Because Tinubu is afraid of 2027 Comeba by Jonathan …

Although former President Goodluck Jonathan has not formally declared his intention to apply for the presidency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu seems to be already worked in a frenzy for the simple perspective, at least judging by the feeling of fear that drips from the declarations of his spokespersons and close supporters.

Bayo Onanuga, the official spokesman for Tinubu, described the proposal to draw up Jonathan in the 2027 race as “delusion!” As if somehow embodies the Nigerian electorate, Omanuga warned that the record of the Jonathan administration on the economy and governance would constitute an insurmountable obstacle on its path to the presidency. He also raised questions about Jonathan’s admissibility for a third term and warned that those who promote his race could abandon him halfway.

The state -of -the -art state branch of the APC, perhaps the most strategic APC branch in Nigeria at the moment since Lagos is the base of Tinubu’s house, also derived the idea of ​​Jonathan’s return, claiming that he would need “an overdose of good luck” to be competitive. He has framed the push for his return as more rooted in nostalgia than in competence and interrogated the internal democratic practices within the opposition.

I told a journalist who interviewed me a few days ago that the apparent panic in the circles of Tinubu power on the entrance of Jonathan in the presidential race is perplexed for at least two reasons.

At the moment, Jonathan does not have a political basis. The PDP, on whose platform it is likely that it will perform (if it should decide to run), is widely underestimated and torn from what seems irresolute dissent. The South -est, which was a solid and reliable support base for him, is now seduced by the charm and promise of his son, Peter Obi.

Without a strong basic structure, a solid party platform or the support of the governors, a return offer by Jonathan would be a humid absence. If anything, the affirmation of the presidency swells its relevance more than its true Warrant of political force.

Secondly, if I were in the internal circles of Tinubu, in reality I would encourage, even stealthily sponsored, Jonathan’s participation in the 2027 elections since appeal to the same demographic slice of the former vice -president Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi. His participation in the 2027 elections, together with Atiku and Obi, would ensure that the opposition is self-annibalizes, just like in 2023.

If Jonathan is not a real threat – if Jonathan would, in fact, be an advantage for Tinubu – why does Tinubu seem terrified by the perspective of a return offer of Jonathan? Here’s what I think.

When Omanuga indicated Jonathan’s abyssal record on the economy and governance as a reason why the electorate would not have wanted to return to his saddle, he unintentionally gave a deep vent to deep but not recognized anxieties on the Tinubu record. Despite the different contexts, Jonathan and Tinubu converge on their style of governance and economic policies.

Tinubu is pursuing the identical economic policies that Jonathan attempted, who was forced to go back after Tinubu and several people who later set up the APC united forces with normal Nigerians to fight.

As most people remember, Jonathan’s “Nigeriani’s” New Year’s “gift” in 2012 was an attempt to complete the subsidy. After mass protests, he was forced to implement a partial price rollback, but has combined the watered-down version of the subsidy removal policy with Sure-P to cushion its effect on “vulnerable” families and to finance social and infrastructure projects.

On the day of the inauguration, on May 29, 2023, Tinubu also announced the end of the petrol aid. But thanks to the success that Muhammadu Buhari had achieved in tamed any consequent and supported opposition to unpopular government policies (and of course, the integration of several career protesters in the government), the announcement of Tinubu has not attracted any mass protest. The Nigerians learned to accept their fragmented incineration with equanimity.

But as Jonathan said it, Sure-P said, Tinubu has restarted the transfers of money to millions of “vulnerable” families as “palliative”, although most of the Nigerians with whom I have read and spoken did not have the good fortune to benefit from these palliative.

The very cheap policies Onanuga invoke as one of the main reasons why the Nigerians will resist Jonathan’s return to the presidency are the policies that the Tinubu regime defends not only but celebrates as an unprecedented result and of all time that, although furniture and love, insist on bitter

And this is where the reference of Lagos APC to the nostalgia for Jonathan is important. At the center of their conscience, the Honchos of Tinubu know that Tinubu and Jonathan are substantially indistinguishable in their government’s policies and philosophy, with Tinubu who is only luckier than Jonathan in the quality and virility of the opposition that faces him.

This type of rhetorical reversal is based on a well -documented psychological mechanism known as projection. In projection, individuals or groups unconsciously attribute their defects, reasons or behaviors to others as a way to deviate control and avoid responsibility. When accused of what they are guilty of themselves, they try to confuse the book Mastro Moral by shifting attention to the outside, creating a curtain of smoke that redirects the fault.

Politically, this tactic is particularly powerful: it confuses the waters, take the criticisms and supporters of Rollies around a narrative that seems to expose the failures of an opponent, when in reality it is an image speculating its own.

In this case, the APC agents attack Jonathan’s economic documentation not only to obscure him, but also to mask the uncomfortable similarity between his policies and those Tinubu now implements.

And nostalgia can be a powerful winning tool in the elections. Donald Trump benefited from it. The American electorate remembered that egg prices were lower when he was president, not thinking that the lowest prices had nothing to do with him. In fact, the prices are tripled by his return.

In Malawi, the former 85 -year -old president Peter Mutharika defeated the historical operator Lazzaro Chakwera in the presidential elections of 2025 in part because of nostalgic feelings for his time in charge and hopes that he can recreate that time instead of the Malawi, if there had been an it, if it had been an it, if there had been an it, if it had been a malawian, if there had been a malawian, Emerging, if there had been an emerging political science, if there had been a Malawian breeding, if there had been an it in science, if there had been an it in science, if there had been a political breeding, if there was an it in science, if there had been a political breeding, if there was a political breeding, if there was a Malawi breeding, if there was an era, I was a sciato it I would like to lose, so maybe this was an election to lose for Chakwera, because I really don’t think they will be able to change things. “

In My August 16, 2025 Column Titled “Jonathan’s entry would radically shake the 2027 election,” I conceded that “There are genuinely praiseworth Things Jonathan Did Whee He Was in Power, Which Many of His Critics, Including Me, Acknowledge Only with the Benefit of Hindsight.

This is precisely the reason why the people of Tinubu can be deeply upset by the perspective of Jonathan’s return. In the middle of the economic torment, the Nigerians are lasting, the memory of Jonathan’s era, however imperfect, can take on a golden shade.

The danger to Tinubu is not that Jonathan has a magic formula to solve the crises of Nigeria, but that the Nigerians, tired of difficulties, can cling to the relative stability, tolerance to dissent and reactive governance that now are associated retrospectively with Jonathan’s presidency.

Even if Jonathan cannot change things, nostalgia does not need to be rational to be politically powerful; He only has to resonate emotionally with a suffering electorate.

This latent power of memory is, perhaps, what keeps the Tinubu field at the limit, in particular in the unlikely event that Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi decide to give up their ambitions and join him.

Jonathan’s fear of Tinubu says less on Jonathan’s real political force and more on the fragile legitimacy of Tinubu policies. When a government reflects the past a condemned time, it risks enhancing nostalgia as a political force. And in a country affected by difficulties, memory can be decisive to the polls such as posters.

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