Conduct perfect elections in 2015 or resign - Tinubu tells Jega

A former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, said on Thursday that the Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Atahiru Jega, should resign if he could not guarantee perfect elections in 2015.

Tinubu, who was reacting to a statement credited to Jega that Nigerians should not expect perfect elections in 2015, spoke with journalists in Lagos.

He spoke after the All Progressives Congress membership registration sensitisation meeting held at the party's secretariat in Lagos.

Tinubu said with such comment, 'Jega is already admitting failure and laying foundation for failure.

'If he can't do the job, let him quit. What do we pay him for? A perfect election makes a perfect society. We must strive to give the people what they want.

'It has to be a perfect election in 2015; it has to be 99.9 percent perfect. If he wants to lecture again about perfect and imperfection of electoral process, let him go back to the university.'

He said INEC and the country at large ought to have learnt their lessons from the past elections in the country.

The National Leader of the APC also criticised the constant overseas trips of the INEC boss, arguing that there were enough electoral lessons to learn from in Nigeria.

'Jega is presently moving from one country to the other. Is he saying that he has not learnt enough from this country to give us a perfect election?

'He is in America now, gallivanting around the countries. Is it the estacodes of his speeches that is enough for us? If he has not learnt from these countries in the last few years, then we can excuse him,' he said.

On the series of defection of members of the Peoples Democratic Party to the APC in the National Assembly, Tinubu submitted that the lawmakers had the right to chose their alliance as it suits the mandate given to them by the people.