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In this interview with KAMARUDEEN OGUNDELE, the Director of Communications and Strategy of the All Progressives Congress’ Presidential Campaign Council, Festus Keyamo (SAN), says the 2019 presidential election reflects the will of Nigerians
Q: Now that the presidential election is over, how do you feel?
We feel fulfilled. We give thanks to God. We also thank Nigerians for believing in President Muhammadu Buhari; for believing in his promises and his integrity. In the editorials from across the world, it has been reviewed that what saw the President through this election was his integrity. The election was a referendum on the integrity of the President and the Peoples Democratic Party’s candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. So, we feel fulfilled but also feel challenged that this show of confidence that Nigerians have displayed in the President is for him to double efforts to deliver on his mandate. If you listened to his speech after the declaration, you will see that he is a president who is determined, focused and re-energised to deliver on his promises.
Q: Would you say the election was free and fair?
If you take the views of the international, continental and regional observers as well as most local observers, you will agree with me that 95 per cent of them have returned with the verdict that the election, despite a few hiccups, reflected the wishes of Nigerians. In some areas, votes were cancelled which also affected the APC in some of our strongholds. In one of the local governments in Rivers State, we lost 17,000 votes due to cancellations. There are many other areas where there was outright rigging by the opposition like Delta, Cross-River and Akwa Ibom states. In many states in the South-East, they didn’t use card readers; they just wrote results. We have evidence to that effect. We are only waiting for them (PDP) to bring it on. We will meet them at the tribunal.
To answer your question in clear terms, the election reflected the will of Nigerians. The United Kingdom attested to that when it said independent results collated by them gave the same results with INEC. Those local people, who are anti-Buhari and have continued to spin the narratives, can keep doing that but we have a new government in place.
Q: The opposition alleged that the APC frustrated INEC in order to force a postponement so that it could perfect its rigging plan. What’s your take on that?

By raising the allegation of rigging, the PDP is only trying to play to the gallery and satisfy the emotion of their supporters. Let me tell you why Atiku could never have won that election. You cannot win election in this country by only locking down two regions. Historically, we have known that; not even by locking down the two largest regions in this country. If you don’t expand your scope beyond two regions, you are bound to fail. What happened? Atiku got 5/5 in the South-East, 6/6 in the South-South. In the South-West, we got 4/6; in the North-Central, 4/6; in the North-West, we got 7/7 and North-East, which is the region of Atiku, we got 4/6. You can see that he could not effectively go beyond the South-East and South-South. Even when Buhari was at the peak of the opposition, when he locked the North-West and North-East, despite the rigging by the PDP, he still could not get into Presidency. Not until he forged an alliance with the South-West, led by the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, that he clinched the Presidency. We have made our calculation and I will tell you if we do this election 100 times, Atiku will lose with the kind of demographic calculation on the table. He was the one that pushed himself into this sectional endorsement whereas Buhari was pushing for a pan-Nigeria mandate. Who is more experienced in this if you look at the two of them? You can’t compare the experience of Buhari with that of Atiku who has consistently contested presidential elections since 2003. When Atiku was looking for the tickets of the big political parties, Buhari pulled out to form his own. I want to challenge Atiku; when he was denied ticket all over, why didn’t he pull out to form his own party if he knew he was that popular? They (PDP) wanted to scam Nigerians with the meaningless phrase, ‘Getting Nigeria to work again’. Nigerians have rejected them; now they want to be scamming their supporters. Their supporters should shine their eyes. Let me tell you why their analysis is wrong. The Buhari votes have consistently remained the same even when he was in the opposition and there was no card reader. Then, he was not in government. You will expect that his figure should increase now that he is in government but unfortunately, his votes reduced across the country to show you the efficiency of the card reader. When the PDP was in power, their figures kept increasing up to the point the card reader was introduced. Then, their figure dropped drastically. For us as the opposition, Buhari, without the smart card reader, always got between 10 million and 12 million votes in the North. When the smart card reader was introduced, he still got the same figure; this is scientific. Let us be honest with ourselves. All the claims by the PDP are complete nonsense and just to raise the hope of their supporters. They are free to take the battle anywhere, we will be prepared to meet them anywhere but they should know there is a government in place. They should also know that Nigeria is bigger than all of us. In term of street credibility, Atiku can’t match Buhari. They can’t even take the battle to the streets because they don’t have acceptance. Nigerians overwhelmingly voted Buhari. If they want to go to court, we will meet them there. (Punch)
Q: Now that the presidential election is over, how do you feel?
