Bayelsa State publicity secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Mr. Osom Makbere, has said President Goodluck Jonathan lost the March 28 presidential election due to international and domestic conspiracies.

Makbere, who is also a lawyer, stated this in an exclusive interview in Yenagoa on Friday.

He said the divisions in the PDP fold and the overbearing attitude of the President’s wife, Dame Patience, also contributed to the president’s loss.

Giving insight on the failure of the President at the poll, Makbere said, “History has stated that no failure, defeat or loss is a product of a single factor. Jonathan’s loss could be blamed on a multiplicity of interwoven causes.

“Jonathan was a victim and target of international cum domestic esoteric codes and conspiracies. On the international level, the passage of the anti-gay legislation led to criticisms and face-off with the US, and the West.

“The strides made in the economic sphere, especially domestic rice promotion, calculated by the Jonathan administration to flip economic growth, and boost import substitution, also negatively alerted the West. The shift to China for our railway transformation, and recently, the migration to Russia for arms and ammunition to quelling the insurgency also signalled to the West that Jonathan had started constituting a self-reliant and dependent nation-state, a feat seen too tall by the US and their allies in the West.

“The aforesaid international factors found room to flourish given the obstinacy and impudence on the part of Mrs. Jonathan. The end result of her personal ambition to plant ‘self-made’ governors triggered face-offs with some governors.”

Makbere also opined that the All Progressives Congress will perform worse than the PDP at the centre.

He said, “I can tell you that this APC will be worse than the PDP as there is already imminent fear of implosion.

“In Kano, for instance, the APC got all 40 constituencies. This meant that none of the PDP candidates were popular enough to emerge but, the PDP maintained their calm and stoicism.

“We do not know what the APC wants. Whenever they win, the PDP congratulates them, but whenever the PDP wins, the APC would induce the election observers and the electoral officers to call for a re-run or cancellation. That is the zenith of desperation.”

But Secretary, Bayelsa APC, Mr. Marlin Daniel, said the statement that APC would perform worse than the PDP was misinformed and unfortunate.

He said that APC parades men and women of proven integrity and impeccable track records of performance.

He said, “It is obvious Nigerians have seen the people in the APC. The international community knows the pedigree of people in APC leadership. When you go to states controlled by the APC you will see what is on ground.

“The President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, is an incorruptible man. So, for anybody to say that APC will perform worse than the PDP is a child’s talk, mere campaign of calumny and propaganda.

“APC is a revolution and nobody can stop it. God’s hand is in this revolution that is why the PDP lost despite all the money they spent to remain in power.”

ziryboy:
Gej allies accuse people of conspiracy and his wife but they don't talk about the currupt government he lead. These shows both him and everyone in his government see stealing is not corruption.

chernest2002:
Dame patience has done nothing wrong,[b]Apc just win because of their intimidation don't forget that all criminals in Nigeria have merge in apc making it impossible for a gentle man like gej to defeat them,they are even ready to kill mr president,[/b]they are working together with their masters in the west,let no one expect change from this cabal,gmb is not exemption

Sweetguy25:
The hypocrisy Nigerians exude is utterly disgusting. If Jonathan's government was corrupt and under performing, then why did he get majority of the votes from south south and south and south east? Weren't they feeling the corruption and poor performance? Or is there something else that persuaded them to vote for GEJ?

ishiamu:
Quit the blame game y'all lost restrategise than pointing fingers how can a single woman make a party lose the electorate decided that's all

Sweetguy25:
Jonathan lost because he was weak. Patience wouldn't even lose an election against Buhari if she was president.

GEJ messed up big time. He wanted to give free and fair elections to Nigerians and this is where it landed him.

noordean:
He should av done the opposite right?

SkyBlue1:


Yes. Industrial scale vote rigging and voter intimidation based on the myopic tribal reasoning that "he is our son and it is our oyel", you will not rewrite history so soon. Why was Jonathan going on an apology tour during his campaign of the Niger Delta region? Even Donald Duke challenged him on his underperformace in the region at one of these tours. Asari lamented that he had not done well earlier in the year (but kept supporting him because of his 'anywhere belle face' mentality), MEND even supported Buhari against Jonathan. So what are you talking about? Some of the South East may have legitimately given him the full vote but that is their business. There are different reasons the outcome of this election was not challenged by PDP, they knew they lost regardless of all the rigging and voter intimidation and fraud and knew they had not moral authority the legitimately challenge it.

Sweetguy25:


Are you trying to say that votes Buhari received were due to patriotic reasons or from patriotic Nigerians?
Are you also trying to say that there were no irregularities in voting processes in areas where Buhari won massively?
Are you also telling me that if GEJ(as an incumbent) wanted to massively rig the elections to his favour, it wouldn't have been possible?

SkyBlue1:


LOL, the reasoning of some people will shock you. This is why I say PDP will never learn the lesson of the election, they are too shallow of mind and unpatriotic. That is why you have some of his supporters proposing him for Nobel prize and President of the year and such rubbish, ,for simply accepting that he lost the mandate of the people despite all the rigging and fraud of his party. When people call Nigerians stupid now they will be the first to take offence.

noordean:
He should av done the opposite right?

SkyBlue1:


People make choices for different reasons but a good swathe of the support Buhari received were from people who were not happy with the way the country was run, the election was a referendum on Jonathan and PDP.

On the other hand you have people like Asari and co who agreed the country was not being run well, but still chose to continue supporting the status quo regardless. I know who I would see as patriotic among the two groups. Would not be too surprised if there were some irregularities in states Buhari won, but it was in the Niger Delta that you had the violence and deaths, and that says a lot.

With regards to your last point, I think if you feel we have to thank Jonathan for not using the full power of the state to rig his way into power (which he did try), then you are simply making the case for why we should all be relieved that PDP and Jonathan lost, and yes that position is unpatriotic.

Sweetguy25:


Absolutely. Obasanjo did it and heavens didn't fall.

mikolo80:
Obasanjo was lucky that he had no challenger. Na icc for de wait for otuoke man if to say him no respect himself. Cos dis time ppl were ready to defend their votes