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President
Goodluck Jonathan
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Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leaders said yesterday that
the hate campaign initiated by the party’s Presidential Campaign Council (PCC)
was responsible for President Goodluck Jonathan’s crushing defeat in last
month’s election.
Jonathan’s campaign
spokesman Femi Fani-Kayode, Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose, presidential aide
Dr. Doyin Okupe and First Lady Patience Jonathan led the hate campaign.
President-elect Muhammadu
Buhari, All Progressives Congress (APC) National Leader Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and
other party leaders were the main targets of the assault.
The Nation report continues:
Most of the hate
documentaries were aired by the African Independent Television (AIT) and the
Nigeria Television Authority (NTA). Tinubu has sued AIT for alleged defamation.
The PDP crisis sparked by
its loss boiled over yesterday with the National Working Committee (NWC)
intensifying its fight back against calls for its resignation.
Chairman Adamu Mu’azu and
National Secretary Prof. Wale Oladipo have rejected calls for their
resignation.
National Publicity
Secretary Olisa Metuh yesterday spoke in Abuja about the party’s loss.
He told reporters at a
news conference: “The decision of the Presidential Campaign
Organisation to adopt and execute a hate campaign strategy against the then
presidential candidate of the APC, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari led to the failure of
PDP.”
Metuh said the blame
being heaped on the party’s leadership by governors and some aides of the
President for the loss of power at the centre was misplaced.
According to him, the
President’s campaign team failed to heed the advice to desist from the hate
campaign, adding that the leadership of the PDP, which could have offered
direction, was sidelined in the campaign.
The PDP spokesman added
that the negative effects of the hate campaign aimed at northerners, their
values, tradition and culture backfired on the party and its presidential and
most of its governorship candidates in the region.
He revealed that the
party generated over N9 billion before the election from the sale of nomination
forms across the 36 states and Abuja as well as for the presidential
nomination.
Metuh dismissed the
allegation of mismanagement of campaign funds against the party chiefs, saying
the party contributed N500 million to the presidential campaign and N100
million each of its governorship candidates in the 36 states. National Assembly
candidates also got financial support.
“The monies were paid
either directly to the candidates, through ministers or campaign directors in
some states,” Metuh affirmed.
He said the NWC was ready
for a probe over how it spent the money. He defended the N30 million advance
payment, which he said was given to each member of the NWC.
According to him, the
money was payment for three years backlog of medical, housing and other
allowances of the NWC members.
He expressed sadness that
Fayose, who was the major beneficiary of the primary election which gave him
the governorship ticket, could also join the call for the sack of the party
leaders.
Against all odds, Metuh
said the party leadership stood its ground to ensure a transparent process
through which Fayose emerged.
“We are greatly pained
that at the fact that a governor like Fayose will call on this NWC to resign.
It is on record that because of the internal democracy that we provided, he was
able to emerge governor today. He was called all sorts of names but the NWC
opened up the process and he emerged winner.”
“The party also gave him
N250m for his campaign. We are pained and sad that somebody who enjoyed the
transparency of this NWC will call for its resignation,” he added.
He faulted the call for
resignation of the party’s elected officials, saying the party chiefs were not
assigned any role in the presidential campaign.
“Otherwise, the call for
our resignation would have been on moral ground. But the fact that we were
sidelined, asking us to resign is untenable,” Metuh added.
He said former President
Olusegun Obasanjo and the late President Umaru Yar A’dua would have similarly
lost their elections in the Southeast in 2003 and 2007, if they had launched a
hate campaign against the late Chief Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu who contested
against them.
Metuh added: “Our advice
and suggestions were ignored. We cannot be held responsible for the failure.
While we are not holding any excuse for them, we cannot be held accountable for
issues that were generated, that worked against our candidates in the North.
All Nigerians know what happened.
“Let me say this. In
2003, President Obasanjo ran an election against Chief ýOdumegwu Ojukwu in the
Southeast. In 2007, the late Alhaji Yar’Adua ran election against Ojukwu. I can
tell you, if the PDP had engaged in name-calling or abuse of Ojukwu in anyway, the
PDP would have lost the elections in Southeast.
“You will also recall
that we had hinted you on several occasions that some fifth columnists working
with other parties had been concocting some frivolous allegations and
sponsoring amorphous groups against the NWC.
“We had also alerted the
Nigerian public through you, that some members of our party, including
ambitious aides and associates of President Goodluck Jonathan, are using their
perceived closeness to him to further their heinous agenda of injecting crisis
in the party with a view to hijacking the structure for their selfish
interests.
“In the attempt to
discredit the NWC, these elements pushed out series of misleading information
to the unsuspecting public, alleging that the party leadership mismanaged the
presidential campaign funds, leading to the poor performance in the polls and
as such NWC should be made to resign.
“When this wicked and
baseless allegation was debunked by the NWC after publicly clarifying that it
was not involved in the handling of the campaign and its funding; and that such
were exclusively managed by the Presidential Campaign Organisation appointed by
the President, these divisive elements in their desperation came up with
another allegation, claiming that the leadership embezzled funds belonging to
the party.
“Even after the NWC also
debunked this despicable allegation, showing that the party’s funds were
judiciously appropriated for our state election campaigns, this group resorted
to labeling the NWC with attempts to instigate President Jonathan, PDP
governors and other well-meaning members of our party against the national
leadership.
“This is in addition to
recent sponsored publications accusing the NWC of corruption with claims that
members shared monies generated from the sale of forms from aspirants for the
general elections.
“For the avoidance of
doubt, we wish to state categorically that this national leadership has
remained very transparent in all its dealing since coming into office. No NWC
member has been involved in any sleaze or embezzlement of party funds.
“Also, no member of the
NWC has ever been accused of embezzlement of funds in any ministry, department
or agencies of government at any level whatsoever.
“We state clearly that we
have not been given any money; rather, this NWC generated billions of naira
from the sale of forms from where we funded our candidates for governorship and
state assembly elections in all the states of the federation, in addition to
funds released to key leaders, including NWC and BoT members, to prosecute the
campaigns in their various areas. The NWC is willing and ready to make this
account public in line with the freedom of information law.
“We hereby wish to alert
the general public and all our members that the main agenda of these elements
is not only to hijack the national leadership but also to create an impression
of division and crisis and pave the way to lure some of our elected members to
decamp to other parties, apparently in view of the recent ruling of the Supreme
Court which allows defection in the event of leadership crisis at their party’s
national level.
“However, we are happy to
announce that the leader of our party, President Jonathan, the PDP governors
and other key stakeholders of our party including governors and
legislators-elect are deeply concerned about this development and have
intervened to ensure the desired stability in our party.”
Metuh spoke about the
“reengineering in the party, adding that the PDP Post Election Assessment
Committee, which is to be inaugurated tomorrow (today) evaluate its
performance in the general elections and make recommendations.
“On this note, we wish to
state clearly that there is no crisis in the national leadership of the PDP.
The National Working Committee under the chairmanship of Ahmadu Adamu Mu’azu is
duly elected and is fully in control of the administration of the party until
the expiration of its tenure in March 2016 in line with the provisions of the
constitution of our great party,” Metuh said.
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