Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka, Spiritual Director of Adoration Ministry Enugu Nigeria (AMEN), has claimed that the reason former President Goodluck Jonathan was unsuccessful in the 2015 presidential election was that he disregarded crucial recommendations made to him during that time.
The priest made the assertion while responding to public debates over his previous remarks about the political climate and security threats in Nigeria and reviewing previous political events.
The purpose of his comments was to provide further context for earlier claims that had sparked strong reactions.
Mbaka said that while Jonathan was in office, he had counselled him on strategic issues, mostly involving the direction of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
He asserted that, in order to gain political advantage before the 2015 general election, he personally advocated for Prof. Attahiru Jega's departure from his position as chairman of the Independent National Election Commission (INEC).
The previous president, in his opinion, made a move with major political ramifications since he did not seriously consider the counsel.
The cleric attempted to clarify his previous statement about insecurity in Nigeria and made the remarks in a video that went viral.
He had before claimed that some people were trying to destabilise the administration and that this was the political motivation behind the country's security issues.
In his previous statement, he contended that Jonathan's electoral failure in the past was caused by the employment of comparable techniques throughout the political transition.
There was a lot of backlash and interest in these comments on social media.
After his remarks went viral, people started talking about them online. Some people even started tying Jonathan's 2015 election defeat to Mbaka's previous political statements.
There was a lot of back-and-forth over the cleric's influence and whether or not his comments or counsel affected the political result of the time.
Discussions over the relationship between religion, politics, and the Nigerian electoral process were already heated before the debate.
Rather than blaming outside forces, Mbaka said in his most recent explanation that Jonathan's loss was due to the former president's inaction on advice he had received.
He argued that the election's result was due to carelessness with strategy and political blunders.
The priest restated his earlier claims that he had given Jonathan some counsel that he though t would have helped his cause, but that it had been ignored.
He said, “Jonathan didn’t fail because I failed him; he decided to fail. I told him what to do to win the election, but he refused.”
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