By Rafiu Ajakaye
LAGOS
Nigeria's main opposition party claimed on Tuesday that there was a plot by the ruling party to postpone Feb. 14 polls and install an interim government headed up by incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan.
"The election-postponement campaigners have now returned to the drawing board to plot another move to make sure the elections do not hold," Lai Mohammed, a spokesman for the opposition All Progressive Congress (APC), told a news briefing in Lagos.
He asserted that, despite seeming public unanimity that elections must proceed as planned, proponents of a delay are using every means to achieve their objective.
"The no-election proponents are now working hard on their back-up plan, which is to force a constitutional crisis that will ultimately lead to their goal: an interim government," Mohammed said.
He suggested that these campaigners would use courts and tribunals as their main tools to pursue their "devilish plot."
"They have re-strategized to procure 'pliant judges' to give outrageous and unpopular judgments at election tribunals and courts that are capable of destabilizing the polity," said the opposition spokesman.
He added: "Their hope is that such outrageous and unpopular judgments will trigger massive violence across the country, which they will then leverage as an excuse to scuttle elections and form an interim government."
Highly-placed sources had earlier told The Anadolu Agency that certain influential politicians, traditional rulers and former military figures planned to push for the installation of an interim government in the event of a national crisis.
Nigerians will go to the polls on Feb. 14 to elect a president and members of the federal parliament.
Although 14 candidates will vie for the presidency, the poll is largely seen as a race between incumbent President Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari, a former military ruler.
Buhari is running on the ticket of the opposition APC, an amalgam of political interests that have come together in an attempt to wrest power from Jonathan's People's Democratic Party, which has ruled the country since its return to democracy in 1999.
Jonathan's national security adviser, Sambo Dasuki, a retired military officer, recently suggested that the poll should be delayed because millions of voters had not yet received their permanent voter cards.
The opposition immediately rejected the proposal, however, dismissing it as an "ill-advised" plot by the ruling party and government to hold onto power.
A few days later, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visited Nigeria, where he held separate talks with both Jonathan and Buhari.
"The U.S. government strongly believes in Nigeria having credible, free and fair elections next month," said Kerry.
Jonathan, for his part, emphasized his commitment to holding free, fair and credible elections.
"I made it absolutely clear that the May 29 handover date is sacrosanct," he said in a statement released by State House after the meeting with Kerry.
Mohammed, the opposition spokesman, asserted that the Jonathan administration was planning to recruit members of the Council of State, an advisory body of statesmen – serving and retired – chaired by the president himself.
"We hope the council, which is due to meet later in the week, will put the national interest above narrow, partisan considerations and reject the poisoned chalice of election postponement," he said.
