Jonathan Lost the Presidency Seat Because of Hate Campaign - Metuh

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Last Updated on 05 May 2015

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The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has blamed the overzealous campaign team of President Goodluck Jonathan for his loss of the presidency seat to the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Muhammadu Buhari.

The spokesperson for the party, Olisa Metuh made this known on Monday, during a press conference at his office in Abuja.

Metuh claimed that the party headquarters was sidelined during the campaigns, and that “overzealous” persons were allowed to run a hate campaign against Buhari, thereby making the former military ruler more popular.

Metuh noted that PDP's campaign focused very little on Jonathan's achievement, but was characterised largely by hate campaigns against Buhari.

He pointed out that some of the most horrific attacks against Buhari came from the president’s wife, Patience, the governor of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose, and the spokesperson for Mr. Jonathan’s campaign team, Femi Fani-Kayode.

“In 2003 President Obasanjo ran against Odumegwu Ojukwu, while late President Yar’adua also ran against him in 2007," Metuh said.

“If the PDP had run its campaign based on hate speech against the Ikemba Nnewi, he would have won by a landslide in the whole of the South East.

"We (NWC) did not lead the party to failure. We were not involved in the campaigns and our advice was ignored. If we had handled the campaign, Mr. President would have won the election. We cannot be held responsible when our advice was ignored."

Commenting on the issue of funding of the campaign, Metuh revealed that the party generated over N7bn from the sale of nomination and expression of interest forms, most of which was used to sponsor the party’s candidates at all levels during the last elections.

Metuh said: “I can tell you from my own records that we generated billions. I think we generated more than N7bn, N8bn or N9bn. We generated more than N7bn and we generated a lot of money.

“The first initial donation we made was half a billion (N500m) to the Presidential campaign funds even though we were not involved in raising funds for the presidential campaign.

“They generated campaign funds up to N21bn. The party was not involved in it and the party cannot account for it because we were not involved in that money. It was a Jerry Gana Committee and they handled it and nobody can question us for that.

“There is no governorship candidate that received less than N100m from this Working Committee; and the House of Assembly candidates across the country got money from us. It depends on the state.

“These monies were given to some ministers and some people to distribute to the states. In some states it was the campaign coordinators that we gave, in some states, we gave to the governors or directly to the candidates of the party.”

Responding to rumours that members of the NWC received N30m each, Metuh said that it was a blatant lie.

"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 the 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," he said.

“The NWC is willing and ready to make this account public in line with the Freedom of Information law.”

Metuh explained that several attempts had been made to cast the NWC in bad light following the party’s defeat at the polls.

He recalled that 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, which led to the poor performance in the polls.

He said this had formed the basis for the calls for the NWC members to resign.

Metuh added, “When this wicked and baseless allegation was debunked by the NWC, which publicly clarified 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.

However, he noted that with the necessary clarification made and the rancour withing the party over, PDP is ready to reclaim the presidency in 2019 and that there are no more talks of any resignation of NWC members.

“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 urged all PDP members across the country to work together with their leaders at all levels and make themselves partners in progress in the rebuilding the party.