By  LUCKY OJI
Evangelist David Ohwobeya is the National President of Unveilers of Good Leaders Foundation (UGLF), a non- governmental organisation. In this interview, he speaks of President Goodluck  Jonathan’s acceptance across political divides and INEC’s preparation towards conducting a free and fair election.
Excerpts:

Evang. Ohwobeya

The presidential primaries of the ruling People’s Democratic Party PDP has come and gone, eventually  President Goodluck Jonathan emerged the winner. How had your group, the Unveilers of Good Leaders Foundation,  viewed the outcome of the primary?

From what we saw, including all Nigerians, the PDP presidential primary was conducted free and fair and that was why his major opponent Alhaji Atiku Abubarkar had no other option but to accept defeat.  It amazed me that till now Nigerians and prominent leaders in the country are still congratulating President Jonathan on his victory; it shows that the people want him; his acceptance by all Nigerians was demonstrated by the party’s delegates at the primary.

Winning PDP presidential primary is completely different from that of the general elections; do you see any possibility of President Jonathan winning in the April presidential election?

The party’s primary was like a student passing a test, before the examination proper. You will agree with me that when a student passes a test, there is every tendency that he or she would also pass the real exams, and that is exactly what the delegates of PDP had shown to Nigerians by voting en mass for President Jonathan, which by implication he (Jonathan) would also win the forth coming presidential election.

I have the confidence that President Jonathan would win in the general election, because even before PDP conducted the presidential primary, my organisation had carried out an opinion poll in the 36 states of the federation, and the results were overwhelming and convincing that indeed, President Jonathan would win in the general election.

One thing is very sure, Jonathan’s victory is beyond political party, the votes that will make him winner is not only coming from PDP alone, but from all Nigerians. Other political parties could win the governorship at the state level, but I can assure you that the majority of Nigerians irrespective of their political parties and affiliations would vote for Jonathan.

Immediately we received the opinion poll results from our various state coordinators in the 36 states, the organization held an emergency meeting and reviewed the results, it was at the meeting, that the national working committee passed a resolution that President Jonathan be endorsed and adopted  as the organization’s presidential candidate for the April general election.

Shortly after the adoption, which was widely reported, we have been receiving numerous calls from Nigerians both within and outside the country, commending us for our decision in supporting and adopting President Jonathan.

You can see that for the few months that President Jonathan is ruling the country, things have changed tremendously, our economy is getting stable by the day, even the power sector is rapidly improving, foreign investor are beginning to show interest in investing in the country.

How about the prevailing peace in Niger Delta, you would agree with me that before now the Niger Delta region is more or less a war zone, but today, President Jonathan has put in so much effort to see that peace returns to the region, and Niger Deltans are happy about the development.

All this put into consideration one do not need a soothsayer to tell you that Nigerians are just waiting patiently for April general election to vote for President Jonathan, and I can confidently tell you that he would win freely, fairly and convincingly, because the entire country is now his constituency.

You can also see that even the international community is now reckoning with Nigeria, we have all it takes to be one of the developing countries in the world that is why Nigerians are supporting President Jonathan to effect the desired changes Nigerians have been agitating for.

How about the award your group is planning to present to President Jonathan?

We are presenting the award to President Jonathan very soon, it was due to some minor challenges that delayed the presentation, but any moment from now, the group will storm Abuja, to present the award of Excellent and Medal Freedom to the president, and he is the first Nigerian president nominated for such an award.

With the various complaints that voter registration exercise organized by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), nation wide was marred by manipulations, do think  the country’s electoral umpire, would be able to conduct a credible election come April?

Well I think Prof Jega and INEC have done their best, the problem  could not be INEC, the commission has shown to Nigerians that it was ready to get all Nigerians registered and as well prepared to conduct a credible election.

What I think could be the problem is the politicians, if INEC succeeds it depends on the way the politicians conduct themselves during the elections. A situation where desperate politicians would want to hijack ballot boxes and materials to suit their interest, then the blame should not be directed to INEC.

From our findings INEC is very ready to conduct a credible election, but our fear is that  the commission would not be allowed to do its job. Therefore if the commission is not given the opportunity to prove its competence the entire exercise would be rubbished.
I am confident that INEC would conduct credible election.

What exactly is your group doing now to ensure Jonathan‘s victory?

We have already embarked on massive sensitization on why Nigerians should vote for Jonathan. We are working, I can assure you, and with the way things are going, come April general election President Jonathan would be our elected president, and Nigeria would start witnessing a new era of total transformation of the country. In addition, I want to advise all political office holders, and those seeking for same to emulate what is good, for that is the only way their names would be in annals of the nation’s history.