As Labour Party’s Peter Obi submits a one-term proposal to opposition leaders ahead of the 2027 presidential election, Nigerians may recall another president who made a similar pledge and paid a steep political price for walking it back.
In 2011, then-President Goodluck Jonathan was widely reported to have promised key members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that he would serve only one term, following the death of his predecessor, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
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But four years later, Jonathan’s decision to seek re-election fractured his party, prompted a high-profile defection of PDP heavyweights to the opposition, and ultimately led to his historic loss in 2015.
Jonathan’s aides repeatedly denied that any such one-term agreement existed. Yet several former allies insisted otherwise and did so on record.
EKO HOT BLOG explores the claims of broken promises.
Abdullahi Adamu: “Jonathan agreed not to seek a second term”
In June 2014, Abdullahi Adamu, a former governor of Nasarawa State and then Secretary of the PDP Board of Trustees, publicly stated that Jonathan had agreed not to seek a second term. Speaking on Straight Talk with Kadaria Ahmed on Channels Television, Adamu recalled a specific meeting with party leaders at the First Lady’s Conference Room in the Presidential Villa:
“Our president, His Excellency Goodluck Jonathan, was in the meeting. I was in the meeting… when the issue of zoning came, when the issue of whether he would be allowed to contest in the first place came.”
He said virtually all PDP governors were present and that Jonathan conceded it was the North’s turn to produce the next president.
“This was after he had taken over and was completing Yar’Adua’s tenure,” Adamu said, adding, “I do know of the philosophy that it is not everything that you can do that you do.”
Babangida Aliyu: “We all signed the agreement”
Another damning account came from then-Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State. In a 2013 interview with Liberty FM, Kaduna, Aliyu said Jonathan had signed a one-term pact with PDP governors before declaring for the 2011 election.
“I recall that at the time he was going to declare for the 2011 election, all the PDP governors were brought together… I recall that at that discussion, it was agreed that Jonathan would serve only one term of four years and we all signed the agreement,” Aliyu said.
He further claimed that Jonathan reiterated the one-term pledge abroad: “Even when Jonathan went to Kampala, in Uganda, he also said he was going to serve a single term.”
Olusegun Obasanjo: “Jonathan said that to me”
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo added his voice in February 2014, telling reporters in London that Jonathan had personally assured him, both privately and publicly, that he would not seek re-election.
“President Jonathan said, not only once, twice, publicly, not only inside Nigeria, outside Nigeria, that he would have one term, and said that to me,” Obasanjo stated.
The former president accused the incumbent president of not being a man of his word.
“One of the things that is very important in the life of any man or any person, is that he will be a man or a person of his word. If you decide your word should not be taken seriously, that’s entirely up to you,” he said.
The Fallout: Mass Defections and a Lost Presidency
Despite these claims, Jonathan declared his intention to run for a second term in late 2014, triggering a political earthquake.
Several top party leaders, including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar; former Kwara State Governor, Bukola Saraki; Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, and former Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, defected to the newly formed All Progressives Congress (APC), citing a lack of internal democracy and broken promises in the PDP.
The defection wave crippled the ruling party’s electoral machinery and boosted the APC’s momentum heading into the 2015 general election. Jonathan lost the vote to Muhammadu Buhari, marking the first time an incumbent Nigerian president was defeated at the ballot box.
Throughout the storm, Jonathan and his aides consistently denied the existence of any one-term agreement. The presidency labelled the accusations as “frivolous” and accused detractors of mischief.
Notably, no formal document confirming the alleged pact ever surfaced, but the political damage was done.
Now, Another Pledge?
Fast forward to 2025, and Obi, the Labour Party’s standard-bearer in 2023, has reportedly submitted a single-term proposal to opposition leaders, according to Dr. Yunusa Tanko, National Coordinator of the Obidient Movement Worldwide.
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Will Obi’s pledge earn trust or invite the kind of expectations that ultimately engulfed Jonathan? Time will tell.
Philip Ibitoye is a Special Correspondent with EKO HOT BLOG. Click here to find daily analysis and critical insight on trending issues in Lagos and other parts of Nigeria.
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