The Peoples Democratic Party’s Presidential candidate and
incumbent President of the country, Goodluck Jonathan,
has said he will graciously bow out if he loses the March 28
Presidential election to his major opponent, Maj. Gen.
Muhammadu Buhari, the All Progressives Congress
Presidential candidate.
He said Nigeria was not his father’s estate.
In an interview with the cable TV, Al Jazeera, on Monday in
Lagos, President Jonathan who repeatedly told his
interviewer that he would win the March 28 election said if
he lost the election he would return to Otuoke, his country
home in Bayelsa State.
“If by default somebody wins the election, of course I will
go back to my village. The country is not my father’s
estate. I’ll not lose the election,” Jonathan said.
Speaking on the speculation that he had made plans to
remove the Independent National Electoral Commission
Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, the President stated he
would only sack him if he had done something wrong.
“(I have no plans to sack the Chairman of the Independent
National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega) except
somebody is insinuating that the chairman has done
something wrong. You cannot change an officer, except the
person has done something wrong. The government,
whether at the federal or state level, (be it) the president or
governor, does not wake up and change somebody,
especially somebody like the INEC chairman, except that
person has done something wrong
“INEC is a very sensitive body. For me to change INEC
chairman, people –both Nigerians and non-Nigerians – will
ask questions. So, one cannot wake up and change INEC
chairman. I have never discussed this with any human
being on earth about changing INEC chairman,” Jonathan
said.
The president, while commending the Nigerian troops for
the recent successes recorded in the fight against Boko
Haram, claimed that some people were using the insurgents
to disrupt the general elections.
He said, “I don’t think (the elections will be postponed
again). I think the elections will be conducted as scheduled
by the INEC –that is the presidential election slated for
March 28. I don’t see why we should postpone the election
again because I’m quite impressed with the successes of
the military operations going on in the North. There is a
misunderstanding about the postponement of the general
elections. In 2011, when the general elections were
conducted, we had Boko Haram. The fact is that within that
period, somehow the level of Boko Haram was quite serious
and from all indications and from the signals the security
agencies got, people are using Boko Haram to disrupt the
elections.
“In 2011 there were no such signals and if the elections are
disrupted in a number of states especially for the
presidential elections, it will affect the declaration of results.
So the security services don’t want to take any chances.
They did not tell Nigerians that they must rout Boko Haram
100 per cent before the elections could be conducted. But
they want to degrade Boko Haram to the extent that they
would no longer have the kind of strength to come out and
disrupt the elections. That is the key thing. In terms of
taking over our territories, yes we will take over all our
territories –yes, we will take over all of our territories and
very soon there will be no part of Nigeria where they will
erect a flag and say, ‘This is a Boko Haram territory.’ That
we’ll do.”
Jonathan, though refused to accept responsibility for
escalating Boko Haram violent attacks, he promised to put
an end to the terrorist activities. CLICK HERE TO READ FULL AND TOUCHING NIGERIAN CELEBRITIES BIOGRAPHY AND SCANDALS
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