A factional Peoples Democratic Party screening panel on Tuesday in Abuja granted Goodluck Jonathan automatic clearance as the party’s sole presidential aspirant, even as the same exercise screened 12 governorship hopefuls ahead of the 2027 elections. Babangida Aliyu, who headed the panel, disclosed the waiver after the screening and said Jonathan did not need to face the process because of the offices he had already held.
Aliyu said the former president had been deputy governor, governor, vice president and president, and that the party had already cleared him for the race. “The party had already given our presidential aspirant the waiver,” Aliyu said, adding that Jonathan had effectively been “declared and cleared as the candidate of the PDP for the presidential election.” The screening exercise was conducted by the Tanimu Turaki-led interim factional National Working Committee, which also moved ahead with the governorship screenings in Abuja on Tuesday.
The development has not yet received formal confirmation from the PDP national leadership in the report published by Punch Newspapers. A separate Guardian report said the PDP, led by Kabiru Turaki, waived screening requirements for Jonathan before the party’s presidential primary, while Premium Times reported that a Makinde-backed faction went further and announced him as the party’s sole presidential candidate for the 2027 general elections.
Umar Sani, speaking on Trust TV on Tuesday, said Jonathan had already procured the PDP presidential nomination form and was preparing to submit it publicly. “He has procured the nomination form. In fact, he is about to come and submit the forms publicly,” Sani said. He added that “the fact of the matter is that we believe that Jonathan is the right choice at this moment.”
The waiver lands more than a decade after Jonathan left office. He served as president from 2010 to 2015, won the 2011 presidential election under the PDP and lost his 2015 re-election bid to Muhammadu Buhari. Since leaving office, he has remained a focus of political speculation, with supporters and political groups repeatedly urging him to return, though he has not publicly declared his ambition or said which platform he would use. One report said legal challenges to his eligibility are expected to fail, though a case remains pending before Justice Peter Lifu.
Jonathan has not publicly commented on the waiver reported by the PDP factions, leaving the next step to the party’s own internal fight over who has the authority to speak for it. For now, the clearest fact is that one faction has moved to put his name at the center of its 2027 plans before the party itself has settled the question.
