Goodluck Jonathan has been granted a screening waiver and declared a Peoples Democratic Party candidate ahead of the party’s presidential primary, party officials said Tuesday in Abuja.
Babaginda Aliyu, speaking as a member of the PDP screening committee, told journalists that the Turaki-led party decided Jonathan did not need to undergo the normal vetting because of his prior offices — deputy governor, governor, vice president and president — and that he has been cleared and declared as the PDP’s presidential candidate.
The decision by the faction backed by Seyi Makinde comes as the PDP schedules its primaries for all elective offices on May 28; a separate factional committee also waived screening for Taofeek Arapaja, clearing him to contest the Oyo governorship primary. The committee carried out screening for governorship aspirants from Taraba, Adamawa, Kano, Akwa Ibom and Delta on Tuesday.
Aliyu said the party had already given Jonathan a waiver and therefore saw no reason for the usual screening steps, and that he had been declared and cleared as the party’s presidential candidate for the 2027 general elections. The pdp screening waiver jonathan, he said, was based on Jonathan’s long record in elected office.
Umar Sani, speaking separately on Tuesday, said Jonathan had already bought a presidential nomination form and was preparing to submit the paperwork publicly. Sani added that supporters believe any legal challenge to the decision would fail, arguing that the matter could not be relitigated once the party had decided.
The timing makes the move consequential. Jonathan served as Nigeria’s president in 2010 and left office after losing the 2015 election; since then he has largely taken on diplomatic and mediation roles across Africa. He has not made a public declaration of a formal campaign or outlined a platform, but the factional endorsement and the committee’s decision clear a path for him inside this wing of the PDP.
Yet the waiver sits uneasily beside a pending legal challenge. A suit questioning Jonathan’s eligibility was expected to come before Justice Peter Lifu on May 26 — two days before the party-wide primaries. That court date creates a direct, near-term obstacle to a campaign that the faction has already effectively handed to him.
The friction is not only procedural. The announcement that Jonathan is the faction’s sole candidate underscores divisions inside the PDP: one group is moving to fast-track a former president into the race, while opponents and litigants are preparing to test those decisions in court. Aliyu framed the waiver as a practical recognition of Jonathan’s resume; others will test the legal and political limits of that judgment.
The consequence is straightforward: if the court proceeds on May 26 and rules against his eligibility, the faction’s declaration could be overturned before the May 28 primaries. If the court leaves the matter intact, the waiver and the factional endorsement will have placed Jonathan at the center of the PDP contest with only a nominal internal challenge.
For Jonathan himself, the episode marks a clear shift from years of behind-the-scenes diplomacy to a public return to partisan politics. The party’s waiver gives him an institutional advantage inside the Turaki-backed faction, but the coming days will determine whether that advantage endures.
