‘There is nothing like that’—Jonathan dismisses being under pressure to contest 2023 election

Former President Goodluck Jonathan has described as untrue growing speculations in some quarters that he is under pressure to contest the 2023 presidential election.

The 2023 presidential is still about three years away but the issue has been making headlines.

Jonathan, who lost to President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2015, was recently speculated to be nursing ambitions for the country’s topmost political office.

But his spokesman, Ikechukwu Eze, dismissed such speculations, noting it was unfortunate several online platforms would be peddling falsehood even when his principal has yet to make an official announcement.

“There is nothing like that. The former President has not made any comments nor spoken to anyone on the coming elections,” Eze was quoted as saying by TheCable, an online medium.

“He is busy concentrating on his foundation, The Goodluck Jonathan Foundation (GJF), and its work of promoting peace, sustainable democracy and youth empowerment in Africa.”

He dismissed the reports as baseless, asking members of the public to discard such.

“If you check online, you will discover that a story with similar headline had been published in the past by few shady online sources,” he added.

“The last time this same story circulated online was before the 2019 Presidential elections. It has now come up again.

“The good thing is that Nigerians already know this to be fake. That is why Nigerian newspapers and serious online news media will not publish such falsehood.”