The report of a court case in which an applicant is seeking an order meant to deny former President Goodluck Jonathan the right to seek re-election to the office of the president in 2027 is both amusing and bewildering.
That a man will willfully go to court to say ‘give me a perpetual injunction restraining another man from contesting an election’ makes the venture a serious matter. Indeed, the very essence of the matter, including its elementary merits and expected result, reminds me of one of my grandfather’s warnings. This particular warning was directed at one of his Ikwunne brothers during their periodic convivial gatherings one Orie evening.
The venue that day was Mbaramata in Amizi Isuogu, a thriving university community in Ikwuano Local Government Area of Abia State. My grandfather and his brothers had converged on this compound for their merriment, wine, and banters. These men used the occasion of the Ikwunne gathering to let their hair down, rekindle their filial network, as well as dig into issues of the welfare of members of their group and their family on the one hand, and their communities on the other.
These men had been brought together by fate, which made them brothers. Their mothers hailed from the same hometown and had been married in Amizi, where they were born. They were thus Ikwu Nne (relatives through motherhood). It was a gathering which I found was meant not just to fraternize and make merry. They also fervently sought their own welfare and that of their community, and they would discuss traditional issues of concern in their fathers’ community and take a position. My dear Papa Isaac, on some occasions, would give me hints when I would be the lucky one to ride his ‘white horse’ bicycle home.
I loved that one of the best aspects of their meetings is that it is not devoid of kolanuts, bitter kola, food, palm wine, ugba, meat, and other such accoutrements. During the latter course of their usually heavy meals, they played music, chanted panegyrics, and sang cognomen. I loved the Ikwunne meetings.
During one of such outings, my grandfather said to one of his colleagues: ‘When you wake up in the morning and the chicken in your compound begins to chase you, run because you wouldn’t know if it had grown teeth overnight.’ This was as hypothetical as it was putative, but the imagery brings to life the sudden tendency to scamper and retort in agitation over matters that have Goodluck Jonathan in them.
For months now, just like we had it in 2023, there have been imaginary political flyers with Goodluck Jonathan as the imprint. There doesn’t seem to be an end in sight to it, and this has greatly triggered the powers that be. There had been a State House press release by the presidential spokesman, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, in response to the assumed certainty of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s candidacy in 2027. Then, the court case by one Mr. Johnmary Chukwukasi Jideobi instituted at a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja.
Also in the mix is that earlier response by Mallam Garba Shehu to reports attributed to the same ex-President Jonathan. He spoke at the launch of a book by General Lucky Irabor in Abuja. Shehu, who served in the administration of the late former President Muhammadu Buhari as Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, came with guns blazing in defence of his boss. He said Jonathan was a liar to have said that Boko Haram once nominated Buhari as their representative in a proposed peace parley with the federal government.
As against Jonathan’s revelation that Buhari was the nominee of Boko Haram, Garba Shehu said rather the group bombed and nearly killed Buhari in Kaduna for disparate ideologies. Mallam Garba Shehu didn’t say these when the reports of Buhari’s nomination were fresh and widely published by the media. The matter actually died in the embryo because there are still no clear signs that any negotiation took place at the height of the insecurity in 2012.
It was a pointer to the possibility that between the nomination and an actual interaction, a lot of water must have passed under the bridge. We must also not forget that the Boko Haram issue, which is at the very foundation of the ravaging insecurity in our country, is as confusing as the true ideology of Boko Haram itself.
However, here we are in 2025 denying a 2012 subject matter and calling the man at the heart of the core matter a liar. Garba Shehu even said, ‘If this is a campaign statement towards his bid for the presidency in 2027,’ Jonathan was making ‘a false start.’ The conditional clause ‘if’ notwithstanding, these people are already sounding like the presidential race by Jonathan had really and seriously started. So, to them, the chicken has grown teeth overnight, and they must run from it and take cover.
While to us, everything about a return to the political turf of Jonathan is still in the realm of conjecture, Mr. Onanuga has actually given life to the speculations. He said in a statement that Goodluck Jonathan was welcome to contest against the incumbent Bola Ahmed Tinubu, but that people should remember that Jonathan was dismal as a president.
The good thing about Bayo Onanuga’s preemptive onslaught against Jonathan is that he himself acknowledged that Professor Jerry Gana was the man who had drafted Jonathan into the 2027 presidential race. It is still not that it was Jonathan himself who said all that he was reacting to. So, one would wonder why he should be running when the chicken is chasing after him? Could it be that the chick has grown teeth overnight?
Mr. Onanuga, in his statement of September 29, 2025, guaranteed that Goodluck Jonathan ‘will have his date in the court of the land.’ He added: ‘Indeed, the jury will determine whether Jonathan, who was sworn in twice as president, satisfies the constitutional requirements and is eligible to contest the presidency and be sworn in, if successful, for a third term in office.’
Then, seven days after Mr. Onanuga’s promise, the case instituted by Mr. Johnmary Chukwuasi Jideobi was filed, and the news media reported it on October 7. While it is all looking like there is a case of ‘the hands of Esau and the voice of Jacob,’ we should stress the need to use our tongue to count our teeth.
These people in the corridors of power are doing that already. For the speculations around Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party, they are counting their teeth with their tongue. They have also decided not to leave anything to chance by taking to their heels early enough at the approach of the fierce-looking chicken.
On the cusp of my grandfather’s advice, we could then say that these people are now running from pillar to post because a seemingly harmless, ‘rudderless,’ and ‘weak’ Goodluck Jonathan appears serious with the presidential race. What have they seen appearing on the horizon? Why would the entire apparatus of the Federal Government and the ruling party be so triggered by the mere humming of the name of Goodluck Jonathan by a lone Professor Jerry Gana?
What has changed about the man they so heavily vilified while he was in Aso Rock? What about him now creates this amount of fear in them? Is Goodluck Jonathan now such a threat? Or could it just be that other contestants do not want him to pour sand in their garri?
So, the man who was the butt of all the social media jokes and mockery of the APC has now turned around to be their source of chills? Why would there be a sudden rush to put wedges before a man they once saw as impotent? These panic measures, including that absurd but offensive court case by Jideobi, make it look like tables have turned as we race towards 2027. And we are still in God’s 2025!
A situation in which people worry about what they claim doesn’t worry them is curious. Could it be that Jonathan has now grown teeth overnight? Is it distractive bellyaching? Or is it that the powers that be want to permanently seal Jonathan’s political coffin?