PR E S I D E N T Goodluck Jonathan has been advised to beware of the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega as he may have been compromised in the discharged of his constitutional duty as unbiased umpire in the country’s electoral process.
In a no-holds-barred interview with journalists in Abuja, weekend, the coordinator of the Northern Emancipation Network, NEN, Abdulazeez Suleiman, also declared that given the extensive work his group has done on the nation’s politics and political process, the network can say without mincing words that former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, will not return to the ruling party, PDP even as he underscored why newly registered political party, All Progressives Congress, APC will not endure.
According to Suleiman, whose group has the Arewa Youth Development Foundation and Northern Youths Council as affiliates, Jega has been so compromised that he cannot be trusted to conduct the next general elections.
He said the INEC boss is in a hurry to pacify the North if he must be relevant after his service to the nation.
“Jega had credibility before 2011 with northerners. Many northerners were deceived into thinking that because he is the INEC chairman, the north will definitely win, especially the crowd that was going for Buhari.
“So, the entire North minus the elite, kicked against. The swiftness by which APC was registered took everybody by surprise even when another
APC was going to court. I assure you the same Jega will register Voice of the People to massage the ego of the northern political establishment,” Suleiman said.
He added: “Of course he has, as I told you, psychologically and physically lost every iota of credibility. So, he will do everything to reclaim his credibility. I gave example of the haste with which the People’s Democratic Movement, PDM was registered and why there is no noise about the Voice of the People, at least we would have heard of INEC rejecting the application, but he collected it silently and registered it,” he said.
Suleiman added that given the amount of information available to his Network, the INEC boss should be sacked.
Hear him: “If I were President Jonathan, I would not have allowed Jega to go beyond 2011. As the results were announced I would have sacked him and brought in somebody, who is loyal to me, that is politics.
“He appointed Jega not because of competence or loyalty, but just to assuage the North, so after serving this purpose remove him, Image may be NSFW.
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that is politics. We do not know the game Jega is planning, but it can eat up the President if he allows Jega to remain.”
On Atiku, the NEN coordinator said the former vice president’s undying ambition to rule Nigeria is the driving force behind his rebellion against the PDP.
He added that this time, he does not see Atiku returning to the ruling party since he would not achieve his ambition there. Instead, he said the Turakin Adamawa would run against Jonathan on the platform of his Peoples Democratic Movement, PDM; but would fail because the North he relies on will not vote for him.
“Now, instead of him to just move out, to his PDM he has to cause commotion. The mainstream PDP would be looking at cracks in the party but that is not the end of it. Despite the reconciliation effort, Atiku is not going back…. Atiku will eventually move to PDM…. they have no room in the APC this is where Jega comes in. I mentioned it earlier in an article that this Jega … is becoming a wounded wild dog,” the NEN boss further said.
On the APC, he said the merger would not last long, going by the conflicting agenda of the respective member-parties.