The crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) following its loss of power continued yesterday with a former media adviser to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan blaming his defeat on failure to sack Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) ex-Chairman Prof Attahiru Jega
Last week, chairman of the party’s rebranding committee Dr. Raymond Dokpesi attributed the party’s loss to the fielding of Jonathan against the then zoning arrangement, which, he said, favoured the North.
The party spokesman, Olisah Metuh, denied the claim, saying Dokpesi spoke for himself and not the party.
Yesterday, Okupe took to the Facebook to give his own reasons why the PDP failed in the general elections.
He wrote on his wall: “The impression created in the media recently that the candidacy of Goodluck Jonathan was an error is itself a grand fallacy, which totally undermined the whole truth about the sanctity and correctness of the wisdom of the PDP National Executive Committee, which made and ratified that decision.
“All over the world, when an incumbent signifies intention for a second term, it is customary that the established machinery of the party backs and gratifies such intentions.
“If any error was made, it was firstly the failure of the PDP administration to sack the unfair and compromised electoral officer, who was allowed to conduct the election in spite of his obvious and profuse partisanship.”
Okupe added: “The second error was the inexplicable acquiescence of the PDP government to the use of the infamous Card Reader, which was skillfully manipulated to the disadvantage of the PDP presidential candidate.
”The third error of the PDP was to have fielded a good, God-fearing and patriotic man, who in spite of his enormous power, the avalanche of deployable arsenal of war at his disposal, transformed himself to be the victim and refused to fight so that his countrymen may live and his nation survived. The situation in Burundi today is highly instructive.
“Certainly, history will treat Goodluck Jonathan as one of the greatest heroes of this generation of African leaders. Definitely not an error by any stretch of imagination.
“I speak today not as a spokesman for Jonathan, an episode and a proud chapter of my life, which has since come to a close. Rather, I speak as a student of history and a veritable stakeholder in the Nigerian project.” Agency report
For this fellow, I’d just say “akwoi kai, ama ba kokoruwa!”