Human right activist and renowned electoral observer, Mr. Femi Aduwo, in this interview with journalists spoke about the conduct of the just concluded 2015 general election, particularly why President Goodluck Jonathan lost the election. Shola Oyeyipo brings the excerpts:

What can explain the defeat suffered President Jonathan at the just concluded election?
When you label a party as a Muslim party, you are not destroying the party; you are giving it more support in a society where Muslims and Christians are nearly 50-50. In a situation where those who destroyed the president last year became the spokesperson because for me I spoke with a lot of PDP chieftains in the South-west – I can mention their names, who were not comfortable with Femi Fani-Kayode as the president’s Director of Publicity.

Who speaks what matters to me. How can Fani-Kayode come and be defending the same Jonathan you destroyed a year ago? How qualified is Fani-Kayode to come and defend the president? It is a blunder! And then when you see the APC, they look for professionals. Whether you like it or not, Dele Alake is a professional journalist. He did a lot of work. He talked less and did a good work. In Lagos here, look at Ambode and the former Editor of National Mirror (Steve Ayorinde).
The PDP are so myopic. Not only are they greedy, they are myopic, self-centered and the level of their thinking – you will be shocked that in a study we did about three months ago. I gave a copy to Mr. Ebenezer Babatope, Chief Bode George, Segun Oni and I sent a message to the president that PDP will lose and that it is going to be between a range of 44 to 56. We spoke with 70,000 Nigerians who are credible across the federation. So, I told them.

What did you attribute the defeat of the PDP to?
It is because Nigerians want a change, not because APC is more credible. As you have criminals in PDP you have them in APC – bad ones! But Nigerians just believe don’t take us for granted. Let me give you a good example. In Ondo State, Mimiko is my good brother. When he returned to the PDP – some people have been on the ground building the party when he left. It was suicide mission to come back and take control of the party 100 per cent.
If you have a party that is disciplined and the leaders are visionary, the leadership positions could have been shared by Mimiko and other members 50 – 50. Some of them have laboured on the party over the years to build Ondo State. What happened in Ondo State was a pure protest vote. It is not that Mimiko did not work in Ondo State – he worked but just because the elites believe in PDP, it should not be like this. If not, Ondo State could have given Jonathan nearly 1million votes. Who knows APC in Ondo about two months ago, but it was purely protest votes.
Another thing, in the days of Bamanga Tukur, he disallowed the governors from handling the affairs of the party at their state levels, but when Mua’zu came the governors hijacked the party at the state level by imposing candidates. Everybody knows that after Tukur left there has been a lot of desolation in the PDP. Five governors left and nothing is done about that; former president who was in the Board of Trustees left.

Don’t you think Obasanjo’s exit from the party is another big blow on the PDP?
It was a big blow. But those people there – all surrounding Jonathan thought it was not. Let me tell you what people don’t know; if you go to the North and you mention Obasanjo before a governor – if you just call ‘OBJ,’ they are not comfortable. They see him as a demigod. They call him ‘baba.’ It is only here we don’t recognise him that way. He may have his shortcomings. He is a human being but I love him dearly.
When people like that gave expert advice to Jonathan he should have taken it. Apart from God, Obasanjo made Jonathan president of Nigeria. But some of these gangsters – we call them ‘one chance’ politicians boys in the South-west. They hijacked him (president) abusing people but they can now see the consequences. Towards the end they now lure people who cannot win elections in their own households and call them Yoruba leaders. What Jonathan spent in the South-west, he did not spend in the South-east. Those guys messed him up.