President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan Wednesday in Abuja reiterated his total
commitment to ensuring peaceful, free, fair and credible elections in
Nigeria on Saturday and April 11.
Speaking at an audience with a delegation of the National Committee on
Peaceful Elections led by former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar,
President Jonathan urged all political parties, their candidates and
supporters to approach the elections with more patriotism and a greater
willingness to place the larger interest of the country above personal
ambitions.
The President said that the Federal Government had worked very hard over
the years to promote strong democratic institutions that will sustain the
country’s democracy and will not tolerate any form of violence during or
after the polls that could reverse the gains of the present democratic
dispensation in the country.
“My cardinal principle has always been, and still remains that the
ambition of any Nigerian is not worth the blood of any body. I am not a
violent person and I don’t tolerate violence in any form. I don’t believe
that violence can be used to achieve anything meaningful in life.
“I am giving my total commitment to peaceful elections in the country, not
because I am persuaded to do so, but because I believe in it,’’ President
Jonathan said.
The President called on religious and political leaders, community heads
and other senior citizens in the country to be vociferous in condemning
incidences of electoral violence in the country, such as the stoning of
opponents.
President Jonathan also said that he would be quite willing to meet and
sign another peace accord with the Presidential Candidate of the All
Progress Congress (APC), Gen. Muhammadu Buhari to further emphasize his
total commitment to a violence-free poll on Saturday.
The Chairman of the National Committee on Peaceful Elections, Gen.
Abubakar commended the President for his consistency in insisting on
peaceful, free and fair elections in the country at all levels.
Other members of the delegation were Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe (rtd.),
Cardinal John Onaiyekan, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar,
Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah, Prof. Zainab Alkali, Sam Amuka-Pem, Mrs.
Priscilla Kuye and Justice Rose Ukeje.
At another meeting with a group of international election monitors,
President Jonathan gave an assurance the coming elections will not
generate the type of violence that followed the 2011 elections.
The international observers were from the African Union Group led by Dr.
Amos Sawyer, the Commonwealth Group led by Dr. Bakili Muluzi, the European
Parliament and the Republican Institute.