Former president Goodluck Jonathan reveals how Jega disappointed him in 2015 election

Former President Goodluck Jonathan has expressed his reservations about how Attahiru Jega, former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) handled the 2015 Presidential election.

In a book by Chairman of ThisDay editorial board, Segun Adeniyi which is scheduled to be launched on Friday and seen by TheCable, Jonathan said Jega disappointed him.

According to TheCable, Jonthan in the book said Jega insisted on going ahead with the election when most Nigerians had not collected their PVCs.

“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,” the former president said.

“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.”

The former President said he had a meeting with Jega who said INEC was ready for the election.

He reportedly claimed the Americans pushed Jega to conduct the election.

“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.

On why he postponed the election, he said, “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.”

The book titled ‘Against the Run of Play’ is due for launch on Friday.