A Professor of history and strategic studies, Nkem Onyekpe, has advanced reasons why former President Goodluck Jonathan would have questioned and even annulled the historic presidential election of 2015.
According to The Guardian, Onyekpe argued that Jonathan, who was a sitting president had valid grounds upon which he could have predicted an objection to the process and outcome of the election, which both local and international communities, described as a major test to the country’s fledgling democracy.
In a lecture titled: “The Anioma nation and democratic consolidation in Delta State,” the University of Lagos Professor predicated his first argument on the suspicious creation of more polling centres in the northern part of the country without a commensurate establishment of such additional centres in the south.
He maintained that when it was clear that voter cards were not available for many registered voters in the strongholds of Jonathan in the South South and South East geopolitical zones and “when the card reader severally rejected him, his wife and his mother, the ex-president could have taken actions that would have jeopardized the electoral process.
Onyekpe, who spoke at Ejeme-Aniogor; Aniocha South Local Government Area of Delta State, during the fourth biennial public lecture/grand civic reception in honour of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa at the weekend, averred that Jonathan could have sounded the alarm when it became “obvious that while the ‘educationally backward’ or ‘less developed’ states of the North did not have or had only few voided votes, the ‘educational highly developed’ states of the South had many voided votes.”
Onyekpe insisted that Jonathan could have towed the ignoble path of annulling the 2015 presidential polls, ‘when his supporters cried foul at the management of the presidential election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)” and other agencies involved in the contest.
The professor said Jonathan was not an opportunist and, therefore, refused to explore the advantage of his incumbency to the detriment of the entire country.
“He did not tear his voter’s card! Instead, he pleaded with the entire nation for understanding and cooperation with the INEC. He avoided the Machiavellian path and chose instead, the path of peace and honour.’’
He called on leaders in the country to “imbibe the exemplary transcendental pacificist spirit and attitude of Goodluck Jonathan,” adding that Jonathan’s action should serve as a timely lesson for all leaders.
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