APC Reveals How 2015 Elections Were Won

The All Progressives Congress national publicity secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said the transparent and open manner in which the party’s presidential candidate emerged was the major factor in its eventual victory in the 2015 elections, rather than money politics.

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter

Lai Mohammed

Mohammed said this in Abuja at the 55th annual general conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).

He stated that during the campaign the Peoples Democratic Party outgunned the APC on many flanks including money spent on campaign and advertisements, The Sun reports.

The party secretary noted that if the process that led to Buhari’s emergence were not open and transparent, there was no way the APC would have received the kind of widespread support within and outside the party in the run-up to the 2015 elections.

Mohammed said: “The then ruling party outspent the opposition in the area of advertisements, whether in the print or electronic media. Accord­ing to a report credited to Compliance and Content Monitoring Limited, out of the N3.23 billion that was spent on political campaign advertisement during the last campaign, the PDP spent N2.5 billion or 77 per cent of the total, compared to N728 million or 23 per cent by the APC.

“The PDP also hired the best of columnists and talk­ing heads that popped up ubiquitously at many radio and television stations, in addition to floating all sorts of organisations that cam­paigned for it, even before the official takeoff of the campaign. Despite being outgunned on all flanks, however, the opposition remained focused and kept strictly to its script, refus­ing to allow the PDP to set agenda for it.”

He noted that the lesson learnt is that no amount of money or sweet-mouthed salesmen can sell a bad product, pointing out that a government in power swims or sinks with its performance. The secretary stressed that it will have a salutary effect on the electioneering for future elections.

He spoke on: “The Role of Political Parties in Sustain­ing the Gains of the 2015 General Elections: The APC Perspective.”

Mohammed stated that equally important in the success of the party at the polls was the choice of Prof Yemi Osinbanjo as the president’s running mate.

“The choice of the run­ning mate to Buhari pushed our party to the limit, be­cause that choice needed to address the religious concerns that were raised before the elections, as well as meet the geo-po­litical considerations that emerged with the choice of Buhari.

“Impressive as the re­sume of Prof Osinbajo is, his choice would not have complemented that of Bu­hari if it had not responded to the religious and region­al concerns that were raised at the time,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Kaduna state governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai has been chosen by the APC to head a 7-man committee that will oversee the conduct of the party’s primary election slated for August 29 ahead of the forthcoming Kogi state governorship poll scheduled for November 21.