Human rights lawyer Femi Falana said Wednesday that former President Goodluck Jonathan cannot run in the 2023 presidential election, citing constitutional provisions that bar the former president from seeking re-election.
The lead attorney had this to say in a statement in response to growing calls for Jonathan to step into the ring before the 2023 election.
He said Jonathan, who was Nigeria’s president from 2010 to 2015, would breach constitutional term limits of two eight-year terms if he runs for president and wins again.
He recalled that Mr. Jonathan became the President of Nigeria in 2010 following the sudden death of President Umaru Yar’adua, Yaradua and then ran for and won the 2011 presidential election.
Jonathan spent five years in office as president, which would make him nine years in office if he runs and wins again, Falana said.
“Dr. Jonathan is disqualified from running in the 2023 presidential election. The reason is that if he wins the election he will spend an additional four years in office.
“It means that he would spend a cumulative nine-year term as Nigeria’s president in total violation of Section 137 of the Constitution, which provides for a maximum of two eight-year terms,” Falana said.
The lead attorney also said that under section 137(3) of the Nigerian constitution, Mr. Jonathan cannot seek re-election to the office of President after he has completed the term of the late President Yar’adua and been sworn in. again for a full four-year term in 2011 after winning the presidential election in his own name.
“A person who has taken an oath to complete the term for which another person was elected as president shall not be elected to such office for more than one term,” says section 137(3) of the constitution quoted by Mr. Falana.
The National Assembly introduced the constitutional provision through the Fourth Amendment Act No. 16 of 2017, which President Muhammadu Buhari signed into law on June 4, 2018.
Falana criticized the argument that the constitutional provision signed into law in 2018 cannot be applied retroactively to Jonathan, who left office after his failed re-election bid in 2015.
Mr. Jonathan lost the hotly contested election of President Buhari.
Failing the argument that Mr. Jonathan is exempt from the effect of section 137(3) of the Nigerian constitution, Mr. Falana referred to former Oyo State Governor Rasheed Ladoja’s failed attempt to seek an extension of his term to cover the time he was kept out of office through an illegal impeachment trial.
Mr. Falana recalled that the Supreme Court rejected Mr. Ladoja’s sentence on the grounds that a governor was only entitled to serve a maximum term of eight years or less and no more than 8 years.
He said: “Some people have said that the amendment is not retrospective and therefore cannot apply to Dr. Jonathan.
“Assuming without admitting that the amendment is not retrospective, it is alleged that under the current Constitution a President or Governor cannot serve more than two eight-year terms.
“In other words, the Constitution will not allow anyone to be in office for more than a cumulative period of eight years.
“In Marwa v. Nyako (2012) 6 NWLR (Pt.1296) 199 at 387, the Supreme Court held that Section 180 (1) and (2) (a) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has prescribed a single term of 4 years and if it is a second term, another term of 4 years and not one more day.
“In the case of Governor Ladoja v INEC (2008)40 WRN 1, the Supreme Court rejected Governor Ladoja’s request for an 11-month extension to cover the period he was out of office through an illegal impeachment trial,” said.
Ask Jonathan to run
Jonathan’s silence over months-long speculation about his plan to run in the 2023 election on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the party that ousted him from office in 2015, led to growing calls for join the race for next year’s presidential election.
Speculation became rife after he received a delegation from the APC leadership last year led by the party’s then interim president, Mai Mala Buni.
Jonathan has yet to announce his defection from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), the party on whose platform he became vice president in 2007 and then president. But he has barely identified with the party’s activities since he lost his second bid for APC President Buhari in 2015.
Mr. Jonathan responded publicly for the first time to growing calls for him to take another chance at the presidency when his committee of friends and some young people from different parts of the country visited him at his Foundation Office in Maitama, Abuja on Friday.
But his response to calls was evasive.
“Yes, you are calling me to come and declare for the 2023 presidency, yes, I can not say that you are declaring, that the political process is ongoing, just be careful.
“But the key role they have to play is to pray that Nigeria has a president who will take the youth forward and work very hard to see that some of the problems raised by the country are resolved,” the former president had said.
His lack of clarity on the issue, which many believe confirms that he is testing the waters for the presidential bid, continues to encourage many groups to pressure him to run.
One of those political groups, the Citizens Network for Peace and Development in Nigeria (CNPD) and the Citizens Network for Peace and Development in Nigeria (CNPD), said in a statement Monday that anything that is not a Goodluck Jonathan ballot would see APC lose the 2023 presidential election.
The group advised APC leaders to use the former president, whom it described as the “godfather”, for the job of retaining power in 2023.
Media reports also speculated that he would soon announce his defection to the APC to allow him to choose the form of the party’s nomination.