Sheriff: Arrogance cost Jonathan 2015 election

Ali Modu-Sheriff, chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has identified arrogance as one of the factors that contributed to the loss of former president, Goodluck Jonathan, in the 2015 presidential election.

In an interview with THISDAY, Sheriff said things would have been different if he was the one in charge. He said the former ruling party had the opportunity to win but squandered it.

“So many factors contributed to Jonathan’s failure to win the elections… I know that arrogance was one of such issues and I also know that some of our party men and women sold out,” he said.

“I may not be able to tell you everything now, but it is an open secret that even his own men worked against him. By the time we went into that election, so many things had happened which served as warning signals of failure, but they were ignored.

“If I were in charge, things would have been different. You can see even for the few weeks that we took charge; we have begun changing the old order of doing things

“If I were in charge, I would not have allowed our members, especially people who control strategic states with large voting population, to move out of the party massively in the build up to the elections.”

He said the party would coast to victory in coming elections, saying one of his targets is ensuring that “PDP gets it right”.

Sheriff said those opposed to his emergence could not deny the fact that he enjoys popularity in the party.

“Recent activities in the country have put the PDP in a safe position to rework our strategies and bounce back to power. We are already on the drawing board and I assure you we are going to get it right next time,” he said.

“It is normal for people to express dissenting opinions in such situations. Some people may have spoken against my choice, which I consider to be their right, but I don’t think it is right for you to say I emerged against popular opinion, because those who identified with me were actually more in number, but they did not deem it necessary to join issues with those who feel otherwise.

“If we do not have our own ideas, which we plan to inject and turn things round, we would not have accepted the responsibility to lead at this time.”