We feel fulfilled. We give thanks to God. We also thank Nigerians for believing in President Muhammadu Buhari; for believing in his promises and his integrity. In the editorials from across the world, it has been reviewed that what saw the President through this election was his integrity. The election was a referendum on the integrity of the President and the Peoples Democratic Party’s candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. So, we feel fulfilled but also feel challenged that this show of confidence that Nigerians have displayed in the President is for him to double efforts to deliver on his mandate. If you listened to his speech after the declaration, you will see that he is a president who is determined, focused and re-energised to deliver on his promises.
Q: Would you say the election was free and fair?
If you take the views of the international, continental and regional observers as well as most local observers, you will agree with me that 95 per cent of them have returned with the verdict that the election, despite a few hiccups, reflected the wishes of Nigerians. In some areas, votes were cancelled which also affected the APC in some of our strongholds. In one of the local governments in Rivers State, we lost 17,000 votes due to cancellations. There are many other areas where there was outright rigging by the opposition like Delta, Cross-River and Akwa Ibom states. In many states in the South-East, they didn’t use card readers; they just wrote results. We have evidence to that effect. We are only waiting for them (PDP) to bring it on. We will meet them at the tribunal.
To answer your question in clear terms, the election reflected the will of Nigerians. The United Kingdom attested to that when it said independent results collated by them gave the same results with INEC. Those local people, who are anti-Buhari and have continued to spin the narratives, can keep doing that but we have a new government in place.
Q: The opposition alleged that the APC frustrated INEC in order to force a postponement so that it could perfect its rigging plan. What’s your take on that?

By raising the allegation of rigging, the PDP is only trying to play to the gallery and satisfy the emotion of their supporters. Let me tell you why Atiku could never have won that election. You cannot win election in this country by only locking down two regions. Historically, we have known that; not even by locking down the two largest regions in this country. If you don’t expand your scope beyond two regions, you are bound to fail. What happened? Atiku got 5/5 in the South-East, 6/6 in the South-South. In the South-West, we got 4/6; in the North-Central, 4/6; in the North-West, we got 7/7 and North-East, which is the region of Atiku, we got 4/6. You can see that he could not effectively go beyond the South-East and South-South. Even when Buhari was at the peak of the opposition, when he locked the North-West and North-East, despite the rigging by the PDP, he still could not get into Presidency. Not until he forged an alliance with the South-West, led by the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, that he clinched the Presidency. We have made our calculation and I will tell you if we do this election 100 times, Atiku will lose with the kind of demographic calculation on the table. He was the one that pushed himself into this sectional endorsement whereas Buhari was pushing for a pan-Nigeria mandate. Who is more experienced in this if you look at the two of them? You can’t compare the experience of Buhari with that of Atiku who has consistently contested presidential elections since 2003. When Atiku was looking for the tickets of the big political parties, Buhari pulled out to form his own. I want to challenge Atiku; when he was denied ticket all over, why didn’t he pull out to form his own party if he knew he was that popular? They (PDP) wanted to scam Nigerians with the meaningless phrase, ‘Getting Nigeria to work again’. Nigerians have rejected them; now they want to be scamming their supporters. Their supporters should shine their eyes. Let me tell you why their analysis is wrong. The Buhari votes have consistently remained the same even when he was in the opposition and there was no card reader. Then, he was not in government. You will expect that his figure should increase now that he is in government but unfortunately, his votes reduced across the country to show you the efficiency of the card reader. When the PDP was in power, their figures kept increasing up to the point the card reader was introduced. Then, their figure dropped drastically. For us as the opposition, Buhari, without the smart card reader, always got between 10 million and 12 million votes in the North. When the smart card reader was introduced, he still got the same figure; this is scientific. Let us be honest with ourselves. All the claims by the PDP are complete nonsense and just to raise the hope of their supporters. They are free to take the battle anywhere, we will be prepared to meet them anywhere but they should know there is a government in place. They should also know that Nigeria is bigger than all of us. In term of street credibility, Atiku can’t match Buhari. They can’t even take the battle to the streets because they don’t have acceptance. Nigerians overwhelmingly voted Buhari. If they want to go to court, we will meet them there. (Punch)
