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An indication emerged Tuesday that the general election postponed to March 28 and April 11 may not hold after all because President Goodluck Jonathan is planning a two-year tenure extension.
The position was held by Sen. Babafemi Ojudu representing Ekiti Central Senatorial District at a social discourse organized by the Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) at the University of Ibadan. The programme was organized in honour of former governor of Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi, who turned 50 years old on Monday.
According to Sen. Ojudu, President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration is not willing to organize any election this time because it was planning tenure elongation.
His words:
“We are about entering into a very long night in Nigeria. It is a very sad thing that whenever we thought we have made a progress, we take 10 steps backward. This is what is happening now.
“If anybody thinks there is going to be elections on March 28, the person is deceiving himself. All the people that are close to me, especially my friends, I told them a year ago that there would not be election and that they are just deceiving us.
“Some of us who are perceptive have seen this in the body language of our colleagues (lawmakers); the body language of the Senate President himself, David Mark. When we came back from the summer recess last year, he said that for him, it’s not time for election. We should not be thinking of elections now, rather we should be thinking of fighting Boko Haram. The moment we took him up on that, he reversed himself.“There are conscious attempts at lobbying some of us to work against having elections. Therefore, where they have got to now is the preliminary stage. We will resume next week Tuesday. I can assure you, they may likely bring a motion asking us to adjourn or postpone the elections for six months because there is an ongoing war. The constitution allows this.“The constitution states that where and when there is a war in any corner of the country, the president can bring a motion to the National Assembly to postpone the elections for six months in the first instance and this can be passed by just a simple majority.“If you think at this time they may not get simple majority, you may be wrong. This is because 80 per cent of the senators and House of Representatives members are not returning, not out of choice. Perhaps, I am the only person who is not returning out of choice in the entire National Assembly. All others attempted but they did not make it.
“This may surprise you, we are all broke. If they say we want to give you two more years as it is being quietly requested by Jonathan, virtually everybody will vote for that. Talking about two years, Jonathan has been pleading that they should allow him to do two more years because if we have an election and a northern Muslim becomes the winner, there may be problems in the Niger Delta. If you have him win over a northerner, there will be problem in the north.
“Therefore, the solution is for him to do two more years and at the end of the two more years, then you can have northern-northern and Muslim-Muslim candidates. That is their logic and that is what they are working towards. Left to us, they know it shall not pass. We must have to start crying out now and be strategic in our planning.”