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Prince Olagunsoye Oyinola, former National Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has claimed that the defeat of President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 presidential election was due to his ouster as the party secretary.
He disclosed this in an interview with Punch on Saturday, noting that his decision to leave the PDP and challenge his removal was informed by Jonathan’s believe that governors that were threatening to leave the PDP over the internal issues were of no electoral value.
President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressive Congress, APC, later defeated Jonathan in the 2015 election by N2,571,759 votes. The APC hierarchy was bolstered by the defection of five governors into the then newly formed party.
Among the defectors were former governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi; Muritala Nyako of Adamawa State; Abdulfatai Ahmed of Kwara State; Rabiu Kwankwanso of Kano State; and Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto State who all left at the peak of the crisis that followed Oyinlola’s removal as secretary.
Although two other PDP governors, Babangida Aliyu (Niger) and Sule Lamido (Jigawa), were initially also part of the plot to dump their party, they rescinded the decision.
Oyinlola said the decision by the two PDP governors, who failed to move with others to the APC, did not eventually affect the result of the poll coming from their states, as people of Niger and Jigawa bought into the Change mantra by the APC.
The PDP chieftain said, “Some people emboldened the then National Chairman of the PDP (Bamanga Tukur) that the seven governors (who left the PDP to form New PDP) were of no electoral consequence and he bought it. So, how can you say seven sitting governors have no electoral value? How Mr President bought into that, I still don’t know till tomorrow. But that was what cost him his re-election.
“The people of the two states (Jigawa and Niger) had already subscribed to our movement. So, the seven states voted massively for Buhari. If you deduct the votes of those seven states from Buhari’s total scores, he (would have) lost.
“So, when it became a decision to move into the APC, my followers in Osun came to me and asked about how we were going to join the APC, considering what they had done to us here. I said, ‘This battle is not mine, it’s a collective decision. The seven governors cannot be fighting my course and I will be going the other way.’
“If I was to only consider what happened here, there shouldn’t be any relationship. However, I had to look at the national picture where the New PDP decided to move based on my illegal removal because that was the beginning of the PDP crisis. That was what forced those governors to form New PDP and move.
Commenting on speculation that his return to the PDP was to contest for the post of National Chairman in the next convention, the former Osun governor said he would only consider the bid if it was zoned to the South-West and he was able to mobilise enough support.
He said, “If Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State wants me to emerge as National Chairman to bolster the influence of the PDP in the South-West, what is wrong with that?
“I don’t see anything wrong. He has not told me that he is pushing for me to be, but one of the reasons he wanted the PDP to move and get me back was for the leadership role in settling disputes within our party in the South-West and that’s why I was made the chairman of the reconciliation committee.”
This post was written by Obiajulu Joel Nwolu.
The views expressed here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect our views and opinions.