By Olanrewaju Ajao President Goodluck Jonathan has assured Nigerians that if he loses the March 28th presidential election, he will hand over to the rightful winner and go home with pride.
Speaking in a live Presidential media chat Wednesday, the President said no individual is bigger than the corporate entity called Nigeria.
President Jonathan urged Nigerians to disregard rumours being spread by the opposition, insisting that May 29th handover date is sacrosanct.
He recalled that in 2011, he had told Nigerians he would conduct a free and fair election even if he loses.
“If in 2011, I said that I will conduct free and fair elections and if I lose, I will happily go home and it should be recorded and as at that time no African sitting Presidents had lost election but within this period a lot of African sitting presidents have lost election.
“But, I said I wanted to create the history to be the first African President to lose election but let the world know that the elections were free and fair.
“This nation is more important than anybody and I still maintain that if anybody who wants to hold this office of the President or any office at all and feel that he is more important than the nation, that is not quite right.
“If as at that time I said that I was ready to conduct free and fair election and if I lose, I will go not to talk about now that Nigerians have given me the opportunity to be here for four full years.
“So, if the elections are conducted and I lose, of course, we will inaugurate a new government, there is no way I will say if I lose I will not hand over,” the President said.
The President also said that the shift in polls date was never his idea, adding that security concern and the issue of PVC distribution date necessitated the decision which was taken by INEC.
On the issues, President said Nigerians should not often take the utterances of some of his supporters to be his own opinion.
On the threat to bring down the country if he loses the election made by Niger Delta ex militants, Jonathan said he didn’t share such stand.
The President reiterated his commitment to the peace, unity and stability of the nation, saying no ambition of any individual is bigger than the state.
On security, he assured Nigerians that in the coming weeks, significant successes will be recorded in the battle against Boko Haram especially with the cooperation that Nigeria now has with Chad, Cameroon and United Nations.
He assured that in the weeks to come, the story of the missing Chibok girls will change.
On the botched ceasefire deal with Boko Haram, he explained that Nigeria was never swindled as no money was paid to anyone.
He noted that some groups with the Boko Haram sect rejected the ceasefire deal and that was the cause of the breakdown of talks.
His words: “People are not being fair to me. The international community has sympathised with me because in a number of cases in Africa we have had cases where governments reschedule elections to extend tenure so whenever you reschedule election, it is an attempt to extend tenure. This is not the case in Nigeria.
“In Nigeria, the law is very clear about when elections should be conducted, not less than 30 days to the inauguration of the new government and not more than 150 days before the inauguration of the new government.
“Within this period election can be conducted so that it does not affect the inauguration of the new government. But within that period, if there are issues that could require the electoral body to adjust the date…INEC work with security services because they must provide protection for the election materials and staff and for the country.
“So, there are a lot of security implications for conducting elections in Africa generally. The security services did not consult me. If they should tell INEC probably for one reason or the other to adjust within this period, ordinarily for me, it is not supposed to be an issue.
“But this is the time we make anything look big. Election is like a tournament or soccer march. If FIFA says they will play it in March, April or May, the winning team will still win. So I don’t see a big deal about it.”
Asked if he was not consulted, he said “of course! I was not consulted and I did not want to be consulted. In 2011, INEC didn’t consult me (before shifting the election). If they had consulted me, I wouldn’t have wasted my time and government resources. For any trip I make, I know what the government spends.
He said further said: “I am not the chief of defence staff but I am the chief security officer of the federation. There are two things to it. The recent council of state meeting emphasised this issue of security. And every security operative knows that security means to everybody.
“There are two things to the security. Yes, the Boko Haram is there. But, also the tense factor in the country. When INEC came up with the dates for elections, there was so much threat and the security agencies saw a lot of red points and they believe elections should be shifted, otherwise the whole country would go into flames.
“And when the issue of PVC was also being branded as a problem, INEC said it was ready…in Lagos only about 38 percent of eligible voters have PVCs.
“In terms of the Boko Haram too, because we are very hopeful that in the next weeks, the movements will be much faster. We find it difficult to really contain Boko Haram the way we ought to have done because we could not get the platform and the equipment we needed for the army and the navy. “Luckily, we have got a substantial quantity of this for now. I have several meeting with the president of Chad for example who was willing to send troops but before he does that the united nations must key in so that whatever he is doing has legal backing…
“The issue of security is beyond Boko Haram because within this campaign period, there were some instigations which I believe some politicians used some young people to act the way they are not supposed to act…we have seen some very dangerous signals and no security chiefs will take it lightly. ”
On whether he has confidence in Jega, he said “How I wish Jega were here. I could have asked him to answer that question. One thing about politics or leadership generally is that when you are a leader, you have you members who support you but what they do or say.
“Maybe somebody has been making statements to advance your cause, the assumption is that the person is close to you and he is fan. there are too many messages that go out and sometimes I call people. More than 80 percent of people sponsoring these messages I don’t even know. So, whatever that person says is different from Jonathan.
“And if you ask Jega, he will tell you. I appointed all the commissioners and resident electoral commissioners in inec. They are my appointees. So, if I feel that Jega is not good enough for obvious reasons, then I can by that provision of the constitution that give the person who appoint him the power to remove him I have not told anybody that I am going to remove Jega.
“Some of these things are creations by people who want to cause confusion. A lot of people are using the rescheduling of the elections to misinform Nigerians,” he said.
On Chibok girls, he said: “I believe now that we are working with Chad, working with Cameroon. I believe in the next few weeks, the story of the chibok girls will change. It’s going to get better. I believe we should be able to rescue some of them. But I don’t want to be quoted; I don’t want you to say the President said so, that in 2 weeks time or in 4 weeks time, I cannot say that because the disappearance of those girls has taken quite some time. But we have mapped out strategies, we are working with our neighour and we will comb all the area. So, just give us some time.
