Jonathan Says He Nearly Stopped 2015 Election Over Card Reader Failures, Death Threats

Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has revealed that he considered postponing the 2015 general elections due to widespread failures of the INEC card reader system.

In a recent interview, Jonathan disclosed that the device rejected him, his wife, and his mother at their polling unit.

“In 2015, the INEC card reader rejected many voters in the South, including me and my wife, causing frustration. Meanwhile in the North, instructions allowed everyone to vote without accreditation. So you really see something not quite right. I could have stopped the election,” he said.

He described the atmosphere at the time as extremely tense, citing North-South and Christian-Muslim divisions, alongside persistent rumors of a coup and threats to his life.

“If anybody wants to kill me, it’s better you kill me in the State House so Nigerians will know that they assassinated me there. I had not committed any offense,” Jonathan stated.

He explained that he refused to stay in a guest house for safety reasons, fearing that any attack outside the State House could be misrepresented.

“If I decided to go and stay in a guest house and wherever I’m going, security people would know. And if people go and kill me there, they will now say Indian girls brought apples to kill me. And I wouldn’t want those kind of stories,” he added.