By Obinna Uballa
Human rights lawyer and former Nigerian Bar Association Vice President, Dr. Monday Onyekachi Ubani, has said there is no constitutional provision barring former President Goodluck Jonathan from contesting the 2027 presidential election.
This is as political speculation about Jonathan’s 2027 ambition continues to intensify. Sources close to the former president disclosed that he has been approached by at least three political parties, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), and the African Democratic Congress (ADC), to contest under their platforms.
Ubani, who stated this while speaking on Arise TV on Tuesday, maintained that the constitutional amendment often cited by critics to argue against Jonathan’s eligibility does not apply to him.
“My legal opinion on Jonathan’s eligibility is not a validation of whether I would want him to run or not. President Jonathan is clearly eligible to run,” Ubani said.
“Recall that in 2010 he came in to complete the tenure of the late Musa Yar’Adua and was naturally sworn in, but it was not by election, it was by operation of law in compliance with Section 146 of the 1999 Constitution. It was in 2011 that he ran for a proper election which he won.
“Even in 2015 when he wanted to recontest, somebody went to court here in Abuja and the court ruled that the president then was eligible to run. The court said that the oath he took in 2010 was not by virtue of election but succession, and that nothing should preclude him from running.”
Ubani explained that the controversial provision, Section 137(3), which bars persons who completed another person’s term from contesting twice, came into effect only in 2018 after the Fourth Alteration to the Constitution.
“There was an alteration of the constitution in 2017 that came into operation in June 2018. Now, by virtue of Supreme Court decisions, laws anywhere in the world are prospective and not retrospective. You don’t enact a law and begin to take away vested rights or impose new obligations on a person when that situation took place before the law existed.
“So if the law came into force in 2018, how could it apply to events between 2010 and 2015? It is clearly impossible,” Ubani said.
His position clearly aligns with a judgment delivered by the Federal High Court in Yenagoa on May 27, 2022, which affirmed Jonathan’s eligibility to contest for the presidency despite concerns raised by some All Progressives Congress (APC) members.
The suit, marked FHC/YNG/CS/86/2022, was filed by two APC members, Andy Solomon and Idibiye Abraham, who sought to stop Jonathan from participating in the 2023 election on the grounds that he had already been sworn in twice as president.
Justice Isah Dashem dismissed their arguments, ruling that Jonathan had only been elected president once—in 2011—and that the constitutional provision introduced in 2018 could not be applied retrospectively.
“The evidence before this court points to the conclusion that the 1st Defendant (Jonathan) has only been elected into the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on one previous occasion, which was in the 2011 general elections,” the judge held.
Dashem further stated that Jonathan’s initial swearing-in in 2010 was to complete the tenure of the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and did not amount to an election. He ruled that Jonathan acquired the right to contest again after leaving office in 2015 and that the 2018 amendment could not strip him of that vested right.
“In the absence of express words stating that the provisions of Section 137(3) should apply retrospectively, I hold that the provision does not have retrospective application,” the court declared.
The judgment, which was never appealed, remains subsisting and out of time for any appeal, analysts say.
Analysts say Jonathan, who is constitutionally limited to only one more term, could appeal to northern voters who feel alienated under President Bola Tinubu’s administration. However, the presidency has dismissed claims of northern marginalisation as false.
