FACT CHECK: Is Obi the first presidential candidate to visit Jonathan?

By Aishah Saleeman

Former president Goodluck Jonathan has said the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Obi, is the first presidential candidate to visit him.

As the 2023 elections approach, presidential candidates, as part of their campaigns, pay visit to elder statemen to seek their support

Obi, who was in Bayelsa State on Friday to campaign, paid courtesy visit to Jonathan, during which the ex-president made the statement.

Full text:

“I want to thank you that you are the first presidential candidate to pay a courtesy visit to me. I want to use this opportunity to encourage you in what you are doing.

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“I have been listening to comments from political leadership and sometimes our supporters do more damage on our behalf. And I must commend you because your utterances so far have not shown any division. Just keep doing what is right. If you win, you will be a president for the whole nation, you won’t be a President for any group of people,” several reports quoted Jonathan to have said this during the meeting.

Verification 

Checks by Daily Trust showed that Obi alongside his running mate, Dr Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, had earlier met Jonathan in September in Abuja before the Friday meeting in Bayelsa.

Aside from these two meetings, there is no public record of any other meeting between Jonathan and Obi since the latter emerged as the LP presidential candidate, except if the meeting was private.

Meanwhile, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, had visited Jonathan in August, 2022 in Abuja.

Tinubu was accompanied by his running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima, alongside a delegation of five APC governors.

Verdict: Jonathan’s claim that Obi is the first presidential candidate to visit him cannot be verified to be true.

This Fact Check is produced in partnership with the Centre for Democracy and Development