Former President Goodluck Jonathan threw what looks like a bombshell in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital, on Thursday when he said that those claiming to win elections were not actually voted in by the people but use different methods to get into office.
Jonathan it was who conceded victory to President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 and for the first congratulated the winner of a presidential election as an incumbent.
Speaking at the presentation of a book, In the Cause of Service, the memoir of Gabriel Tamuno George Toby (GTB Toby), the former president said the notion that good men get into office and change was not true, saying Nigerians do not actually know very well those that get into office.
He also dazed the Atlantic Hall of the Hotel Presidential that was filled to the brim with top leaders in the oil region when he said good men do not have any chance of getting into positions because votes do not matter in the face of guns and manipulations.
Offering a way out, Jonathan called for urgent introduction of electronic voting (e-voting) to allow people vote in men and women of their choice and reduce the use of thugs and guns.
“The assumption is that every politician is useless. Perhaps, political scientists should interrogate this concept. The question should be: do good men change when they get into office? No, I don’t think so. We vote in people we do not know. But we don’t really vote people in, they use different methods to get in,” Jonathan said.
“The solution is for us to go e-voting. If people can move billions of naira by e-transfers, then voting can safely and conveniently be done by e-voting. For now, we use dogs as thugs while we send our own children abroad,” he said.
Jonathan said e-voting would bring out at least 25 percent of good leaders, men of integrity and discipline, into office and the likes of Gabriel Toby would be in position of leadership. He said not all politicians are bad.
“When we begin to use e-voting, and when our votes begin to count, thuggery will end and use of guns will end. Those who get in with thugs only think of buying more piles of guns, but when good men come in, guns will reduce and governance will come. The likes of Toby will then have a chance,” he said.
“I enjoyed the panel discussion by young people and what they said about politicians. It shows that people now know what is right. Whatever the case, good name is still far better than piles of money,” he further said.
Jonathan decried what he said is happening in his home state at the election racing closer, saying, “See Bayelsa right now. Signals are quite disturbing; killings, thuggery even when we have not started voting.”
Many speakers praised Toby and used words such as integrity, discipline, due process, etc, to describe his life as a long-serving civil servant, deputy governor, Rotarian, and knight.
