Former president Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has in an interview published in a book, ‘My Time As Chaplain In Aso Rock,” and made public on Tuesday, revealed that the All Progressive Congress (APC) Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket is a distortion of the norm.
Goodluck Jonathan argued that Nigeria is a religious nation and that sidelining a predominant religious group in the representation places some question mark on the nation's coexistence.
"When I took over as the vice president, the tradition then was that if the President were a Christian, the Vice would be a Muslim and vice versa. We have religious festivals in Nigeria and, of course, National Day, where there will be Jummah prayers and Christian prayers.
“Nigerians are religious people, this is why I get worried about the issues of Muslim-Muslim or Christian-Christian ticket. Yes, Muslim-Muslim or Christian-Christian can run the state. But I always ask, ‘who will represent this other bloc whenever we come to the national days that we celebrate?”
Speaking on whether he intends to seek election for the position of the president of Nigeria, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan noted that he does not harbour such an ambition. He said seeking to become Nigeria's president after he was ousted in 2015 would "diminish him".
He explained further that he enjoyed the drama that played out prior to the APC and PDP presidential primary election in which a group purchased the APC's presidential primary election nomination form.
According to him, his interest is to serve on a diplomatic capacity which involves ensuring democratic stability in Africa.
“If you wake up tomorrow and see that I am President again, that means there may have been circumstances beyond my control. But not to go and pick one form and go and start lobbying people and running for campaigns; I can’t do that again. If I do that, I will diminish myself.
“I was enjoying the drama. At least they are not insulting me. After all, I was pursued out of the office that I was not good enough. So, if now, Nigerians are saying, ‘Oh, this man should come,’ that means they are cleaning me up. So, let me enjoy the drama".
He added that there was pressure from international diplomats urging him to contest for the position of the Nigeria's president in 2023.
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“I was not disturbed. I know I cannot go and start struggling to be President again. It wasn’t only Nigerians who were asking me such questions, even most of the top ambassadors -the American ambassador, the UK High Commissioner, France, and all of them. They came to ask me whether I would contest. I don’t think I would contest any election.
“If you wake up tomorrow and see that I’m President again, that means there may have been circumstances beyond my control. But not to go and pick one form and go and start lobbying people and running for campaigns, be it PDP power or APC broom and moving across Nigeria. I can’t do that again; if I do that, I will diminish myself.”
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