Exclusive: Nigerians should Be Ready, Elections Will Now Hold in June. By Hon Idibie Stephen

I have long forecasted that President Jonathan Would rather see Nigeria break up than accept to be the first incumbent to be defeated by an opposition candidate. Gradually, my predictions are coming to fruition.

After INEC released the timetable of political events for 2015 general elections, I told a friend in 2014 that with the situation of things in the country, elections are unlikely to be held in February, 2015. This prediction came to pass on the 7th of February, 2015 after INEC bowed to pressure from the presidency, through its mercenaries, to fix March 28 and April 11 for the presidential and governorship elections respectively.

Reacting to the latest twist, I said that I was not surprised by the announcement considering the fact that I had been nursing that notion that elections were unlikely going to be held in February, 2015. This new development has no led to further possible implications and made me reflect again into making further predictions.

First, I make bold to mention at this juncture that elections, whether Presidential or gubernatorial, will not hold in March and April respectively. In fact, the signs are becoming increasingly clear that president Jonathan is not ready to conduct any election as an incumbent president.

Secondly, to logically and systematically actualize their plans, the presidency will be sending Prof Jega on a compulsory three months leave beginning from the 1st of March, 2015. Sending Jega on a compulsory leave is not something new; during the peak of the controversy between a former governor of the CBN, Sanusi and the presidency, it would be recalled that Sanusi was sent on a compulsory three months leave.

It is important to note here that Prof Jega would have not option other than to obey orders when sent on a compulsory leave. With Jega being asked to proceed on a compulsory three months leave, the presidency will move to install their on candidate as Chairman of INEC; this is to ensure that everything humanly possible is done to return the president to Aso Rock. This leads us to the third point.

Thirdly, three possible candidates are in the horizon: Prof Maurice Iwu may be brought back to conduct the elections, Governor Mimiko is also another likely candidate to take over from Jega, with the third being a relatively unknown Academician from the South Western region of the country.

With a new INEC chairman taking over from Jega, it becomes increasingly unlikely that the March 28, 2015 presidential will be feasible. Every new INEC chairman needs at least two weeks to be given orientation and be acquainted with the do's and don'ts of the INEC job. Based on these calculations, it is impossible for the march 28 date already fixed by INEC for the presidential election to hold. The next question now would be: when would elections no take place? This leads us to the fourth point.

With May 29, 2015 handover of the current regime in sight, the presidency would make a move to institute an interim Military transition government that will conduct the 2015 general elections. Let us not forget that on February 3rd, 2015 a statement was attributed to Reuben Abati which states: "President Jonathan would rather handover power to a military interim transition government than see Buhari become the president of Nigeria.

Thus, for those people already looking forward to March 28, 2015 presidential election day, I will suggest you go about your normal day-to-day activities and worry less about the general elections. Just as Nigerians are already disappointed with the shift of the February 14, 2015 presidential election, equally more Nigerians will find it hard to understand and make meaning from the constant twist in the Nigerian Polity.

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Writer: Honourable Stephen Idibie wrote in from the South South Geo-political Zone

Opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.

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