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Supporters of former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan have explained why they marched to his office, urging him to run in the 2027 presidential election.
While addressing the Coalition for Jonathan 2027 in Abuja on Thursday, its National President, Tom Ohikere, said the group was motivated by concerns over the state of the country.
Ohikere, on behalf of the coalition, appealed to the former president to “save Nigeria from impending collapse.”
He recalled an earlier visit to Jonathan on April 8, 2026, during which the group first appealed to him to contest the 2027 election.
The coalition noted that it had yet to receive a clear response from the former president and expressed concern that he had not picked up a nomination form from any political party.
According to them, Jonathan should commit to the race, obtain a presidential nomination form from any party of his choice, and contest the election, pledging to mobilise support for him across the country.
“Last month, April 8, 2026, the Coalition for Jonathan 2027 paid a friendly visit to Your Excellency to urge you to run in the 2027 presidential election to save Nigeria from impending collapse. Though we did not meet you in person, we believe that our message was unreservedly passed on to you, as it was to the entire Nigerian people through the media.
“Since then, we have had little information as to whether you have yielded to our clarion call, as you have not yet, to our knowledge, picked up a nomination form for the presidential contest in any registered political party.
“Because of our genuine fear of a possible collapse of Nigeria, as peace and unity are now gradually eluding all of us, we decided to march to your office again today, hoping you will step out to receive us and make a statement that will gladden our hearts and the entire nation.
“We are asking you to hear our cries and contest the 2027 presidential election, sir. This mammoth crowd that came with us here today is a fragment of your supporters nationwide and represents every tribe, tongue, and religious belief in this country. We, young and old, girls and boys, men and women, are all here crying for your voice to say ‘yes’ to our request,” Ohikere said.
DAILY POST recalls that Jonathan had hinted at the possibility of returning to the presidential race in 2027, saying he would “consult widely” following growing calls for him to contest.
Jonathan made the remark while responding to members of the Coalition for Jonathan 2027 who marched to his office to urge him to run for president in the next general election.
“Presidential race is not a computer game, but I heard you, and I will consult widely. But the most important thing is that Nigeria should have young people who will plan for our grandchildren,” Jonathan said.
Enugu State is going back to its coal roots — not to dig and export, but to generate, and Governor Peter Mbah wants the lights to stay on permanently by the time his first term ends.
Mbah announced Wednesday that his administration would break ground in July on a 660-megawatt coal-fired power plant, a project he said would take 24 months to build and would make Enugu the first state in Nigeria capable of guaranteeing uninterrupted electricity supply for both businesses and households. The announcement came during a solidarity visit to Government House by the Organised Private Sector Nigeria, the umbrella body that represents the state’s major employer and business associations — and which used the occasion to formally endorse him for a second term.
The arithmetic behind the ambition is straightforward. Ground breaks in July 2026. Construction runs 24 months. The plant is commissioned before the end of 2027. “Post-2027, you will not have your power go off in Enugu, whether for businesses or for residential,” Mbah told the delegation. “You are also going to have affordable electricity because it is going to be by far the cheapest in the country.”
Read also: Enugu State Ex-Guber Candidate, Edeoga Dumps LP
For a state whose economy Mbah has set a target of growing from $4.4 billion to $30 billion, electricity is not an infrastructure amenity — it is the prerequisite for everything else. Manufacturing cannot scale without reliable power. Technology investment does not come to places where generators are the primary energy source. The coal plant is, in Mbah’s framing, the foundational infrastructure from which every other economic ambition becomes achievable.
The choice of coal as the fuel source will draw scrutiny in an era of accelerating energy transition, and Mbah anticipated the objection. Enugu’s coal, he argued, is not the coal of environmental nightmare scenarios. Its sulphur content sits below 0.5 percent — a figure he contrasted with the one percent threshold that already qualifies as relatively clean burning. “The only country that comes close is Japan,” he said, adding that the coal’s calorific value of approximately 7,000 kilocalories per kilogram placed it among the highest-quality deposits anywhere in the world. His argument was pointed: instead of shipping that quality overseas and letting other economies benefit from it, Enugu would capture the value domestically through power generation.
