How Former INEC Chairman, Jega Disappointed Me In 2015 Election – Jonathan

Former President Goodluck Jonathan has said that he was disappointed by Attahiru Jega, former Chairman of the Independent National Elect0ral Commission (INEC), for proceeding on the 2015 presidential election ‘when about 40 percent of Nigerians had not collected their PVCs’.

Jonathan said this in a book titled ‘Against the Run of Play’, written by Segun Adeniyi.

He said: “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.”

According to Jonathan, Jega insisted that the election would go ahead despite meeting with him to express reservations about the readiness of INEC.

“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.

It will be recalled that the election was initially scheduled for February 14, 2015, but the Jonathan government postponed it by six weeks. The decision to shift the election was greeted by strong criticism from Nigerians.

In the book, Jonathan defended his action to postpone the election, stating that “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.”

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