The Presidency has disclosed that President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration worked assiduously to bend the electoral system in its bid to scuttle the victory of the President, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) during the 2015 presidential election.

The Presidency’s position was contained in a statement signed on Monday by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, titled, ‘Assent into law of the electoral act 2022: Landmark moment for the nation’.

The Presidency argued that Jonathan’s government tried everything within its power to leverage its 16 years incumbency in thwarting the outcome despite the margin of the overwhelming vote polled by Buhari during the election.

The presidency said, “It is easy to forget that the election of 2015 was the first time in the history of Nigeria that power peacefully changed hands at the ballot box. It was the first time any party or candidate not from the incumbent PDP had won a nationwide contest since the re-establishment of democracy.

“This came despite the then administration pulling every lever of its sixteen-year incumbency to bend the electoral system to its advantage.

“President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election by a 15 per cent and a 4 million vote margin in 2019 was therefore equally decisive: it was the first time a non-PDP administration had even been returned to office to a consecutive term.

“The last two contests represent the levelling of the political playing-field between long-time incumbents and long-time opposition by sheer force of citizens’ determination for change. Nigerians voted so decisively for the President and the APC, and the margins so significant that the result could not be in doubt.”


The Presidency, however, admitted that despite the victory, it was not a reason to ignore the fact there have been inadequacies in electoral law – and therefore electoral practice.

The evident inadequacies, the Presidency said, spurred the president to assent the Electoral Act 2022 after the back and forth on some controversial provisions of the bill.


The Presidency added that the assent underscores the perfect workings of a parliament and executive both driven by new energy to deliver change in Nigeria.

“This of course runs parallel to that which we witnessed in the past when self-interest overrode the nation and the fashioning of electoral acts.

“More than anything else, this law underscores the government’s commitment to ensuring free and fair elections, dignity of the citizens, opportunity, and justice to all political participants whether they are voters or candidates.

“This law furthers social empowerment and inclusion by limiting the influence of money on elections and raw power of incumbents to use to the disadvantage of opponents outside the political tent.

“It equally limits the thuggish practice of kingpins who scare voters and officials away, snatch ballot boxes to fill desired outcomes against the popular wish,” the Presidency said




https://punchng.com/jonathans-govt-tried-to-bend-electoral-system-against-buhari-presidency/

I dey come make I go check my stone wey dey inside pot fes

APC oh!!! My son calls them mid night criminals

Hardened criminals APC have the guts to mention Jonathan’s name!

Na thunder go fire dem

Is it not the same Jonathan that wailers and PDP Miscreants were saying has been given APC ticket last week?

blamingthedevil:
Is it not the same Jonathan that wailers and PDP Miscreants were saying has been given APC ticket last week?

Nothing is funny here zombie. APC and the dullard Buhari is using your brains (that's if u have any left in that skull)

Rubbish which one is rig again,you see why I hate chronic liars, they try to cover up a lie with another one. Something we know that was rigged as in it was crystal clear that APC rigged themselves into power. Please goan sit down

blamingthedevil:
Is it not the same Jonathan that wailers and PDP Miscreants were saying has been given APC ticket last week?

When all these APC big wigs start aligning with PDP because of grievances with APC, where will you hide your face? You will feel like a fool, right?

Atleast Dasuki and Orubebe can attest to that

What happened in 2015 was voting revolution


Unfortunately, there is no Nigerian alive that is as acceptable as Buhari because of the name he built for himself over the years, forget about the packaging, Buhari na big name

Suprisingly, the popularity did not translate to meeting our expectations in areas like

Insecurity
Fight against corruption
Nepotism
Economic stability, though revenue is low but a good manager knows how to use meagre resources to achieve great things.


With Tinubu on ballot paper ,my PVC will only be used for bank and other transactions for identifications

How can someone rig election and still lost it?

Answer: Only if over-rigged by opponent.

Lol

Garba Sheu is another big problem of this country, always talking nonsense.

Since Buhari had become the President, are Nigerians not worse off than the level they were prior to the coming of this disaster of a government ?

In fact, NDLEA need to start beaming their searchlights on some of this government officials, I suspect they’re secretly indulging in some banned substances