Okupe: Jonathan erred by not firing ‘biased’ Jega

Doyin Okupe, one of the media aides of former president, Goodluck Jonathan, on Sunday said Attahiru Jega, ex-chairman of the Independent National Electoral Committee (INEC), should not have been allowed to conduct the 2015 general election.

Okupe alleged that Jega showed signs of bias ahead of the election, describing Jonathan as a hero for preventing chaos in the country.

He was reacting to the statement of Raymond Dokpesi, chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rebranding conference, who said the PDP erred in fielding Jonathan.

“The impression created in the media recently that the candidacy of Goodluck Jonathan was an error is itself a grand fallacy which totally undermined the whole truth about the sanctity and correctness of the wisdom of the PDP national executive committee which made and ratified that decision,” he wrote on Facebook.

“All over the world, when an incumbent signifies intention for a second term, it is customary that the established machinery of the party wholly backs and gratifies such intentions.

“If any error was made, it was firstly the failure of the PDP administration to sack the unfair and compromised electoral officer who was allowed to conduct the election in spite of his obvious and profuse partisanship.

“The second error was the inexplicable acquiescence of the PDP government to the use of the infamous Card Reader which was skilfully manipulated to the disadvantage of the PDP presidential candidate.

“The third error of the PDP was to have fielded a good, God-fearing and patriotic man who in spite of his enormous power, the avalanche of deployable arsenal of war at his disposal, transformed himself to be the victim and refused to fight so that his countrymen may live and his nation survived. The situation in Burundi today is highly instructive.

“Certainly, history will treat Goodluck Jonathan as one of the greatest heroes of this generation of African leaders. Definitely not an error by any stretch of imagination.

“I speak today not as a spokesman for President Jonathan. An episode and a proud chapter of my life which has since come to a close; rather I speak as a student of history and a veritable stakeholder in the Nigerian project.”