“Deception sells primarily because some people buy it. Unexpectedly, Nigerians, who inhabit the country known for its own share of deceptive people, are some of the most deceived people. Otherwise, how could Nigerians believe that President Goodluck Jonathan courteously conceded the presidential election to the victor, General Muhammadu Buhari? For those who were not privy to the behind-the-door mischiefs that took place in the country, President Jonathan and his People’s Democratic Party, PDP, didn’t concede graciously. They didn’t empty the nation’s treasury on an election they thought they would concede. They didn’t downgrade naira and bribed with dollars with the intention of losing and surrendering.

The president and the ruling party rejected the electronic voter card readers, in order to manipulate the election. They had plans B, C, and possibly more, in case Plan A (to win the election) failed. Among others, they planned to replace Professor Attahiru Jega, the inviolable chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, with a pliable individual. They thought of an interim government if they failed. They even considered the treasonable option of handing over to the military, to spite Buhari. Remember the loquacious twosome named Doyin Okupe and Femi Fani-Kayode, the loose cannons who spoke for the president? ‘Mark my words,’ they boasted, while telling the world that Buhari would never rule Nigeria.

Supposing the ‘amiable’ Jonathan planned to concede, the questionable characters around him, Bode George, Edwin Clark, Doyin Okupe, Femi Fani-Kayode, Ayo Oritsejafor, Buruji Kashamu, Ayo Fayose, and more, didn’t intend to. The world agonized as Godsday Orubebe, one of the president’s men, humiliated his family historically by throwing impulsive tantrums on national TV, because INEC won’t allow his party to hold power forever. On discovering that Nigerians and the world won’t buy the questionable options left on his desk, Jonathan buckled for lack of enhanced alternatives. The president knew there won’t be a game of snowball-in-hell (for him and his group,) if Nigeria should experience the Tunisian, Libyan, or Egyptian experience.

President Jonathan capitulated for three crucial reasons: (1) The results of the election indicated that Nigerians wanted him out. (2) The United States and the UK had warned Jonathan and his party not to subject Africa’s most populous nation to avoidable violence. Turning deaf-ears to those warnings would have amounted to Jonathan and PDP beaching themselves on the desolate coasts of inauspicious world powers. (3) The International Criminal Court in the Hague had been sending signals that it would prosecute whoever initiated violence in Nigeria. I appreciate the fact that President Jonathan bowed out somehow, but I DON’T appreciate giving more credit to a man than he deserves.

I have some words for those who are talking about ‘forgiving’ the ruling party and moving on. There is a difference between holding people accountable and not forgiving them. If God didn’t believe in the concept of accountability, the scriptures would have lied about heaven for some and hell for others. Pardoning so soon and not holding those who sustained corruption, nepotism, sectionalism, incompetence, and religious chauvinism in Nigeria would be a huge disservice to the multitudes of Nigerians who have lost their lives, as a result of PDP’s one-and-a-half decades of all-you-can-steal buffet. The incoming government SHOULD give justice to those defenseless Nigerians, who paid the supreme price due to the unethical commissions or omissions of the past regime.” –

Source:  OsunDefender