The Presidency, yesterday, said there was no truth in the allegation by opposition parties that President Goodluck Jonathan has perfected plans to postpone the 2015 general elections.
Debunking the allegation in Abuja yesterday, Senior Special Adviser to President Jonathan on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, described it as “idiotic,” insisting that the current administration has done so well to enable it win the impending presidential election without recourse to any form of deceit.
He berated opposition politicians over what he described their “do-or-die and win at all cost” tendencies, saying they have been miffed by the fact that President Jonathan has performed creditably well despite enormous challenges that has bedevilled his administration.
Okupe, who spoke at the 2014 Nigerian Pilot/Newsworld Annual Public Lecture and Award, in Abuja yesterday, queried why Jonathan should plot to postpone the election when he is sure of being re-elected next year on the basis of his “substantial performance.”
He further carpeted the All Progressives Congress, APC, for threatening to form a parallel government should it fail to unseat President Jonathan after the 2015 general election, saying: “In very civil societies, people like that, whatever political tendencies they represent should totally be wiped off from peoples memories as bad teachers.”
Okupe, who maintained that he would never subscribe to the idea of election rigging, regretted that the governorship candidate of the APC in Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, earlier took to Twitter to allege that President Jonathan was using the prolonged insurgency in the North-East to deceitfully extend his tenure beyond 2015.
Specifically, El-Rufai had alleged that Jonathan’s administration was creating a war situation in the region to enable him to invoke Section 216 of the Constitution that allows the cancellation of elections in war zones.
More so, the APC had in a statement it issued on September 21, warned those nursing plans to postpone the 2015 general elections to perish the thought, saying Nigerians will not accept, under any guise whatsoever, any scheme by desperate elected officials to get tenure elongation by subterfuge.
Nevertheless, reacting to the allegation yesterday, President Jonathan’s aide advised the APC to go out and canvass for votes rather than dissipate its energy fighting Jonathan who he said was not desperate to hold onto power at all cost.
He said: “All politics should end the day you cast your ballots. The Nigerian political class must learn great lessons but it is too late. Maybe the younger generation may have different perspectives. We have not undergone the election itself and people are saying that they will form a parallel government for an election they have not lost.
“In very civil societies, people like that, whatever political tendencies they represent should totally be wiped off from peoples memories as bad teachers. Those are not people that will mean well for the country.
“Another politician said that the President, Goodluck Jonathan, is fanning the war (against Boko Haram), so that the election can be postponed. This is a president that has run and that has held the office for four years, to the glory of God he has been able to make some substantial performance, unarguably.
“Every indication points out to the lengthy road of his winning. So, why will he want to stop the election that his likely opponent has no record of winning anything?
“If Nigeria were to be a private estate owned by some of us, with Goodluck Jonathan as the Managing Director and Chief Executive of that estate, will anybody change him for a Buhari?
“It is not likely, but because Nigeria doesn’t belong to anybody and the elite are not stakeholders, that is why people will want to use people just to get power, whether it is for good or for bad, they really don’t care.
“So when people do things like this, it make issues and challenges that will come in 2015 very frightful. As a matter of fact, the greatest problem we will have in post 2015 will be the acceptance of defeat by losers.
“I want to tell you for sure, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is not desperate for power. He is a good Christian and a responsible man. We have done so well, we have been encouraged by so many people. We have got the best stars in the firmament. They tell you things, they say that the President is clueless, that is a joke.”
“Let’s just assume for a minute that the President is clueless, is Okonjo Iweala clueless? Can you say the Minister of Trade and Investment, Olusegun Aganga, is clueless also? The Director of Budget of this country is a Harvard graduate.” – Vanguard.
