President Muhammadu Buhari in his ‘Special Remark’ commented on the Orubebe saga, for the first time since the 2015 Presidential Election.
The President had jokingly queried the organizers of the event for not inviting Orubebe.
“Here I must digress to raise an observation by the programme organizers because I did not see Mr. Orubebe who ought to have come and listen to professor Jega deliver his lecture, this is a major observation. That instance for those of us who were lucky that there was light and we had the television to see the confrontation between Orubebe and Prof Jega, it will remain a life impression to many of us.
“The other one is the Prof Jega briefing to the government, the opposition and the military before the date of the election was finally agreed on. Prof Jega as a professor, it was not surprising briefed us of his activities between 2011 and 2015, the recruitment, equipping and training of INEC officials, that gave us those of us who are lucky to get the report the courage that nothing outside the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria would be accepted by the opposition.
“So the question of an interim administration or postponing election for more than 90 days shouldn’t be on the table and I thank personally the United States government then under President Obama by sending John Kerry to read the riot act to the government and to us the opposition then that nothing other than a free and fair election will be acceptable,” Buhari said.
The President said that a government elected by the people, must continually be in touch with their aspirations and work for their highest possible good.
He said, “We have experienced rough times, but through good governance we have not allowed ourselves to be overawed by the existing of challenges. Weak governance is often at the core of rising inequality and unequal development resulting in social disruption and political unrest with negative impacts on growth and development.
“Accordingly, we have engaged in several rounds of dialogue and town hall meetings, targeted at peace building, between the aggrieved and in some cases warring factions and communities. We have worked hard to dialogue with and if they turn unreasonable decimate insurgents in various parts of the country.
“We are still grappling but successfully, with border disputes and restoring the much needed peaceful co-existence amongst our people and neighbouring countries. The rebuilding of the North East is ongoing, to return our internally displaced brothers, sisters and children to their ancestral homes.”
It will be recalled that the former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godsay Orubebe, had during the release of the results of the 2015 presidential election attempted to disrupt the process.
In the mild drama that took place on 3 March 2015, Orubebe, had taken hold of the microphone at ICC and sat on the stage while criticizing Jega’s handling of the result collation and accusing him of being biased for the then opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Orubebe had among others said, “Jega you have been compromised, we are no longer confident in you.”