they correct it.

There is time for them to resolve before we talk of convention. If it is not resolved that is invitation to crisis.”

A former lawmaker, Senator Dino Melaye, has resigned from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), citing the party’s inability to rescue Nigeria from what he described as “prevailing political cankerworms”.

Melaye, a former senator for Kogi West, made this known today via a post on his official X handle, where he shared a signed resignation letter addressed to the PDP chairman in Ward 1, Aiyetoro Gbede, Ijumu Local Government Area of Kogi State.

In the letter dated July 4, 2025, Melaye said the decision became “imperative due to the lack of potency and capacity by the party to deliver the Nigerian people from the prevailing political cankerworms that have eaten deeply into the fabric of our dear nation”.

The 2023 governorship candidate of the PDP stated that after careful reflection on the state of the party, he could no longer, in good conscience, participate in its activities or support its agenda.

“In view of the above, please consider this as my formal withdrawal from the party and all its activities at all levels with immediate effect,” the letter read.

Melaye also expressed appreciation for the opportunity to serve under the PDP during his period of membership.

His resignation adds to the growing wave of political realignments ahead of the 2027 general elections.