2015: The Military Is Not Cooperative Enough—Jega

The chairman of Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Attahiru Jega, is reported to be preparing to tell today’s Council of State meeting that the INEC is 100% ready for the February 14 elections.

Prof Attahiru Jega

Sahara Reporters’ sources close to the INEC said that Jega will brief the council on a few outstanding minor logistical issues which he believes the commission will be able to take care of next week.
Sahara Reporters further report that Jega claimed to be mainly worried about one issue ahead of the elections: the inability of the military to cooperate and to hold meetings which will define the role the armed forces will play during the election process.

The source close to the commission reportedly claimed that the military’s uncooperative attitude arose from a master plan by President Goodluck Jonathan and his supporters to frustrate the elections and allow them to be postponed.

Sahara Reporters claim to have disclosed as far back as October 2014, Jonathan was less interested in the elections than in the elongation of his tenure.
Jonathan has called a Council of State meeting to be held in Abuja today, February 5,  and sources claim that the main aim of the meeting is persuade former Nigerian leaders, some state governors and opposition figures to agree to the idea of postponing the elections for at least two months. The president’s main argument, according to those familiar with the scheme, is that the INEC is ill-prepared to hold elections on February 14.

One source told Sahara Reporters that Jonathan had the full support of the former military dictator, Ibrahim Babangida for the postponement of the elections. Babangida was responsible for the annulment of probably the freest and fairest election ever in Nigeria, the June 12, 1993, presidential poll.
Meanwhile, a source told news outlets that former president Olusegun Obasanjo plans to shun tomorrow’s meeting of the Council of State.

Sahara Reporters was unable to find out if Muhammed Buhari, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), plans to attend the council meeting. An aide of Buhari’s said he would lead opposition governors to the council in order to fight against any postponement.

The report pointed out that if Jonathan succeeds in postponing the election by two months, Jega would be approximately one month away from the end of his tenure as chairman. By sending Jega on a terminal leave, Jonathan would have time to call upon a new INEC chairman of his choice.

Sahara Reporters in their report claim that Jonathan “doesn’t have any interest in conducting elections. Instead he is interested in pushing for a two-year Interim Government of National Unity to be headed by him. His aides are supposed to meet with the National Leader of the APC, Bola Tinubu to offer him a position as the VP slot on the IGNU.”

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