Shehu: We Feared Election Will be Annulled
In this encounter with Onyebuchi Ezigbo, the Spokesman of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Mallam Garba Shehu, shares some of their fears in the lead up to the March 28 presidential poll
Just as Nigerians celebrate the biggest victory of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), not many knew that the country passed through the crucible to make that happen. One of the key actors in the campaign train of the President-elect, the Spokesman of the APC Campaign Council and a notable media practitioner, Mallam Garba Shehu bared his mind on the thrills, frills, behind-thescenes intrigues and fears that went with the presidential race.
Despite the euphoria of victory, the APC campaign Spokesman did not hide his admiration and respect for President Goodluck Jonathan for his courage to concede defeat, an action he said helped to douse looming post-election crisis.
“Look, everyone had concerns because what if, God forbid, he declared a coup? These scenarios had been laid before Nigerians. Dr. Doyin Okupe, the Special Adviser to the president, was he not on Youtube, recorded on video, saying that Buhari will never become President? What do you take that for? It means that Buhari would win and they will take it away from him. Do you follow?
“This careless talk, arrogant display of power, had come from the Villa. Many sources with linkages to power: Asari-Dokubo, Chief Clarke and all of them, were they not sounding words to the president? They have said it that they would take away their part of the country from Nigeria if Buhari wins, but for the President to have come and say that I accept defeat as the leader of the country; that had an effect of really calming things down. And that’s why, whether they like it or not, President Jonathan has written his name in gold insofar this is concerned.”
If there was anything Shehu will live to remember, it was how he was able to weather through the muddy waters of a hard-fought presidential campaign, especially a campaign that was riddled with tantrums and hate messages.”
Shehu said the President-elect General Muhammadu Buhari gave no room for presumptions about the kind of campaign messages the council dished out and his distaste for hate messages.
“The starting point is that the presidential candidate himself laid down the rule from day one. General Buhari said don’t abuse anybody. Don’t beat or attack anybody because of this campaign. He set the rules that we must not abuse or insult anyone. So, we were guided by that.
“But let me tell you this is also without meaning to be boastful. Coming from some professional background, you know that the most important thing in a campaign is the message. Insult, abuses and throwing of mud don’t win elections anywhere. If those things win elections, they would have won it for President Jonathan because they threw everything at us.
“Look, let me tell you, we haven’t done one documentary that is negative on President Jonathan. We didn’t do. We isolated the issues. We knew that the country is concerned about security, the economy and the effect of joblessness and corruption. And you know the presidential candidate led the way.
“One of the reoccurring concerns mooted almost all through Buhari’s presidential campaigns was that he was always saying too little. But Shehu disagreed with this, insisting that the former Head of State has a load of agenda for the country summarized under the tackling of Boko Haram, kidnapping, unemployment, corruption and economy.
“Because if you have young people gainfully employed, corruption, free country, economy that is thriving and doing well and people are living in a secure environment, who is that person who is going to create trouble? So, we had a message and the message was successfully taken to the people. If you ask me, was it easy staying on the message, I would say No, it wasn’t easy.”
But he was quick to refute a story linking Buhari with an assertion that he would dismiss Boko Haram within three months, saying what the President-elect stated was that the insurgency will be stamped out in the shortest possible time.
It was not all a smooth-sailing experience for the Media aide as he narrated his nightmare struggling to contain several outbursts and tantrums by the campaign spokesman of the Peoples Democratic Party.
“The party supporters, the low level masses don’t understand the game that played out. If they see Mr. Fani-Kayode on the television throwing insults at Buhari, your phone will begin to ring. You, what are you doing? What are you doing? You are not answering this man. Why won’t you respond? The masses want you to respond in like manner. But we understood what was playing out.
“They wanted to take us off the message. They didn’t want us to talk about corruption or insecurity. So, we had to fight. As it I said, it was not easy for our supporters. Some of them did not understand us. They felt like we were conspirators inside. That we had come to undermine the campaign because here is somebody who is throwing insults, abuses and why are you not replying him?
“Mr. Kayode even declared when he took up the job that he would go after the personal life of General Buhari. And we maintained that we would not join issues with him and you can see that all efforts for us to stand side-by-side with him in a TV debate failed. I can’t stand with somebody whose stock in trade is to throw mud, insults and abuses on people. So, that’s how we managed it.
“So, having been Editor and all of that, you are used to all that with your family. Look, I have been involved in presidential campaigns about three or four times in the past, the difference is that this is the most fearful campaign that I have ever experienced. This is the most lifethreatening campaign because we were dealing with opponent we thought would stop at nothing because they were throwing everything into it. So, we were not taking anything for granted.
“It affected our lives. Would you see me in a night club? You can’t risk it because you don’t even know who is trailing you. And it came as a huge relief. Again, we were getting security reports from our own sources. Until the president said I concede and congratulate Buhari, we had felt that at every minute that something wrong would happen. There was a clear and discernible threat to democracy as a system of government.
“I can say that the President acted with grace. He surprised us because we never expected that they would accept defeat. In fact, the sense everyone had was that they probably had plan A, B, C or D. And in any case, with the kind of thing that Mr. Orubebe did at the collation center, you knew that even when the President had grace, given the chance with the community of people around him, they could have threatened this democracy.”
A consummate journalist, Shehu tried to sumup key factors that gave his principal victory and for the first time in the history of Nigerian politics saw an opposition party dethroning the ruling party at the centre.
Apart from the widely held position that the country has been mismanaged by the PDP in the last 16 years and that the environment was ripe for change, Shehu felt Buhari’s integrity did the most to win him the electorate’s endorsement.
“Let’s give it to Nigerians. Number three is the integrity factor of General Buhari. Nigerians at this time are looking for someone they could trust. Do you follow? So, it won it for him. Yes, the opposition parties have the majority than the ruling party. They came together with their number and won the elections.
“I think it is an important lesson Nigerians have come to teach the rest of the world and African country that atomisation of the parties is unhelpful. This one gets 5 per cent, that one gets 10 per cent.
But by the time you bring it together, you will see that you can defeat the ruling party and it has worked this time around.”