The Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose has said the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, made a mistake by fielding former President, Goodluck Jonathan as its presidential candidate during the 2015 polls.
Speaking over the weekend, Fayose said the defeat PDP suffered could have been averted had the party fielded a northern candidate.
Fayose said, “We lost the election because we did not pick our candidate from the north, not because Jonathan as a person was bad. It was just a political miscalculation. The fact is that my former President, I chose my word, my former President, Goodluck Jonathan, tried his best.
“But if I were him, I would not have contested at all, you understand? Because it is two ways: If he did not contest and the PDP lost out, he will still be an honourable man, and if he had given that opportunity to the north, those who defected from the PDP would not have defected.
“But that is story. Jonathan did his best and I will still continue to support him. You know I was not there when they took the decision about him becoming the flag-bearer, but it doesn’t matter. We can’t all put our mouth inside the soil. Somebody must remain with somebody. I will remain with Jonathan, even if I am the only man standing.
“A man is not measured by the amount of food he has and the amount of properties he owns. Sometimes sickness is good, it reshapes your life. Sometimes poverty is good, it helps your life. Sometimes failure makes you to reorder your life. It is not the end of your life.” On what would become of PDP, in view of 2019 elections, Governor Fayose said though the party was going through challenges at the moment, it could still come out of its present challenge before the next round of elections.
“Let me explain something to you. When you have an accident, God forbid, you don’t gather momentum immediately. Life is physical, it is normal. What the PDP is going through now is a deliberate effort to destabilize the opposition by the APC and we know that.”
Fayose while reacting to whether he is nursing any Presidency ambition in 2019, said, “For which country? Nigeria? Well, I don’t have such an ambition but I know I am going higher. Mark my words, I have said 20 things that will happen in Nigeria and more than seven have come to pass. Check the records.”
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