Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, has praised former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission [INEC], Attahiru Jega, over his role in the emergence of Buhari as president in 2015.

Shehu said that democracy in Nigeria would have collapsed if Jega caved in on the pressure to deny Buhari victory in the 2015 presidential election.

Shehu, stated this while appearing on a special end of the year programme ‘2019 End Of A Decade’ on Channels Television.

Shehu maintained that there was a move by the then ruling party, Peoples Democratic Party [PDP] to seize power.

He said:

“We thank God for Jega and the civil society activism at that time because if Jega had caved in, this democracy would have collapsed at that time.

“So, it is an interesting time that we had lived through and then, it tells a story of the resilience of our democracy and that we shouldn’t just toy with it. It didn’t come cheap, it didn’t come easy.”

Garba Shehu disclosed that the All Progressives Congress [APC] officials had monitored the election exercise closely.

“For us in the situation room at that time, it was an attempt to grab power or to hold on to power by regime elements or beneficiaries of the system who saw defeat staring them in the face.

“Before those results got to the INEC chairman and he announced them, you are aware that parties had representatives at the lowest of the point; the polling units and the local councils, and the states.

“They did a collation of their own and they had a sense of how or which direction things were going. So, it was obvious to those regime elements at that time that the regime was falling,” he said.