Democracy would have collapsed in 2015 if Jega had caved in

Mr Garba Shehu has shared his thoughts on the 2015 Presidential election in which President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC), unseated Dr. Goodluck Jonathan of the People’s Democratic Party.

Appearing on a special end of the year programme ‘2019 End Of A Decade’ on Channels Television, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity said he believed democracy would have ended if Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega had caved in to the pressure of denying President Buhari victory.

He said;

“We thank God for Jega and the civil society activism at that time because if Jega had caved in, this democracy would have collapsed at that time.
“So, it is an interesting time that we had lived through and then, it tells a story of the resilience of our democracy and that we shouldn’t just toy with it. It didn’t come cheap, it didn’t come easy.”

Commenting on APC’s expection of Jega before the announcement of results, Shehu said the party officials monitored the election exercise closely. He also alleged that there were moves by the ruling party at that time to seize power.

He said;

“For us in the situation room at that time, it was an attempt to grab power or to hold on to power by regime elements or beneficiaries of the system who saw defeat staring them in the face.
“Before those results got to the INEC chairman and he announced them, you are aware that parties had representatives at the lowest of the point; the polling units and the local councils, and the states.
“They did a collation of their own and they had a sense of how or which direction things were going. So, it was obvious to those regime elements at that time that the regime was falling”