Despite conceding the
2015 presidential election, former president Goodluck Jonathan was not
comfortable with how it was handled by Attahiru Jega, former chairman of the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
In
an advance copy of ‘Against the Run of Play’, a book written by bestselling
author Segun Adeniyi, and seen by TheCable, Jonathan said Jega disappointed
him.
“I
was disappointed by Jega because I still cannot understand what was propelling
him to act the way he did in the weeks preceding the election,” the former
president said.
“As
at the first week in February 2015 when about 40 percent of Nigerians had not
collected their PVCs, Jega said INEC was ready to conduct an election in which
millions of people would be disenfranchised.”
Jonathan
also said he had a meeting with Jega to express his reservations about the
preparedness of INEC for the exercise, but he insisted that the election would
go ahead.
“Of
course, the Americans were encouraging him to go ahead yet they would never do
such a thing in their own country. How could we have cynically disenfranchised
about a third of our registered voters for no fault of theirs and still call
that a credible election?”
“The
interesting thing was that the opposition also supported the idea of going on
with the election that was bound to end in confusion,” the former president
said.
The
election was scheduled for February 14, 2015, but the Jonathan government
shifted it by six weeks. The action was greeted by strong criticism from
Nigerians.
In
the book, Jonathan also defended his decision to postpone the election, saying
it was for security reasons.
“When
the military and security chiefs demanded for more time to deal with the
insurgency, the reasons were genuine,” he said.
“As
at February 2015, it would have been very difficult to vote in Gombe, Adamawa,
Borno and Yobe states. But moment all the arms and ammunition that had been
ordered finally arrived, the military was able to use them to degrade the
capacity of Boko Haram to the level in which they posed the threat to the
election.”
The
book, written by the chairman of THISDAY editorial board, recounts how an
incumbent lost a presidential election in Nigeria.
It
is due for launch on Friday.
-TheCable
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