President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday defended the heavy deployment of soldiers for the just-concluded Osun gubernatorial poll, saying the trend would continue in the 2015 general elections.
The president, who spoke yesterday during Inter-faith Conference in Abuja on the theme: “The imperative of interfaith understanding and cooperation for responsible politics,” also assured that the general polls next year would not divide the country, as wrongly suggested by some persons.
Urging Nigerians to disregard predictions of anarchy in 2015, the nation’s leader said: “Our challenges in the present must not be allowed to inhibit our progress.”
He lamented that as the 2015 elections draw near, “the doomsday sayers are out and predicting how Nigeria is going to catch fire next year. In the opinion of some so-called experts, our ethnic and religious differences are bound to boil over. They portray us doomed to fail.”
“But I can say categorically that Nigeria will not disintegrate; we will not fail. We will surely get over our challenges and become even a stronger nation.”
Jonathan blamed the Internet and the social media for aggravating the fear of many Nigerians towards 2015, saying: “You will be attempted to think along the same line. In a country of over 170 million people, the opinion of very few is now being elevated above that of over 100 million Nigerians.
“I once again assure Nigerians and the international community that the 2015 elections will come and go and Nigeria will stand stronger. The Nigerians I know and interact with every day are only asking for one thing in the election, transparency, free and fair conduct, and I have promised them.”
He added: “They want to vote and want their votes to count; they don’t want to be molested, they don’t want ballot boxes to be hijacked by criminals. If they are convinced that the process is free, fair and credible, they have no reason to be angry. Nobody can fight against one man one vote, one woman one vote, one youth one vote, and government will make sure that Nigerians are not killed during and after elections.
Expressing disappointment at the opposition to troops deployment by the All Progressives Congress, APC, and the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, the president said their position shock him.
“I am surprised that some political parties are agitating that government should withdraw security during and after elections. What surprises me most is that even some labour leaders are agitating that government should not secure people during elections. And I wonder how short human memories are.
“We’ve just finished 2011 elections and we are talking about three years ago or quite close to four years ago and we know what happened in Bauchi. About 10 youth corpers were slaughtered in that election. We know what happened in Kano; property worth millions of naira were destroyed, some of the people have not gotten back to their houses.”
“We know what happened in Akwa Ibom where some criminals even had to severe the genitals of some men in the name of politics. Demons who want to hold political office. In that kind of situation, how would a person who called himself a labour leader come out publicly to say government should not secure people. I don’t agree with them. My promise of free and fair elections is clear.
Continuing, Jonathan insisted that all the governorship elections that had been conducted were free and fair.
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