Goodluck Jonathan: Jega disappointed me

Goodluck Jonathan

In a new book titled ‘Against the Run of Play’, by Chairman of ThisDay editorial board, Segun Adeniyi which is scheduled to be launched on Friday and seen by TheCable, Nigerian immediate past president, Goodluck Jonathan said Jega disappointed him.

The former president expressed his reservations about how Professor Attahiru Jega, former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), presided over the 2015 Presidential election.

Jonthan in the book said Jega insisted on going ahead with the election even when most Nigerians were yet to collect their PVCs.

TheCable reported that the former leader said he had a meeting with the INEC Chief who said INEC was ready for the election.

Jonathan was quoted as to have claimed that the Americans pushed Jega to conduct the election.

“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.

“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.

“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,” Jonathan said.

On the postponement of the election, the former president said,

“When the military and security chiefs demanded for more time to deal with the insurgency, the reasons were genuine.

“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.”