Meet the unanimously endorsed sole Presidential Candidate of PDP

Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR

Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan, GCFR, BNER, GCON is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP).

Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, born on November 20, 1957, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, currently is the President of Nigeria. He is a former zoologist who became Nigeria’s vice-president in the year 2007. He was the Governor of Bayelsa State from Dec 9, 2005 to May 28, 2007, and was sworn in as the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on 29 May 2007. 

He became the official President of Nigeria in May 6, year 2010, this comes as the nation prepares to bury its former leader Umaru Yar’Adua who died on the 5th of May 2010, after a prolonged illness that saw his Vice-President stepping into his shoes as Acting President. There had been tension in the country as rival political groups fought to assert authority in what was seen as a power vacuum during the period of the illness of Yar’Adua.

Family Man: He is happily married to Patience and has 2 children.

Jonathan, of the Ijo (Ijaw) ethnic group and a devoted Christian, he was born and raised in Niger delta which is now Bayelsa state. He went to Christian primary and secondary schools in the area and later attended the University of Port Harcourt.

He graduated with a B.S. in zoology in 1981, an M.S. in hydro-biology and fisheries biology (1985), and a PhD. in zoology (1995). During his university education, he also taught at Rivers State College of Education from 1983 until 1993. He then served as an assistant director at the Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission, a now defunct government agency, from 1993 until 1998.

Jonathan's political career began when he became involved with the nascent People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the late 1990s. He was elected deputy governor of Bayelsa state in 1999 under the party’s banner. He served in the position until year 2005, when he was elevated to the governorship after the incumbent was impeached. In 2007 he was selected to be the vice presidential running mate of the PDP’s presidential candidate, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. He and Yar’Adua were elected in April and inaugurated in May. He became vice-president of Nigeria in the year 2007.

2011 Presidential Campaign and Elections

On 15 September 2010, Jonathan announced on Facebook that he had decided to run for his first ever political election to hold public office as President of Nigeria in 2011.

In the contest for the Peoples Democratic Party nomination, Goodluck Jonathan was up against the former vice-president Atiku Abubakar and Mrs. Sarah Jubril. On 13 January 2011 the primary election results were announced in Eagle Square, Abuja with victory in two-thirds of the states of the federation counted and Jonathan was declared winner.

For the general election in 2011, Jonathan and Vice-President Sambo attended political events and traveled the country to campaign for the nation's highest office. Nigerians overwhelmingly voted Dr. Jonathan in the general election against General Muhammadu Buhari and Nuhu Ribadu with 59% of the votes. On 18 April, Dr. Jonathan was declared the winner of the election and was sworn in as President and Command-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on May 29, 2011.