Charity Nnaji:
Goodluck Jonathan, former President of
Nigeria, has finally acknowledged that the 2015 presidential election was influenced
partly by former U.S. President Barack Obama and his officials
He also admitted infractions perpetrated by
Prof. Attahiru Jega, former chairman of Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC).
In an advanced copy of the book, ‘Against
the Run of Play – How an incumbent president was defeated in Nigeria,’ written
by Olusegun Adeniyi, chairman of the THISDAY Editorial Board, Jonathan said
that the U.S. government “even brought some naval ships into the Gulf of Guinea
in the days preceding the elections”.
The book goes on to reveal how the previous
U.S. administration undermined Jonathan’s government’s fight against Islamist
insurgents in the North-east in order to weaken his government and make it
unpopular, quoting Communicationweek.
“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 per cent of Nigerians had not collected their PVCs, Jega said
INEC was ready to conduct an election in which millions of people would be
disenfranchised,” the former President said.
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.
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