Anybody popping up GEJ to contest for the position of President of Nigeria again come 2023 does not wish him or Nigeria well.

Those doing so are just deceiving him and trying to lure him into a political guillotine for a final self annihilation for very selfish reasons.

He has already played his part to the best of his ability; rising from a relative obscurity to national limelight, having been a Deputy Governor, Governor, Vice President, Acting President, President by default and then a democratically elected President, all within a short period of about ten years!

How many people are that opportuned or blessed in this generation?

Some notable people had wished to be President of Nigeria even if for just one day but, didn't make it!

So, shouldn’t GEJ be grateful to God Almighty for the opportunity he once had and used?

Now that he is gradually gaining international reckoning, they want to pull him down, rubbish him and finally consign him to irrelevance at Otuoke!

I hope he wouldn't fall for the cheap blackmail with an offer that will lead him to nowhere!

Let the truth be told! Out of the three geopolitical zones in the South of Nigeria, only the South East is yet to produce a President or even a Vice President in this political dispensation.

Counting from 1999, the South West has produced the President in General Olusegun Obasanjo for 8 years (1999 - 2007); and, a Vice President in Professor Yemi Osinbajo for 8 years hopefully by 2023, (2015 - 2023)

The South South has produced the President in Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan for 6 years (2010 - 2015) and a Vice President for about 3 years in the same GEJ (2007 - 2010).

South East is the only geopolitical zone in the South of Nigeria that is yet to produce either the President or Vice President since 1999!

So, should the political parties now zone the Presidency to the South for 2023, wouldn't it make a better sense in the interest of Equity, Fairness and Justice for the South East to be allowed to produce the next President?

Why should anybody even conceive the contraption to use GEJ to short-change the entire South considering that GEJ cannot even stay in office for more than four years instead of 8 years if the law so permit him to contest?

In any case, those trying to pop up GEJ are better advised to take a look again at the 1999 constitution as amended.

By the provisions of 1999 constitution as amended, GEJ can no longer be elected President of Nigeria except the Constitution is further amended to accommodate him!

At the moment, GEJ is unelectable as President and his nomination will be inherently and incurably defective based on the 1999 Constitution as amended.

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA 1999 (FOURTH ALTERATION, NO. 16) ACT, 2017 reproduced below is clear enough!*

S.137(3):

“A person who was sworn-in as President to complete the term for which another person was elected as President shall not be elected to such office for more than a single term”

S.182(3):

“A person who was sworn-in as Governor to complete the term for which another person was elected as Governor shall not be elected to such office for more than a single term.”

President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan should please be reminded that the South East gave him maximum support during his time.

Therefore, 2023 should be a payback time by GEJ to Ndigbo of South-East extraction!

GEJ should also be reminded that it would amount to lack of focus if not great betrayal of trust, to abandon the political party that brought him to fame for the one that "disgraced" him out of office and continued to demonise his tenure in office ever since they came to power.

A word is enough for the wise!

•Prof. Echefuna’ R. G. ONYEBEADI writes from FCT Abuja.

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