*I warned Jonathan against Northern conspiracy – David Mark
*What Jonathan didn’t tell the world – Jega
*Your defeat will of the people, US replies Jonathan
By Kemi Kasumu, General Editor
“GEJ said it without mincing words that he did not concede defeat to President Muhammadu Buhari for patriotic, nationalistic or even Godly reasons but purely because all the tactics and strategies employed by his clueless self and his greedy co-travellers could not work. These include the looting of our treasuries, imposition of state of emergencies, sponsorship of insurgency, militancy, armed banditry and many other forms of insecurity in almost all parts of Nigeria to enable him cling on to power by all means,” Girei said.
Former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan may have bitten more than he can chew as he has been bombarded by people he accused were responsible for his political woes at the 2015 presidential election.
Jonathan, like Lt. General Ishaya Bamayiy, has not been fortunate with speaking in the public as it has happened that the more he speaks the more exposure to public condemnation he makes of himself. Bamaiye had written a book, “Vindication of a General” which he thought would save him of some misrepresentation of history but, instead, negative criticisms 100 percent have trailed the feedbacks that he continues to have on the book.
Similarly in the case of Jonathan, who many had celebrated as hero of the 2015 general elections due what was thought to be his willing concession of defeat, each time he speaks trying exonerate or grand-slide himself on any national issue, he is greeted with a bombardment latest of which are the unfavourable responses that he has been having over his statement in where he accused the immediate past Chairman of Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, the United States of America of colluding with other forces in a conspiracy that ousted him out of power.
What all of the regrets for losing power by Jonathan mean still nursing grudges with people and foreign nations, two years after losing the power, must have put paid to the claim people who have always said the Otu-Oke politician was not worth the heroism ascribed to him over the 2015 election success. They have claimed that the success of 2015 elections was not by Jonathan willing concession as they say there was no concession anywhere by the then citing President but that he had no choice but to submit himself to the inevitable made possible by the will and decision of the Nigerian people to get him out of power with their votes, which only counted with Attahiru Jega on the saddle as boss of the electoral umpire.
Revelations of the Jonathan’s Minister of Petroleum bribed INEC officials with amount running into billions of Naira to compromise the 2015 presidential elections have further proved that those holding the views that Jonathan was not the reason for the success of the elections were right. Because one thing that is constant is the truth no matter how long, the former president by himself has come out to indirectly tell the world why he should not be seen as the hero that many have thought.
It would be recalled that in recent times, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was reported to have said that he did not concede defeat to President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 for nationalistic reasons, but because all the tactics and strategies employed by him and his co-travellers to win the election could not work due to international and local conspiracies.
But in swift reactions, those he accused including the United States of America, former INEC chairman Jega and even some members of his political party say he should stop pushing blames to anybody as, according to them, Jonathan was the very architect of his own defeat.
Senator Girei, who represented Adamawa Central Senatorial zone between 1999 to 2003 under the then ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP), noted that it was uncharitable of Jonathan to blame his defeat on local and international leaders who have seen through his foolery and decided to ditch him in the interest of Nigeria and their respective countries.
Girei, now a staunch member of All Progressive Congress (APC), in a statement, on Thursday, alleged that Jonathan was defeated because he imposed Boko Haram insurgency, Niger Delta militancy, armed banditry, and all forms of insecurity to remain in power.
A former military governor of Kaduna State, Col. Abubakar Dangiwa Umar had, last week, tongue-lashed the President Buhari-led Federal Government for disrespecting Jonathan in the affairs of the country, but Senator Girei said, “The likes of Col. Dangiwa Umar and their pay masters cannot save him (Jonathan) and his cohort from paying for his sins sooner than later.”
Girei further added, “Having failed woefully, he has now turned round to blame local and international leaders who have seen through his foolery and decided to ditch him in the interest of Nigeria, their respective countries and humanity in general.
“GEJ and his cohorts should bury themselves in shame as the nation awaits their eventual prosecution and imprisonment.
