My Appointment Saved Jonathan Humiliating Defeat – Fani-Kayode

In this interview, the director, directorate of media and publicity of the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation, Femi Fani-Kayode responds to allegations that hate campaign championed by his directorate, caused President Goodluck Jonathan his re-election bid.

Would Have Suffered Worse Defeat The PDP National Working Committee (NWC) recently blamed the loss of the party in the March 28 presidential election on hate speech embarked upon by some party officials particularly some members of its presidential campaign organisation. Is this assertion correct?

This is an assertion that I have refused to comment on since the allegation was made. Ever since the conclusion of the presidential election, I have been asked the question you have just asked me more than any other and I believe that, for posterity’s sake, it is time to set the record straight. Everywhere I go this question of hate campaign is raised and frankly I am tired of it. Worse still some people are beginning to believe it because we have refused to clear the air. We cannot be expected to remain silent forever when faced with such a grave allegation. This is all the more so because it is my directorate, the directorate of media and publicity and team that they sought to target, malign and discredit more than anyone else even though they did not mention my name or my directorate. The truth is that I have no hate in me and neither did anyone in the campaign organisation or in my directorate. We are serious-minded, patriotic, loyal, faithful, responsible and hard-working party leaders, many of whom have either been federal ministers, senators or state governors in the past, who chose to answer a call to duty by our president and who made massive sacrifices in terms of time, energy, commitment and risk and stood up for our president who asked them to do so. They stood up for the president and fought for him when he was faced with the most vicious, malicious and hateful gunfire that this country has ever known. They fought for him gallantly when he was faced with the most effective and ruthless campaign of calumny that this country has ever known from an opposition that was ruthlessly efficient in all its ways and that was not prepared to spare him or take any prisoners. The truth is that the APC media machine was awesome yet we engaged them fire for fire and bullet for bullet and I do not regret that. If we had not done so, we would have lost the election by at least 10 million more votes than we did. We spoke the truth, we engaged the enemy on all fronts and we not only fought them to a standstill but for the first time since the establishment of the APC, they were put on the defensive. This was a great achievement for which we ought to be thanked and not one for which we should be maligned, misrepresented and insulted. If one or two members of the NWC are so ignorant that they cannot make a distinction between virile political banter and a hate campaign that is their problem. The truth is that their allegation is not only baseless but it is also unadulterated rubbish and those who made them are nothing but ingrates, cowards and traitors who know nothing about politics, political campaigns, intellectual discourse or political engagement. They are simply trying to revise and re-write history in order to cover up their treachery, weaknesses and inadequacies. They are fuelled by hate and envy and worse of all, right from the start, they had no interest in fighting for our leader and presidential candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan or in ensuring that he won the election. Their arrogance was insufferable, they were an unmitigated disaster and their leadership style was abysmal. It still is. If any group of people were responsible for our loss, it was them. It is important to note that not all of them were bad. Some of them like Uche Secundus, Kema Chikwe, Barrister Jalo, Wale Oladipo, the National Youth Leader and a few others did their very best and supported the president as best as they could but the majority of them were terrible.

With all that is going on within the party now, how do you think the party can reinvent itself?

We must remain free of acrimony, united and focused and we must throw out the bad eggs in the NWC and prepare for a long drawn out war of attrition with the incoming government. In order to survive over the next four years as a party, we must make the necessary changes at the top otherwise we will be utterly decimated. The present leadership of the party, particularly its information organs have no chance of standing against an APC federal government because they are weak and they lack understanding and courage. They will be savaged beyond belief and torn apart if they try it because they do not have the stomach, the grit, the appetite or the wherewithal for a long drawn fight. They are simply incapable of defending the president and his legacies after he has left office and neither are the majority of them even ready to do so. Instead of focusing on their numerous inadequacies and trying to fix them, these very same people are hurling bricks at others. Instead of preparing to defend the party faithful and enhance the fortunes of the party members over the next four years they are making childish and nonsensical allegations and alienating and upsetting many party leaders. They are indeed the enemy within.

 The personal attack of Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti on Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, the president-elect before the election was noted as one of the things that worked against the PDP in the March 28 presidential election. Do you believe this is true?

That is arrant nonsense and those in the NWC that have said so are liars, cowards and turncoats. They are traitors and they are working for the enemy. Did these so-called party leaders complain when Jonathan was attacked by the APC and Lai Mohammed every day? I find it strange that they are prepared to accept the personal attacks on their own candidate as being acceptable yet they complain when we attack the candidate of the other side. Whose side are these people really on? Fayose was not the only one that focused his attention on Buhari; many of us did because Buhari was the issue for us and everything about him became relevant. In the same vein, for the APC, Jonathan was the issue and they focused their guns on him. We did not complain and cry about it like little children but instead we returned fire and responded forcefully. We have no apology for that and we believe that we spoke nothing but the truth and we backed up our assertions with facts and figures. We didn’t just talk but we did our research. We were effective and devastating and that is all that matters to me. We have nothing against Buhari but we had a job to do and we did it as best as we could. Those that lacked the guts, the finesse and the capacity to do the job should stop whining and instead they should try and learn from those of us that are capable of doing it and that are prepared to do it for the sake of our president, our party and our country.

 Campaigns by the first lady were also said to be detrimental to her husband, the president’s cause…

Again, this is arrant nonsense. It is nothing but rubbish. It is the same identifiable individuals in the NWC that are spreading that repulsive falsehood and we all know who they are. The truth is that the first lady was one of the most forceful, credible and powerful voices during the course of the campaign and she did an excellent job for her husband and our candidate. She did very well indeed and I take this opportunity to commend her courage. That woman is a lioness and I honestly believe that she enhanced the fortunes of the President during the course of what was the most bitter and keenly contested election in the history of Nigeria. Without her strong contributions and without her lending her strong voice to our cause, things would have been far worse.