Politicians will behave well when we reject bad behaviour — Former President Goodluck Jonathan

•Jonathan

…faults deployment of military for elections

Former President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday said when Nigerians reject bad behaviour, the political class will behave normally.

Speaking at the public presentation of a book by a former Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, in Abuja, Jon­athan stated that the political class would adapt once society starts demanding that the right things be done, reports Daily Independent.

He said, “We, Nigerians, celebrate the wrong thing. And I believe one day, the country will get to the level where peo­ple will reject bad behaviour. And when we get to the level that we reject bad behaviour, this issue will not happen again.

“I believe one day, we Nigeri­ans will say we no longer accept the wrong thing. And the day we all collectively say we no longer accept the wrong thing, we, the political class, will behave nor­mally. People must reject us if we behave wrongly.”

Jonathan expressed hope that Nigeria would evolve to a point where bad political behaviour is universally rejected.

“Maybe one day, we will have two big buildings in Abuja where we will put pictures of people— whether dead or alive—who have messed up this country so that their grandchildren will know their forefathers were part of Ni­geria’s problems,” he stated.

Jonathan criticised the de­ployment of military personnel for election duties in Nigeria, saying that it overstretched the military.

He said that elections should be primarily managed by the po­lice and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

According to him, in most other countries, the Air Force and Army are used to transport election materials to dangerous areas, and not providing securi­ty at polling units as done in the country.

Jonathan said, “Having been the president of this country be­fore, when you talk about internal security, it’s an area that touches my heart. And especially when you talk about election security, again, it’s an area that touches my heart. One gets worried when it comes to Nigerian elections.

“In fact, here we overstretch the Army. In most other coun­tries, the military doesn’t get involved in the day-to-day man­agement of elections.

“Some countries use them to manage strategic systems, such as transporting election materi­als to dangerous areas. But man­ning polling booths and staying around polling stations—military personnel are never used for such duties.”

Jonathan cited examples from Botswana and Senegal, where elections are conducted with minimal security interference, allowing the electorate to vote without intimidation.

He noted that in Botswana, police officers manage election security while the military se­cures government facilities, and in Senegal, polling stations are run by electoral officials with po­lice stationed outside, intervening only when necessary.

He said, “I just came back from Botswana some months back during the election. It’s a very small country with a small pop­ulation, so almost all the police officers were used for the election.

“What the military does is that those regular duties that the po­lice officers were doing, including securing the police headquarters, the military took over… So the military high command posted military officers to secure gov­ernment assets and facilities.

“That’s what they do. And you don’t hear stories. Go to a country like Senegal, which is a West Afri­can country, their election last year.

“We talk about technology, technology, and still, with the technology, we have problems. And I said that they use the sim­plest form of voting. There was a table there.

“They put the ballot box for ev­ery candidate. And you, the voter, you go and you just go and pick. Of course, you must pick from all the candidates. They just put a long table. Every candidate has his ballot papers put there.

“You don’t see any police. The electoral management officers, polling agents and so on were just sitting there and watching. The police were outside because they used secondary schools and pri­mary schools as polling stations.

“Then, each of the classrooms has different polling units. So the police stay here. If there is an issue, they will call them in. Oth­erwise, you don’t see police wher­ever you go. And that is a standard in so many countries. But here, we fully do the wrong thing.”