Former President, Goodluck Jonathan, ‘Breaks Down In Tears’, Opens Up On Attahiru Jega’s World Class Rigging Strategy

Former President, Goodluck Jonathan, has opened up on how the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, led by Attahiru Jega, conspired to rig him out of office, in 2015.

In a new book made public on Tuesday, Jonathan said that INEC’s biased distribution of voting credentials to the electorate, precipitated his defeat at the March 28, 2015, general elections.

“For some inexplicable reason, the INEC had been able to achieve near 100% distribution of Permanent Voter Cards in the North, including the North-East, which was under siege with boko haram insurgency, but failed to record a similar level of distribution in the South, which was relatively more peaceful”, the former President wrote in the book, ‘My Transition Hour’.

As the election got underway, Jonathan said that he paid stern attention to reports of irregularities, as amplified in the media, but he was reluctant to ride on such excuses to reject the results.

“Social media was filled with all manner of stories, pictures, and videos. I had settled in my mind that I was not going to be the sitting President, pointing out these infractions and accusing the opposition and the very INEC I helped to strengthen.

“The world saw my ordeal at the polling unit in my community, in Bayelsa State, where the card reader refused my PVC, even after we tried repeatedly during accreditation.

“And it was the same with my wife and my mother. It was a moment that exposed the shortcomings of INEC”, Jonathan said.

Jonathan stressed further, that even though he conceded defeat out of personal principles he had long held, he was even more conscious of past predictions of the United States Intelligence, that Nigeria would break apart, as well as an infamous comment by Buhari, that dogs and baboons would be “soaked in blood”, if the 2015 elections did not go the way he desired.

“I knew what was coming the day before I called General Muhammadu Buhari. I had reports on the polls around the country. It was clear the results were not going to favour me”, Jonathan said.

“There were series of problems with card readers, resulting from widespread technical hitches, leading to the non-uniform application throughout the country.

“However, I was heading towards peace. Stopping the election on voting day, would have been like detonating an atomic bomb”, he said.

Jonathan disclosed that shortly after he finished voting on March 28, he departed Bayelsa State for Abuja, to monitor the rest of the exercise from March 29, until he made a concession call, on March 31.

The former President also mentioned the places he expected violence to break out, had he delayed in placing the call to finalise the election.

“The country was tensed. I had to do something. I could no longer wait for the collation of final results. The pressure on the country was palpable.

“In Lagos, people were ready to burst loose on the streets, and in the North, the stage was set for envisaged violence. One of my party’s agents at the INEC National Collation Centre, in Abuja, Elder Godsday Orubebe, eventually got into a heated argument with the INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega.

“That further raised the tension in the country. Everyone was expecting the worse. I knew it was time to douse the tension”, he said.