The political future or prospects of former President Goodluck Jonathan remains a subject of interest among watchers of the nation’s political landscape. This is more so as those who pushed him out of power – the All Progressives Congress, APC, governments of former President Muhammadu Buhari and the incumbent President Bola Tinubu – have performed far worse than Jonathan on almost every issue which they campaigned against him to seize power.

For instance, during Jonathan’s regime, Nigeria’s economy was the largest in Africa, but today, we are ranked as the poverty capital of the world with over 20 million out-of-school children, the worst in the world. In Jonathan’s time, 50kg bag of rice averaged N7,000 to N10,000. But today, it is between N80,000 and N95,000. Petrol was N87 per litre when Jonathan left office in 2015, but today, it has shot to between N900 and N1,300.

The honourable way Jonathan left office – congratulating the winner of the 2015 presidential election before the formal announcement of the result – forever endeared him to all, including his former political foes in the APC. Indeed, former President Buhari had seriously toyed with the idea of handing power back to him in 2023. Jonathan had even taken the bait but was beaten back by stiff opposition from within and outside the ruling party.

Last week, a group known as Greater Igbo Forum in Abuja went to lobby Jonathan to contest the 2027 election, but his wife, Dame Patience Jonathan, told them her husband was now committed to supporting President Tinubu. “My husband has reached the pinnacle of political office,” she was quoted as saying. “What is he looking for again? We are not going in again”.

Dame Jonathan, who is seen as the “political arm” of her husband, was ironically accused of being the one goading him to swallow the bait Buhari dangled in 2022, with her known acolytes already visibly active in the APC.

In 1992, former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, had failed in his bid to contest the presidency on the platform of the defunct National Republican Convention, NRC. He was beaten at the primaries in Zaria by Dr Dalhatu Tafida. One of his successors, General Obasanjo, had mocked him: “What did Gowon forget in the State House that he wants to retrieve?” The same Obasanjo not only later accepted to run for president after serving as Head of State, he even attempted tenure extension after eight years! It’s a matter of opportunity.

Jonathan’s political future is in his own hands. He is still constitutionally qualified to run again, but that does not mean he should do so. His time is done. He should continue to enjoy his place of pride in our history both at home and abroad.

He should avoid rubbishing his shining legacy as a genuine democrat.