President Goodluck Jonathan is dismissing insinuations being made that he will not accept defeat if he loses the 2015 presidential elections.
He addressed the issue during a media chat held in Abuja on Wednesday, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.read his statement after the cut.....
“In 2011, I said that I will conduct a free and fair elections and if I lose I will happily go home and it should be recorded. As of that time no African sitting president had lost an election, but within this period a number of African sitting Presidents had lost elections.The President said a lot of misinformation was being circulated by the media about the 2015 elections and urged Nigerians to shun such propaganda for the progress of the country.
But, I said that I wanted to create history to be the first African President that will lose election. But, let the world know that the election was a free and fair.Then, I just concluded the late President’s tenure; I was just a President for about a year, acting for some months then.
But, I said that I will be happy to go home. That this nation is more important than any human being and I still maintain.Anybody who wants to hold this office of the president or any office at all and feels that he is more important than the nation, then, he it is not quite right.
So, if as of that time I said that I was ready to conduct a free and fair election and if I lose I will go not to talk about now that Nigerians had given me the opportunity to be here for four full years.
So if the elections are conducted and I lose, of course, I will inaugurate a new government. There is no way I will say if I lose I will not hand over,” he said
He reassured Nigerians and the international community that the 2015 general elections would be conducted as planned by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
On the ongoing fight against Boko Haram, the President disclosed that the joint multi-national force, including the Nigerian military had intensified efforts to liberate all areas captured by the insurgents.
He said the Nigerian Army had taken delivery of new military hardware that would help it in its crusade against the insurgents.
