The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, has said the odds favour President Goodluck Jonathan should he decide to contest the 2015 presidential election.
Okupe addressed reporters yesterday at the national secretariat of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Abuja.
He spoke against the backdrop of Wednesday's registration of the All Progressives Congress (APC) by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The presidential aide, however, stressed that Dr Jonathan has not declared interest in the race.
Okupe said: "President Jonathan has not decided and has not told anybody he wants to run. That is the truth. But if he decides to run, nobody can beat him. It's not possible.
"The calculations are in his favour; the odds are in his favour. The national support is in his favour; the performance index is in his favour."
The spokesman said the Presidency was not jittery about the registration of the APC, adding that the newly registered opposition party would not stand the test of time.
According to him, the registration of the APC is a manifestation of the openness, transparency, honesty and political liberalism of the President.
Okupe said the APC lacked ideology, adding: "I don't think APC will last for a long time, because the foundation is wrong, the combination is faulty and the ideologies are not clearly defined. We do not really take it as a very serious opposition."
The presidential aide said the registration of APC would not have happened under many sitting African leaders.
"It is obvious to those who care to study the situation properly that there were obvious hurdles and obstacles to that registration, which could have been exploited. They could have been amplified and could have been used by people of lesser integrity to frustrate the registration of the APC," Okupe said.
He dismissed the possibility of the country gradually evolving into a two-party system, saying other political parties would emerge in the months ahead.
"There will still be other parties. There will still be other tendencies. I don't think we are at that stage of two parties or even moving close to a two-party system," Okupe said.
The President's aide, for the second time, came down hard on the five northern governors consulting with former Nigerian leaders on the political crisis in Rivers State.
He said the governors were using the Rivers crisis to nurse their political agenda.
Okupe said: "They are going all over the country, trying to mobilise support for what they want to do. Someone said they are trying to intimidate the President not to run, because it is obvious they are insisting that there will be no open ticket for the President.
"Rivers State is a political camouflage; you can quote me on that. The real thing is about intense politicking by people with very serious interest in the polity, or people who have an agenda they want to make sure manifest by hook or by crook."
The presidential spokesperson accused Governors Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto), Babangida Aliyu (Niger) and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso (Kano) of feathering their own political nests through their consultations.
The governors have visited Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida and Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar in their quest for peace in Rivers State.
