Political scientist and former governorship aspirant, Dr. Umar Arɗo, has declared that former President Goodluck Jonathan is constitutionally barred from contesting the 2027 presidential election, citing judicial precedents and the 2018 constitutional amendment.
In a statement he issued yesterday, Arɗo noted growing calls to draft Jonathan into the race as a “solution” to Nigeria’s current political crisis, but argued that the former leader’s eligibility must first be settled.
According to him, while a 2013 FCT High Court judgment cleared Jonathan to run again, the Supreme Court’s 2012 decision in Marwa vs Nyako limits any president or governor to a cumulative tenure of eight years. Jonathan, he stressed, had already served five years and 23 days between May 6, 2010, and May 29, 2015, and another four-year term would breach the limit.
Arɗo further pointed to Section 137(3) of the Nigerisn Constitution (as amended) — introduced in 2018 under President Muhammadu Buhari — which stipulates that a vice-president who completes a president’s term may only contest the presidency once thereafter. “This provision is clear… Jonathan cannot contest again”, he said.
The former PDP chieftain recalled that his own 2014 legal challenge to Jonathan’s eligibility was dismissed by the apex court, allowing Jonathan to run in 2015. But with the 2018 amendment, Arɗo insists, any fresh bid would be “explicitly prohibited” and a “disservice to democratic integrity”.
He urged political actors to respect constitutional limits, warning that “no strategic convenience or sentiment can override the sanctity of the law”.
