Speculation over former President Goodluck Jonathan’s political future heightened on Thursday night as he held a closed-door meeting with the National Chairman of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Senator David Mark, in Abuja.
The meeting came just hours after the ADC convened its first national caucus meeting, where the party was formally adopted as a coalition platform ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Jonathan, who governed Nigeria between 2010 and 2015, has in recent months been courted by several opposition figures urging him to join the presidential race against incumbent President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2027. Should he decide to run and secure victory, Jonathan would be constitutionally limited to a single four-year term. 
Although details of his discussion with Mark were not disclosed, political observers say the relationship between the two men goes back decades. Mark, a two-term Senate President, played a pivotal role in Jonathan’s rise to power through the “Doctrine of Necessity” invoked by the National Assembly in 2010 during the illness of the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. The move cleared the way for Jonathan, then Vice President, to become Acting President before his eventual election as President in 2011.
Thursday’s meeting has further fueled speculation about Jonathan’s political plans, particularly as the ADC continues to position itself as a rallying point for opposition forces ahead of the next general elections.
Neither Jonathan nor Mark has publicly commented on the outcome of their discussions.
