How Ministers, Governors Sabotaged Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan etched his name
in gold in history books when he called
president-elect, Gen Muhammadu Buhari
(retd) on March 31, to congratulate him even
before the result of the presidential election
had been completely collated and the winner
declared by the Independent National Electoral
commission (INEC).
But while it would appear to all that President
Jonathan has already moved on after
conceding defeat, LEADERSHIP Sunday can
authoritatively report that he is nursing the
sting of betrayal by his close allies, which led
to his loss at the polls.
According to reliable presidency sources,
beyond the pain of losing out, he is
disappointed that despite assurances from his
cabinet members and other trusted political
appointees as well as high ranking officials of
his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
that they had vigorously campaigned and sold
his achievements to the people and were sure
from feelers they were receiving that he would
be re-elected, it turned out that they had in
fact, not campaigned for him as they made it
seem.
The president, it was gathered is particularly
peeved by the action of some governors of
Northern and North-Central states where he
suffered the worst defeat.
Of the 19 states in the north, the PDP, the
president’s party only won the presidential
election in Plateau, Nasarawa and Taraba.
LEADERSHIP Sunday gathered that the sum of
N500million was given as campaign fund to
each state but those who the funds were
entrusted to, rather than use the money for
the purpose it was meant, held on to it. The
money was disbursed through PDP-led state
governors and cabinet ministers or political
appointees in opposition-led states.
In Ondo State for instance, LEADERSHIP
gathered that the money was disbursed
through one of the principal presidency
officials from the state but as at night fall on
the election eve, the official was yet to deliver
the money to the state governor for the
campaigns. The leadership of the PDP in the
state, it was learnt, resorted to calling
managers of banks in the state late in the
night on the eve of the presidential election to
ask for funds but could only get very little, by
which time there wasn’t enough time to reach
out to a large number of electorate in the
state.
A similar scenario reportedly played out in Oyo
State where a minister from the state who was
entrusted with the campaign funds allegedly
held onto the money. In Kogi State where the
PDP also lost out in the presidential election,
LEADERSHIP sources said money for the
election was also diverted to other uses such
as payment of debts, hence the abysmal result
the party got in the state.
The abysmal performance of the party in
Benue, Bauchi and Kano states, where the PDP
has two governors, a Senate president,
national chairman of the party and three
cabinet ministers, Gabriel Suswam, Isa
Yuguda, David Mark, Adamu Muazu, Bala
Mohammed, Ibrahim Shekarau and Aminu
Wali, respectively, but could not garner votes
for the president, was also said to have drawn
his ire.
Our source said the president despite having
received security reports that a high ranking
official of the party was allegedly covertly
working for the opposition was particularly
annoyed that he had trusted the said official
and waved the reports.
Sources in Kaduna State where the vice
president, Namadi Sambo hails from and
where there is a PDP government in charge,
also informed LEADERSHIP Sunday that in one
of the local governments in Southern Kaduna,
only N100,000 was allotted to two polling
units in one of the wards with a voting
population of over 1,000 people in sharp
contrast with the situation in some local
governments in Edo State, where eligible
voters with Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs)
were given N2000 each to vote for the party,
hence the success recorded.
Recall that few days before the election,
LEADERSHIP Sunday’s sister publication,
LEADERSHIP, had exclusively reported that
allegations of embezzlement and diversion of
campaign funds were rife in the PDP
Presidential Campaign Organisation (PDPPCO).
According to the report, coordinators of some
of President Jonathan’s campaign groups as
well as state and zonal coordinators were
taking steps to ensure that they did not lose
out completely, in the event that he does not
win. LEADERSHIP’s investigations in Abuja
revealed that the coordinators, rather than use
the money for campaigns, had been scouting
the Abuja property market with dollars,
acquiring choice property. The campaigners, it
was gathered, rather than use the money for
the purpose it is meant, have resorted to
investing the money in property, so that in the
event that their candidate does not emerge,
they would have something to fall back on.
