By SCM Staff Writer
ABUJA — The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has cleared a major legal hurdle for former President Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, declaring him constitutionally eligible to contest the 2027 presidential election.
In a landmark judgment delivered by Justice Peter Lifu on Tuesday, May 26, 2026, the court affirmed Jonathan’s right to seek re-election to the nation’s highest political office.
The presiding judge dismissed a disqualification suit filed against the former president, describing it as “frivolous, vexatious, and a clear abuse of the court process.”
The legal challenge, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2102/2025, was instituted by an Abuja-based legal practitioner, Mr. Jideobi Johnmary. The plaintiff had approached the court seeking a perpetual injunction to restrain Dr. Jonathan from presenting himself to any political party for nomination as a presidential candidate for the 2027 polls.
Johnmary had argued that since Jonathan had already been sworn in as president on two separate occasions, allowing him to contest again would violate the spirit of the Nigerian Constitution.
However, in his ruling, Justice Lifu held that the plaintiff lacked the locus standi (legal right) to institute the action in the first place, noting that the suit amounted to an attempt to drag the judiciary into hypothetical political warfare.
Crucially, the court stated that the question of Jonathan’s eligibility was no longer a live issue for fresh litigation, as superior courts—including the Court of Appeal—had already settled the matter in previous judgments. Consequently, the trial judge struck out the suit, clearing any legal ambiguities regarding the former leader’s future political aspirations.
Reacting to the judgment, Jonathan’s lead counsel, Chief Chris Uche (SAN), lauded the court for protecting the rule of law and halting what he termed a “calculated attempt to distort constitutional provisions.”
The intense debate surrounding Goodluck Jonathan’s eligibility is rooted in the complex political history of his tenure and subsequent constitutional amendments.
Dr. Jonathan, who hailed from Bayelsa State, first assumed the presidency on May 6, 2010, following the tragic demise of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. Jonathan, who was the Vice President at the time, completed the remaining one year of Yar’Adua’s term.
He subsequently contested and won the 2011 presidential election on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), serving a full four-year term until 2015.
The legal conundrum emerged when Jonathan sought a second full term in the historic 2015 general election, which he lost to President Muhammadu Buhari.
Following the fallout of his 2015 run, the National Assembly altered the legal framework by passing the Fourth Alteration to the 1999 Constitution in 2018.
Specifically, Section 137(3) was introduced, which stipulates that:
”A person who was sworn in to complete the term for which another person was elected as President shall not be elected to such office for more than a single term.”
Opponents of Jonathan’s potential return have consistently pointed to this section, arguing that having served out Yar’Adua’s remaining term and completed a subsequent four-year term, he had exhausted his constitutional lifespan in the executive office.
Why the Law Favours Jonathan
Despite the restrictive phrasing of Section 137(3), legal experts and the courts have consistently maintained that the 2018 amendment cannot apply retroactively to Dr. Jonathan’s presidency, which concluded in 2015.
Under Nigerian jurisprudence, laws do not take effect retrospectively unless explicitly stated by the legislature. Since Jonathan completed his tenure long before the Fourth Alteration was signed into law, his rights are governed by the unamended version of the 1999 Constitution, under which he is entitled to seek two full four-year terms of his own.
This constitutional interpretation was first upheld by a Federal High Court in Yenagoa ahead of the 2023 elections and has now been firmly reinforced by the Abuja division.
Political Implications for 2027
With this definitive judicial clearance, speculation regarding Jonathan’s return to active politics is bound to hit a fever pitch.
Though the former president has maintained a highly respected profile as an international statesman, ECOWAS mediator, and global democracy envoy since his historic concession in 2015, his name has regularly featured in high-level political permutations.
Ahead of the 2023 elections, an anonymous political coalition famously purchased the N100 million nomination forms for him under the All Progressives Congress (APC), though Jonathan did not participate in that primary cycle.
As alignments and coalitions begin to take shape for the 2027 general elections, this judicial victory effectively positions the 68-year-old statesman as a potent wildcard on the political chessboard—one who possesses the rare constitutional privilege of being legally permitted to serve only a single, four-year term, a proposition that holds significant strategic weight for various geopolitical blocks across Nigeria.
