Former President Goodluck Jonathan has revealed that he could have stopped the 2015 general elections after repeated failures with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) card reader system.
The former president made the disclosure during an interview on Thursday, recalling the tense atmosphere during the polls.
Jonathan said the card reader rejected him, his wife, and his mother at their polling unit.“In 2015, the INEC card reader rejected many voters in the South, including me and my wife, causing frustration.“Meanwhile in the North, instructions allowed everyone to vote without accreditation. So you really see something not quite right.“I could have stopped the election,” he stated.
He described the situation as highly tense, noting the North-South and Christian-Muslim divides at the time. Jonathan added that there were daily rumors of a coup and that his life had been under threat.
“If anybody wants to kill me, it’s better you kill me in the State House so Nigerians will know that they assassinated me there. I had not committed any offense,” he said.
The former president also revealed that he refused to stay in a guest house for safety. “If I decided to go and stay in a guest house and wherever I’m going, security people would know and if people go and kill me there, they will now say Indian girls brought apples to kill me and I wouldn’t want those kinds of stories,” Jonathan explained.Reflecting on the ordeal, he emphasized the challenges of managing a divided nation during elections.
“It was a difficult time for Nigeria, with political tension and security threats affecting the entire electoral process,” Jonathan noted.
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