As a village boy who had braved poverty in a politically and economically repressed environment to rise to the pinnacle of academic and political attainment, he was the poster boy of many Nigerians who regarded him as their soul-mate in the fight for justice and equity in the country's governance.
When the PDP was formed to contest the elections of 1999, it was on the solid foundation of the northern political elite, the club of retired military generals and the established political leadership in the south - minus only the south-west.
It has since won every national election comfortably, and so confidently that a former chairman of the party, Vincent Ogbulafor said in 2008 that the party would rule Nigeria "for not less than 60 years".
At the 2011 presidential election Mr Jonathan polled 22 million votes against his major rival's 12 million.
It has taken only four years for the glamour to fade from the Jonathan poster.
A lack of security, unbridled official corruption, ethnic favouritism and economic mismanagement have been the culprits.
In that period there have been large-scale defections of PDP state governors and other leaders to the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), the most prominent being Aminu Tambuwal, speaker of the House of Representatives.
And so the PDP is now a minority party in the house which it had dominated since its inauguration.
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