JEGA DISAPPOINTED ME - GOODLUCK JONATHAN LAMENTED

Former President, Goodluck Jonathan, has expressed great dissatisfaction on how the former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Attahiru Jega, conducted the 2015 general elections.

Jonathan stated this in an advance copy of the ‘Against the Run of Play’, a book written by the Chairman of THISDAY editorial board, Segun Adeniyi, the Bestselling Author.

 In the book, the author quoted that Jonathan lamented that Jega disappointed him.

The book, which recounts how an incumbent President lost a Presidential election in Nigeria, is set to be launched this Friday.

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 had 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 narrated how he had a meeting with Jega to express his reservations about the preparedness of INEC for the exercise, but he insisted that the elections 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, Goodluck stated.

Recall, that the election was scheduled for February 14, 2015, but the Jonathan government shifted it by six week. In the book, He explained his decision to shifted the election, saying it was for security purpose.

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 the 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.