It’s obvious to even the least politically inclined person that the elections of March 2015 will be one of Nigeria’s most closely fought elections in recent times.
Although there are as many as twelve candidates contesting the Presidential elections, the real race is between the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan and a former Military head of State Maj. Gen Muhammadu Buhari.
The All Progressives Congress, a merger of several political parties has ensured that for the first time in 16 years, the ruling party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has a war on their hands.
President Goodluck Jonathan was on the news station Al-Jazeera and answered a couple of questions. Asked if the military stepped up operations because of the elections, he responded, “It’s out of ignorance”.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the interview is where he was asked “So, you’re not worried about losing the elections?”, his emphatic reply was “I will not lose the elections”.
He also refuted rumors that he intends to sack the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Professor Attahiru Jega. Just this week, reports in certain section of the media claimed that he had compiled a shortlist of Jega’s possible successors. “Except someone is insinuating the INEC Chairman has done something wrong….I have never discussed with anyone on earth about changing the INEC Chairman” He said.
President Goodluck Jonathan has faced allegations of being soft on corruption, however, he insisted in his interview that corruption is being blown out of proportion in Nigeria; He responded to the allegations; “Even if you look at the corruption perception index, yes people talk about corruption now because it becomes a political issue, and when you promote something to the level of politics, of course normally its blown out of proportion”
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