Real estate agents privy to the development
told LEADERSHIP Sunday that since the
campaigns began and particularly after the
postponement of the elections, there had been
an upswing in the number of persons looking
to buy property and most of them who usually
pay in dollars had been linked to the
campaign.
Recall also that about two weeks before the
presidential and National Assembly election,
there was a free-for-all among some PDP
officials in Ogun State, following the failure of
those entrusted with the money to release
same to campaign coordinators across the
state. It was gathered that the campaign
coordinators suspected foul play when the
money which was to be shared among 708 of
them was not, over claims that it was yet to
be paid into a certain designated bank
account.
Similarly, another report had it that a former
governor deeply involved in President
Jonathan’s re-election campaign had rather
than use money given to him for campaign,
deposited it in a bank for it to yield interest
and possibly remain there till after the
election, after which it will be forgotten and he
would convert it to personal use.
Sources within the president’s campaign
organisation, said such funds were being used
by those they were entrusted with as they
pleased and that the situation had compelled
the president to personally take charge of his
campaign especially in the Northern and
South-Western parts of the country.
At the time of the report, a high ranking
member of the campaign organisation had
confirmed to LEADERSHIP that the
headquarters of the campaign organisation was
in the know of the development.
“State coordinators are responsible for
mobilising and organising campaign rallies in
their respective states while zonal coordinators
do same for zonal campaigns and when people
from the headquarters attend such rallies, they
take note of the lapses in planning for further
action. The money for such organisation and
mobilisation is disbursed by the PDPPCO.
“It has come to the knowledge of the
campaign organisation that some
coordinators have been telling party members
that the money given to them is not sufficient
to do what they expect of them but this is not
true. They have been given adequate funds.
However, the matter cannot be handled now
till after the election when the coordinators
would be required to retire their spending. The
focus right now is on the election,” he said.
It was further gathered that while collation of
results was on-going on March 31, after the
result of Delta State was presented and it
became imminent that Jonathan had lost out,
as results from Sokoto, Borno and Yobe were
still being expected, some allies of Jonathan
met him at the Presidential Villa, where they
reportedly prevailed on him to stop further
collation and announcement of the results.
While the desperadoes were trying frantically
to make Jonathan see reason why he should
not accept the outcome of the poll, people on
the other divide, led by former head of state,
Gen Abdulsalam Abubakar, who were for peace
urged Jonathan not to allow the moment of
making history slip by.
The president eventually, the source said,
rebuffed them saying after failing to convince
people to vote for him, they were now
suggesting ideas that would set the country
on fire.
Following the president’s refusal to play ball,
his allies who by now had realised that they
would also lose out if he is not re-elected,
immediately reached out to the party’s
representatives at the collation centre, Dr.
Bello Fadile, who is also a director in the
office of the National Security Adviser (NSA)
and former minister of Niger Delta Affairs,
Elder Godsday Orubebe, following which
Orubebe disrupted collation of results for
several minutes, citing INEC’s refusal to
attend to a protest by the PDP over results
from some Northern states whereas the
commission had set up a committee to
investigate allegations against the party in
Rivers State.
Jonathan, our sources said, called and
ordered Orubebe to desist from further
disrupting the collation process, failing which
he would be whisked out by security
operatives, which explains why Orubebe who
had earlier rebuffed all entreaties to retreat
from the podium, suddenly went back to his
seat and remained calm for the rest of the
exercise.
The source said that following the
development, the president had directed that
certain members of the party including
governors of some Northern states should not
be allowed access to him for now, “and that is
why it was only governors of South-East and
South-West states that paid him a visit on
Monday. The only Northern Governor on the
entourage was the Plateau governor. The party
won in his state.”
Meanwhile, governors, states chairmen and
governorship candidates of the party have
been strategising on how to win the
governorship and state assembly elections
this Saturday. They met at the national
headquarters of the party in Abuja, on Friday.

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how-ministers-governors-sabotaged-jonathan