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President Jonathan in a group photo
with leaders of International Election Observer Groups, State House, Wed. (Image
source: Twitter @abati1990)
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President
Goodluck Jonathan yesterday told a group of international election monitors
that he was not interested in who wins Saturday’s presidential election or
whether he continues in office, saying his major concern was that the 2015
elections are acceptable to both Nigerians and the international community.
He
assured them the elections will not only be free and fair, but that they would
also not generate the type of violence that followed the 2011 elections.
GRAPHITTI NEWS based on Leadership Newspaper filing reports:
Jonathan
spoke in Aso Rock when he met international observers from the African Union
Group led by Dr. Amos Sawyer, the Commonwealth Group led by Dr Bakili Muluzi,
the European Parliament and the Republican Institute.
He
said: “I’m a candidate but I’m more interested in peaceful elections than who
emerges as the next president of Nigeria. I want a situation where the whole
world should respect our electoral process. I will feel diminished if, at the
end of the day, the international observers don’t accept the process, the
result.
“Luckily
in Nigeria, unlike other countries where presidents stay for a very long time,
here you can’t say more than eight years. So, the issue is not that President
Jonathan must continue in office but that our electoral process must be
accepted by Nigerians and by the international community.”
Jonathan
recalled the post-election violence of 2011 and pledged that such will not
reoccur this time around, “because government has ensured that those kinds of
scenarios don’t repeat themselves.”
“I
just finished conversation with Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar’s group and I assured
them that elections will be free and fair; they will be credible.
“The
electoral body, INEC, is working very hard and I believe that they will handle
things in a way that both the candidates and electorate will conduct themselves
well.”
Jonathan
said he was not bothered whether he wins or loses the election.
“Those
who are close to me know that my interest is more about the country than about
me. I’m not apprehensive at all as to whether I will win the election. I have
worked very hard to win the election; my party is working very hard for me to
win the election. Political process is not an individual business because it is
actually the party that is presenting you, but as a sitting president I’m more
interested in the nation”, he stated.
He
further explained that the postponement of the elections was in the best
interest of the country because there would have been crises had the poll gone
on February 14.
He
said, “If elections were held on February 14 I believe there would have been
problems in this country because the tensions were quite high, the security
challenges were quite enormous, and the best thing that happened to this
country was the rescheduling of the elections. The rescheduling of the
elections was not to give anybody advantage because it is the same Nigerians
that are to vote – we are not importing new people.”
Earlier,
Amos Sawyer of the African Union had told the president that Nigeria was
important to West Africa and Africa as a whole, adding that peaceful and
credible elections were necessary to deepen democracy in Nigeria for the
benefit of the entire region.
Also
speaking, Dr Baliki Munuzi of the International Democratic Institute
representing the Commonwealth said this was a very important time and period
for Nigeria because of the importance of Nigeria in a global field.
Mahamadu Danda and Anna
Roberts from the European Union told Jonathan that they were in the country to
observe the elections and to witness, in an impartial and neutral manner, the
execution of the electoral process in Nigeria.
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