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Peterside Faults Jonathan’s Presidential Aspiration

Nigerian entrepreneur and economist Atedo Peterside have said any party that wants to field former President Goodluck Jonathan as their Presidential candidate will be doing so in the face of damning data.

He stated this on Thursday during his appearance on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily program. Recall that there have been speculations that the former president wants to defect to the All Progressives Congress to contest the 2023 Presidential race.

Peterside noted that he voted for Jonathan in 2011. However, his approval ratings have gone down, and the job description for a Nigerian President has evolved.

He said, “You know again that I am a data person, and I’m sorry, I cannot change who I am.” 

“Goodluck Jonathan; I was on his economic team, I worked with him, and I was also on Yar’Adua’s economic team.

“Let me use the data. In 2011, Goodluck Jonathan had a 54% approval rating, and by 2015 before the election, it had collapsed to below 26%. We did not do the recent poll I saw because we don’t waste time on things that are not all that relevant. His approval rating was below 5%.

“So everybody is free to ignore data and come out and do anything they want to do. I hope that the APCs of this world will make a mistake and bring out people whose approval ratings are very low. You cannot fool all the people all of the time.

“He was the best candidate. I voted for him in 2011. That was a different era. That was a different era. The skillset, the gravity of the problem, and the coverage required, it is a different job. Time does not standstill. But please, let parties ignore data and bring out anybody they like. Everybody should run the party the way they want to run their party. I have no say in APC, and I have no say in PDP. I mean, I joined SDP just this week, I have a bit of a say, but I’m not even a party officer.

“I’m in a chapter; the chairman of my state chapter is a lady who is below 35. You know these young people have come in en masse because they don’t want APC, they don’t want PDP, and I’m following them.”

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