Matthias Tsado is a former presidential aspirant of the Action Democratic Party (ADP). In this interview monitored on Channels Television, he speaks on why President Goodluck Jonathan should consider joining the 2027 presidential race, among other issues, ANAYO EZUGWU writes

You were an aspirant in 2019. Are you not considering running again in 2027?

No, not at all. You know, my desire to run for president initially wasn’t born out of ambition. It was purely out of passion for the society, seeing that the country was going in the wrong direction. If you remember, that was the era when young people came out and marched to say, you know, we need to address the problems or challenges that were facing the country.

So, it isn’t so much of an ambition. If I am able to get or assist them, someone or a group of people that can help us to fix the country, why not? I’m ready to work with that person. It wouldn’t be whether I become president or not, what I am interested in is that the Nigerian state should work for the people.

So, right now, you are not running for anything?

We haven’t started running. Everybody is consulting. Every politician consult, particularly, those who have shown interest to run for office at one point or the other.

So, it’s okay to consult. If like you just mentioned in your introduction, the kind of clamour and the calls that former President Goodluck Jonathan is getting today, to come back to run for office, if I get that kind of call from my people, I will go back to go and meet them to run for election.

What do you make of the call for Jonathan to join the race because it looks like it is by a group of people who seem to be self-centered given the guarantee that cannot run for a second term?

I don’t think that is entirely correct because if you look at the calls that are coming, most of the calls are coming from ordinary Nigerians who are not likely going to run for election. A group of people came out from North-East to address a press conference a couple of days ago to say they want the former president to come back. I don’t think they are interested in whether power comes back to the North or stays in the South.

The performance of President Jonathan, unfortunately, some of us didn’t see it at that time. But people are beginning to see that. Let’s analyse the situation; since the All Progressives Congress (APC) came to power, everything is going backward. Jonathan has been out of office for 10 years and for every election cycle, his name has been coming up.

It means that the people are saying, we are missing something Why wouldn’t they miss something? Fuel was N87. Dollar was between N150 and N190. A bag of rice was N10,000. A couple of days ago, I went to the market to get some groceries, just a couple of things to make soup and stew for my kids, who were around for the holidays. For just a pot of stew and soup, it was about N40,000. How many Nigerians can afford that? How can people survive this kind of thing?

So, it is not out of place to see that Nigerians are saying, see, take us back to where we were. You know, if you join a vehicle and you say the vehicle should take you to a particular destination, and the driver seems to be roaming around the street, doesn’t know where he’s going to, the natural thing to do is to say: Sir, if you don’t know where you’re going, please take me back to where you picked me from.

That is what Nigerian people seem to be telling the APC because sincerely speaking, APC has demonstrated to the Nigerian people that it does not have the capacity. I saw a cartoon of presidents, late President Buhari, may the Lord rest his soul, and that of the current president and somebody said, from frying pan to fire. It has become clear that this is really the sad situation of the Nigerian people today.

There are other people who are saying the APC is not doing well, we are offering ourselves and we can do better than what the party that is currently in government. Why is that the people are not willing to try this new people? Why are they looking for ex-President Jonathan?

You see, the position that President Jonathan finds himself today is a position that most politicians are yearning for. In fact, he demonstrated he’s not somebody who is desperate to be in government.

You remember when he said his ambition is not worth the blood of any Nigerian. He has not declared that he wants to run for election, but for somebody like me, I am praying for a day that will come that President Jonathan will declare and say I want to run.

APC has demonstrated to the Nigerian people that it does not have the capacity… It has become clear that this is really the sad situation of the Nigerian people today

Sincerely speaking, I think Nigerians who have his contact, those that have access to him should speak to him that ‘look, at this point, the other rumours around in 2023 that you are going to run and all that, they were rumours, but this time around, please come around sir, because Nigerian people today, they need you.’

Some people are saying he may not be eligible to run. They are bringing up section 137.3 of the Constitution. This section states that the person who was sworn in 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…

I don’t think I want to speak to whatever the legalities of whatever it is, but as far as I’m concerned today, the thing is that the call from the Nigerian people is for the former president to come and run. If he so decides, let him assemble the legal team that will thrash out the legal encumbrances that probably will befall him.

But as far as the Nigerian people, who are clamoring for him to come and run should be heard. As we speak today, there are millions of families in this country that can’t guarantee where their next meal will come from.

Every time there’s an election, we start looking for an honest man but our institutions are not strong enough to uphold our principles…

This is a good point because sincerely speaking, one of the presidents that we have had in this country that has focused on building institutions was Jonathan. Even from his body language, you can see that he’s not somebody who dabbled into judiciary issues. He never dabbled into what was happening in the National Assembly.

He just let things be. And, you know, because we were short-sighted, all of us started clamouring for the turn of the General. We needed a strong man. We have had strong men now but where did it take us to.

What do you make of the recent by-elections and the hue and cry around the results?

I think it was in one newspaper that I saw where they said APC, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) were condemning the elections.

In the states that are controlled by PDP, candidates of the party won. In the states that are been controlled by APC, their candidates won. In the states that are controlled by APGA, their candidates won.

The states that are controlled by NNPP, their candidate won. What does it tell you? I think what we had in the by-elections was more like a local government election, a situation where the state governor’s party and his candidate won all the seats.

However, sincerely speaking, this is not good for our country and our democracy. Again, forgive me if I take you back to President Jonathan’s time. These things were not happening during his era.

Do you think that we’re focusing enough on the election process?

There have been a lot of people, there’s a guy called Peter who has been clamoring for electoral reforms. There are a couple of people that are asking for electoral reforms.

Yes, we know that the process is flawed but again, there are so many things that we have to address.

We have not spoken about the issue of vote buying. It irritates me to my spirit that you want to serve the people and you are giving them money to vote for you. Does it make any sense to you? It tells you the desire and the intention of those that want to be your leaders.