This was said by Jonathan in an interview featured in the book “My Time As Chaplain In Aso Rock.”

Nathaniel Bivan’s book was released to the public on Tuesday, December 6, 2022.

“If you wake up tomorrow and see that I am President again, that means there may have been circumstances beyond my control. But not to go and pick one form and go and start lobbying people and running for campaigns; I can’t do that again. If I do that, I will diminish myself,” Jonathan said.

The former president said he enjoyed the drama that accompanied the rumor that he purchased the nomination form of the All Progressives Congress earlier in the year.

Remember that prior to the APC 2022 presidential primary, a group led by Ibrahim Abdullahi, Nomadic Pastoralists, and Almajirai Community, paid N100 million for nomination and expression of interest forms in Jonathan’s name.

In response to the backlash that followed the group’s decision, Jonathan stated that he appreciated the drama because it was free of insults.

He said, “I was enjoying the drama. At least they are not insulting me. After all, I was pursued out of the office that I was not good enough. So, if now, Nigerians are saying, ‘Oh, this man should come,’ that means they are cleaning me up. So, let me enjoy the drama.

“I was not disturbed. I know I cannot go and start struggling to be President again. It wasn’t only Nigerians who were asking me such questions, even most of the top ambassadors -the American ambassador, the UK High Commissioner, France, and all of them. They came to ask me whether I would contest. I don’t think I would contest any election.

“If you wake up tomorrow and see that I’m President again, that means there may have been circumstances beyond my control. But not to go and pick one form and go and start lobbying people and running for campaigns, be it PDP power or APC broom, and moving across Nigeria. I can’t do that again; if I do that, I will diminish myself.”

The ex-president insisted that the only jobs he will accept now are those that involve restoring democracy in difficult African republics.