2023: Jonathan Can’t Run With El-Rufai Even If… – Omokri
Former Special Adviser to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Reno Omokri, has declared that Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State, cannot in any material particular be Jonathan’s running mate in the 2023 presidential election, assuming the former president is to run.
Omokri, however explained former President Jonathan has no intention to run for president in 2023, adding that Jonathan has no plan whatsoever to dump the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the All Progressives Congress.
Omokri, who stated these on Wednesday when he featured in a PUNCH Online interview programme, The Roundtable, said some interest group are trying to put out a story that El-Rufai and Jonathan would be a pair in the next election as a presidential candidate.
In the words of Omokri; “I spoke to former President Jonathan just before this interview. That story is a lie, quote me. Nasir El-Rufai will be the last person if former President Jonathan is thinking of running, of which he is not even thinking of running.”
Commenting on the defection rumours, Omokri told The PUNCH that Jonathan has always been a member of a political party all his life, saying; “The best judge of future behaviour is past behaviours. Former President Jonathan has been in one party all through his life.
“He is 63 years old and he doesn’t have that kind of history. He doesn’t have that kind of reputation. To the best of my knowledge, former President Jonathan is not leaving the People Democratic Party, He is a very loyal man just like me”.
There are reports making the rounds that El-Rufai, who is expected to end his second term as Kaduna State governor in 2023, would be running with Jonathan which Omokri pointedly dismissed as false.
Of recent, many APC stalwarts have been seen visiting the Abuja residence of former President Jonathan, who is constitutionally entitled to run for another term to complete his legally permissible two terms of eight years.
