PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan has observed that the attitude of opposition politicians across board was responsible for heating up of the polity.

He disclosed this while addressing foreign election observers from the African Union, led by Dr Amos Sawyer; the Commonwealth group led by Dr Bakili Muluzi, the European parliament and the Republican Institute.

The president also reiterated his commitment to ensuring peaceful, free, fair and credible elections in Nigeria on Saturday and April 11.

He made the commitment during an audience with a delegation of the National Committee on Peaceful Elections, led by former head of state, General Abdulsalami Abubakar.

The president urged all political parties, their candidates and supporters to approach the elections with more patriotism and a greater willingness to place the larger interest of the country above personal ambitions.

He said the Federal Government had worked hard over the years to promote strong democratic institutions that would sustain the country’s democracy and would not tolerate any form of violence during or after the polls.

According to him, “my cardinal principle has always been, and still remains that the ambition of any Nigerian is not worth the blood of anybody.

“I am not a violent person and I don’t tolerate violence in any form. I don’t believe that violence can be used to achieve anything meaningful in life.

“I am giving my total commitment to peaceful elections in the country, not because I am persuaded to do so, but because I believe in it.”

He also said he would be willing to meet with and sign another peace accord with the presidential candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC), Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, to further emphasise his commitment to a violence-free poll on Saturday.

In his remark, General Abubakar commended the president for his consistency in insisting on peaceful, free and fair elections in the country at all levels.

Speaking with the foreign observers, President Jonathan said “I promise you again that the elections will be free, fair, credible and will ensure that the atmosphere will be peaceful.

“I think some of the issues that is generating these heat is the excesses of maybe we the politicians, especially the opposition politicians. Opposition not only in the sense that this is a PDP government at the federal level, there are some states that the PDP is in the opposition.

“In most cases, you see the opposition hitting the system so hard because they are working hard to take over government. There are a lot of provocative statements that are being made that communicate something different to international community. But I believe the elections would be conducted.”

The president justified the reason for the shift of election dates because of security problem in the North East, saying that it would have been difficult to declare election results when the exercise could not be conducted in five states.