FORMER President Jonathan has finally opened up on why and how he lost the highly controversial presidential election two after he handed over power to his successor, President Muhammadu Buhari.
The former President said it was a combination of conspiracies led by the former US President Barrack Obama. Obama, he said, recruited the then British government under David Cameron and the French government under President Francois Hollande as co-conspirators to effect the change of government in Nigeria. Also in the plot were local forces in which the former National Chairman of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, Alhaji Adamu Muazu and former INEC Chairman, Prof Jega and some Northern Elders played leading roles.
Dr Jonathan reminisced on his defeat in a new book, “Against The Run of Play”, which is authored by the Chairman of ThisDay Editorial Board, Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi, who is also an accomplished Politics Editor which would be presented this Friday in Lagos, Nigeria.
According to him, “President Barack Obama and his officials made it very clear to me by their actions that they wanted a change of government in Nigeria and we’re ready to do anything to achieve that purpose. They even brought some naval warships into the Gulf of Guinea in the days preceding the election.”
“I got on well with Prime Minister David Cameron but at some point, I noticed that the Americans were putting pressure on him and he had to join them against me. But I didn’t realise how far President Obama was prepared to go to remove me until France caved into the pressure from America.
“But weeks to the election, he had also joined the Americans in supporting the opposition against me to aid Buhari’s victory”
Asked if Obama had an axe to grind with him at the time, he said, “There was this blanket accusation that my body language was supporting corruption, a line invented by the opposition but which the media and civil society bought into and helped to project to the world. That was the same thing I kept hearing from the Americans without specific allegations.”
Dr Jonathan also said he was disappointed by the conduct of the immediate past Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, in the weeks preceding the elections.
The ex-President expressed disappointment with the former Chairman of INEC for allegedly acting American’s script.
Jonathan 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 of the first week in February 2015 when about 40 per cent of Nigerians had not collected their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs), Jega said INEC was ready to go ahead with the election. How could INEC have been ready to conduct an election in which millions of people will be disenfranchised?
“Of course, the Americans were encouraging him to go ahead yet they would never do such 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 an election that was bound to end in confusion.”
Contrary to the general perception, he insisted that it was right for his administration to have postponed the election based on security reasons.
“When the military and security chiefs demanded for more time to deal with the insurgency, the reasons were genuine. As at February 2015, it would have been very difficult to vote in Gombe, Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states.
“But the 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.”
Although Jonathan faulted the results of the 2015 presidential election, he said he conceded defeat to avoid bloodshed.
Still on the 2015 presidential election, Dr Jonathan minced no words on expressing his disappointment with the results that came from northern states particularly Benue and Plateau.
He said, “I felt really betrayed by the result coming from some northern states. Perhaps for ethnic purposes, even security agents colluded with the opposition to come up with spurious results against me. You saw the way the Inspector General of Police, a man I appointed, suddenly turned himself into the ADC to Buhari immediately after the election.”
“How could we have lost Ondo, Benue and Plateau states if our people were committed to the cause? If you examine the results, you will see a pattern: in places where ordinarily we were strong, our supporters did not show enough commitment to mobilise the voters.”
“What happened was very sad not for me as a person, but for our democracy.”
“Take, for instance, the PDP National Chairman, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu. I believe he joined in the conspiracy against me. For reasons best known to him, he helped to sabotage the election in favour of the opposition.”
He added: “Go and check the results from Kano. The Presidential election and that of National Assembly happened on the same day and same time. The National Assembly result reflected that about 800,000 people voted but that of the presidential reflected a vote of about 1.8 million. I had reports of what happened but I decided that for such to be accepted, it meant that those who called themselves my supporters must have colluded. I was betrayed by the very people I relied on to win the election.
“In 2011 when Buhari did not campaign anywhere and could not have won the election, there was a spontaneous violent reaction that led to the death of several innocent people, including Youth Corps members.”
“I asked myself: what would happen in a situation in which there was already internal and international conspiracy in his favour? I could not bear the thought of anybody dying, so I told myself I had only one option and that was to concede.”