“They must pay for their sins especially for the thousands of our people in the North East who lost their lives and over two million others displaced from their homes for more than five years now.
“GEJ said it without mincing words that he did not concede defeat to President Muhammadu Buhari for patriotic, nationalistic or even Godly reasons but purely because all the tactics and strategies employed by his clueless self and his greedy co-travellers could not work.
“These include the looting of our treasuries, imposition of state of emergencies, sponsorship of insurgency, militancy, armed banditry and many other forms of insecurity in almost all parts of Nigeria to enable him cling on to power by all means.
“I am compelled to respond to GEJ’s widely reported remarks in the papers today (yesterday).
“That the cat is now out of the bag is no news, what makes the news juicier is that former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan let the cat out of the bag by himself,” said Girei.
…I warned Jonathan against Northern conspiracy – David Mark
In his own part of the book, “Against the Run of Play: How an Incumbent President was defeated in Nigeria,” written by the Chairman of ThisDay Editorial Board, Olusegun Adeniyi, containing the Jonathan’s outburst, a former Nigeria’s Senate President, David Mark, also said that ex-President Goodluck Jonathan was too blind to see during the 2015 general elections.
Senator Mark said in the book that he warned Jonathan of the conspiracy against him in the North before he lost the 2015 presidential elections.
He said that he saw the defeat coming and had pointed out the unrealistic voting projections made by the party about the North to the former president and the conspiracy against him but he was not taken seriously.
David Mark, who himself is an influential member of the North, said, “I saw it and at different times, I pointed out to him and the party that the projections being made by some people around the president about what the voting pattern in the north would were wrong.
“I could see the conspiracy and the gang-up building up in the north against the aspiration of Jonathan but my voice was drowned out by those who took it for granted that a sitting president, and one from PDP, could not lose.
“Some people were deceiving the president with the kind of false scenarios they were painting for him. The VP could see the conspiracy but I don’t know how much influence he had on the campaign. Why Jonathan couldn’t see it until it was too late is what I find difficult to understand.”
Senator Girei said all of those defence paved to nothing as, according to him, none of the defence being mounted by either Jonathan or any of his cohorts, would save the former President “from paying for his sings sooner than later.”
…What Jonathan didn’t tell the world – Jega
In his own reply, former Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman Professor Attahiru Jega, has told the ex-President, Goodluck Jonathan, what he (Jonathan) failed to tell the world in the comments he made concerning the 2015 general elections.
Jonathan had said that Jega disappointed him by colluding with others in a conspiracy that upstaged and threw him out of the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, in Abuja.
Explaining how Jega did him a shocker, the former President said it was strange that the state recorded 1.8 million votes in the presidential poll and 800,000 in the National Assembly election on the same day.
But in reacting through his Special Assistant, Professor Mohammed Kuna, Jega disagreed with Jonathan’s belief that the wide margin between the presidential election and National Assembly results in Kano State was a reflection of a flawed election.
He dismissed Jonathan’s claims and insisted that the introduction of the card reader made it difficult to manipulate elections and inflate results.
“There is nothing particularly special about the Kano result; it is a general trend as many voters were more interested in the presidential election than in other elections. That was what happened across the country and you can go and do the tabulation.
“With the card reader, it is no longer possible to return results that are higher than the accredited voters. If you analyse the results nationally, you will discover the same trend.”
…Your defeat will of the people, USA replies Jonathan
Meanwhile, the United States of America has replied the former President, Goodluck Jonathan, insisting that President Muhammadu Buhari’s victory at the 2015 presidential election was the will of Nigerians.
The US Government stated this while responding to an allegation by Jonathan that former American President Barack Obama was responsible for his loss.
Jonathan accusing America to be part of the supposed conspiracy had said, “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 ships 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 in to the pressure from America.
“But weeks to the election, he had also joined the Americans in supporting the opposition against me.”
In response, US Embassy spokesman, Russel Brooks, said the country advocated a free and fair election.
“The US advocated a free, fair and transparent election. The election outcome was an expression of the will of the Nigerian people,” Brooks said.
