I would have gone on exile had Jonathan won – Dozie Ikedife

 I would have gone on exile had Jonathan won – Dozie  Ikedife

The Director of Contact and Mobiliza­tion of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and member of General Mu­hammadu Buhari Presidential Cam­paign team in Anambra State, Mr Dozie Iked­ife (Jnr) has said that he would have gone into self-exile if President Goodluck Jonathan had won the April 11 presidential election.

He explained how the APC worked against Jonathan in the South East and scuttled his (Jona­than’s) chances of winning the number of votes he won in 2011 in the zone. In this interview with DAVID ONWUCHEKWA,Ikedife also talked about mass defection of people from other political parties to the APC. He said those defectors were sure of back seats in the party. Excerpts:

What is your position in APC?

I was a member of the General Muhammadu Buhari presidential campaign team in Anambra and the Director of Contact and Mobilization of APC campaign in the state during the just con­cluded general elections. To that extent, we were in charge of running the presidential campaigns in Anambra State.

Did you foresee APC becoming a ruling party?

Well, in 2011, I was almost certain that General Muhammadu Buhari was going to win the presi­dential election. My journey to APC started from the CPC. And the reason behind us forming APC was that we believe with a strong opposition party, it will be easier for us to win the presidency and it came to fruition because it was carefully thought out and carefully executed. I was certain that APC was going to win the presidential election. I knew it wasn’t a joke.

What’s your take on Igbo’s political miscalculation during the election?

Yes, it was political miscalculation on the part of the Igbo for not voting massively for the APC. I have never seen a people pack all their eggs in one basket. That was what most Igbo did and it was not good for the Igbo nation.

However, now that APC has won the presiden­tial election, the APC government will treat every­body as members of one entity called Nigeria. So, the APC government is going to carry every ethnic group along for the next four years.

Do you also foresee the death of PDP and APGA in Anambra?

Well, we all know that APGA exists only in Anambra State. So, I believe that APGA is on its way out in the final analysis. APC is going to re-strategize and in the next gubernatorial election, the APC is going to take over the government of Anambra State. And if we take over the govern­ment of Anambra State, that means that APGA is dead. As for the PDP, it is in coma in Anambra and it will soon die a natural death. PDP has already stabbed itself with internal crisis and it is bound to bleed to death. The party will be found dead, dead not only in Anambra but in the entire South East and South South and by extension other geo-political zones. There are lots of infighting in the PDP in Anambra State that will hasten its extinc­tion in the state.

Are you concerned about the number of people defecting to APC?

Well, since we won the presidential election, a lot of people have been clamouring to join the APC. But in Anambra State here, we have the state chairman, we have one of our national lead­ers, Senator Chris Ngige. They take the decisions on how we are going to move APC forward in An­ambra. So, right now we don’t have any member­ship drive and we are not doing any formal regis­tration right now.

Be that as it may, people are clamouring and trying to join our great party. Many have claimed that they have joined the APC but they don’t have any membership card. We are not issuing new membership cards right now. So, the whole thing depends on the leadership of the APC, the execu­tive in the state and the national body, National Ex­ecutive Council of the party.

Yes, we have people joining but they are half members because they don’t have membership cards. We expect people joining APC from other political parties now to take back seats. They can’t just come and join APC today and look for front seats. We have Oscar Udoji, we have George Moughalu, we have Owelle Rochas in Imo State. These are men of repute, men of high profile, among others in the APC in Igbo land. APC has staunch and strong members down here.

Will the Buhari administration to fa­vour Igbo?

Buhari is a man who believes in the consti­tution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He believes in the Rule of Law and we believe that his administration will be anchored on that. He understands the importance of the Igbo and the role Igbo played in his emergence as president-elect.

I want to make this point, if not for the Igbo APC in the South-East, there is no how APC would have won the election. In 2011, President Goodluck Jonathan was awarded about six mil­lion votes in the South-East. If not for those of us, that would have been repeated. But we said no. We scuttled it. So, going into the election, the leadership of APC in South-East had the main focus to make sure that Jonathan didn’t get half of that six million votes that he was given in 2011. But the game plan of the PDP was to make sure that in 2015 that Jonathan was award­ed again about seven to eight million votes. But when you go back and check the results of the election, Jonathan had only 3.5 million votes in the South-East. So, if we had not been vigilant, if we had not been committed and resolute, then Jonathan would have scored seven to eight mil­lion votes.

And you have to realise that Buhari beat Jonathan by over two million votes and that was because we in APC in the South-East re­duced the votes of Jonathan to about three mil­lion votes.

So, my point is if we had not done our home­work right, if we had not been resolute, Jonathan would have been awarded eight million votes in the South-East and he would have won the presidential election. The presidential election that was won by the APC was based on hard work of members of APC in the South-East and also the doggedness of members of the APC in the other zones, in the North and in the West but we played a major role. I thank God we won the presidency. Yes, Jonathan wouldn’t have won with the efforts we made because he relied on the South East but we said no. He wouldn’t have won because he performed so poorly that he didn’t deserve victory. If Jonathan had won the presidential election, I would have gone on exile.

-Sun