Jonathan to PDP defectors: You’ll return with empty stomachs

A gale of defections hit the President’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) before and immediately after the March 28 election.Speaking at the Presidential Villa in Abuja yesterday while receiving the report of the Presidential Campaign Organisation from the chairman, Senator Ahmadu Ali, the president said APC leaders would first meet the needs of their existing members […]

A gale of defections hit the President’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) before and immediately after the March 28 election.
Speaking at the Presidential Villa in Abuja yesterday while receiving the report of the Presidential Campaign Organisation from the chairman, Senator Ahmadu Ali, the president said APC leaders would first meet the needs of their existing members before remembering PDP defectors.
“So, those people running and those already cross-carpeting, they will come back with empty stomachs … because they know you’re coming because you think there is food. Before it will get to you, the food will be gone,” Jonathan said.
He said the focus now was on how to consolidate the PDP and move forward so that the party would bounce back.
President doubts polls result
The president also expressed doubt about whether the outcome of the election was credible. This contrasted sharply with his reaction shortly after the result was announced.
Jonathan had said in a statement he signed to congratulate Buhari on April 1 that: “I promised the country free and fair elections. I have kept my word. I have also expanded the space for Nigerians to participate in the democratic process. That is one legacy I will like to see endure”.
But yesterday, he said: “If you look at the result, the difference is just 2.5 million votes, and if you look at the areas where it is perceived that PDP scored so low, PDP couldn’t have gotten those kinds of scores; but the elections are over, the country first,” he said.
The president said in the future the narrative of the 2015 general elections would be similar to that of the civil war as different people would express different perspectives about it.
“Of course, the issue of the 2015 elections will be similar to the civil war because different people gave different account of the civil war.
“The first book on civil war that I read was ‘My Command’ by Obasanjo which is his perspectives on what he saw and observed.
“I recall Ojukwu’s own was ‘Because I’m Involved’. If you read it, the dimensions are sometimes tangential to the first.
“Even among ourselves, whenever we talk, sometimes I laugh when people draw some of their analyses, but by my privileged position, I knew a little more about the elections than others,” he said.
According to him, the key thing is not whether he lost or won the election, “but that Nigeria, as a nation, must move forward”.
Jonathan said party democracy could only thrive when there is peace and stability in the country. “If there is military intervention, all the parties would disappear,” he said.
PDP remains most organised
The president said though the PDP lost the elections, especially in the north, the party should not be judged by the result of the presidential poll.
He said: “PDP is still the most organised party. It’s still the party that’s not owned by anybody. It’s still the party that whatever you’re, you can get to any level with your competence and so on. So, let’s be committed to the party. Yes, we’ll have challenges at the beginning, but surely, we’ll get to where we want to be.”
The president said the PDP must continue to exist in the interest of Nigeria.
He added: “And for PDP, whatever happened now is like a slip. You don’t need to go to America to know how power goes from the Democrat to the Republican. It’s like once you serve eight years, you’re ready to hand over to either the republican or democrat. But for Ghana very close to us, the present party lost some eight years back and of course they came back and won the elections”.
He said he did not make the sacrifice alone, adding that all PDP members made the sacrifice and were paying the price more than he did. “I know how some of you are already being persecuted and the kind of situation facing you.”
I didn’t consult before conceding
The president said he did not consult anybody before he conceded victory to General Buhari. “Nigeria is a very complex country and you must manage it with care.
“Yes, I did not consult anybody before I made that phone call, but I made that phone call on behalf of all of you and on behalf of the PDP. So, let me thank you all of joining us to carry the cross.”
The president recalled that there was heightened tension before the elections. “The countries that brought ships, everything around us, waiting to evacuate their citizens are happy because there was nobody to evacuate. The country was so tensed, but everything has gone down and I think that’s the most important thing because my conviction is that you must have a country before you can run for an office.
“So, I’ve to sincerely thank all of you who worked tirelessly for the elections. You worked very hard, you did your best despite that we didn’t win the elections, but the key thing is that Nigeria is peaceful,” Jonathan said.
We wept after Jonathan’s loss
In his remarks, Senator Ali said though it was sad that Jonathan lost the election, he (the president) had averted a civil war by conceding defeat.
“You made the world proud by conceding defeat even when you had several options. You proved to the world that you are committed to your cradle that no one’s blood is worth your political ambition. By that singular act, you pulled Nigeria back from a seeming pre-determined precipice and you made us proud.
“While you assuredly lost in the ballots, you won the biggest victory in defeat by that historic phone call. Even in defeat, we’re able to impart some valuable lessons to the Nigerian electorate; not only with an unprecedented peaceful handover of power to the opposition, but with Jonathan helping the country avert a possible civil war,” he said.
Presidential political adviser and member of the presidential campaign team, Rufai Alkali, earlier said that PDP leaders and members had wept over Jonathan’s defeat.
“We all prayed to God and worked hard before the elections. There is nobody here that has not cried and we asked ourselves where did we go wrong? Some of us had to go to hospital”, he said.
PDP Board of Trustees Chairman Tony Anenih said the party lost to betrayals and conspiracies.
He urged party members to work to build a strong opposition in the country.
Anenih said if Jonathan had not conceded defeat, only God knows “where we might have been today”.
“We didn’t win the election but we’ve a leader that made us win peace. Only God knows where we might have been today, maybe somewhere in Ghana… We’ve experienced betrayals and conspiracies, but let’s put that behind and move forward,” he said.
TAN financier weeps in Aso Rock
Our correspondent reports that throughout the presentation of the report to the president yesterday, the founder and head of the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN), Ifeanyi Uba, continued to weep profusely.
Uba was later helped out of the venue to avoid media attention.
A cleric who said the opening prayer ‘cursed’ Jonathan’s ‘saboteurs’ by saying: “Mr President, it was not you that were defeated; it was the rots in the system that were defeated. Those who were inside and sabotaged the system, may they have their reward.”
PDP National Chairman Adamu Mu’azu was absent at the event.