REPORT ON THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 28 MARCH, 2015 AS A MEMBERS OF FOD

PREAMBLE

            On 30th of December 2013 we dumped PDP for APC

All members of LEAD, a political structure of over a million memberships under the able leadership of High Chief Ikechi Emenike dumped PDP for APC.

            All members of LEAD now in APC who emerged as delegates for the presidential primaries voted overwhemingly for General Mohamadu Buhari and he emerged as the presidential candidate of APC.

THE FIELD OPERATIONS DIRECTORATE ROLE.

            The Field Operations Department, FOD, had its primary objective as to get GMB elected and declared president of Nigeria in 2015.

            FOD was to exercise field-related oversight functions that would ensure that all necessary assignments that would lead to victory would be carried out, such as mobilisation of voters, track and monitor the sensitive voting materials to the point of voting and back; bring out canvassers who are ten (10) in number who will in turn mobilize others, etc.

            FOD is an implementation directorate. It is the lynch pin of our field game for the presidential election. All other activities of the presidential project are hinged on FOD.

            FOD has the responsibility of supervising State co-ordinators and Returning officers. The duties of FOD in the states are fully articulated in the manual.

            In Abia State, the above listed functions were carried out. The three men involved were Engr. Chris Okpechi (FOD), Hon. Grant Nwaogu (FOD) and Dr. Ndukwe (State Coordinator) for the execution of the primary objective of FOD, they were sent to Abuja and Makurdi respectively for training and retraining. At Makurdi, they assisted the resource persons in training the Local Government Coordinators from South East and North Central geopolitical zones.

            Back home in Abia State, the LG coordinators trained the ward coordinators under the supervision of the State coordinator and FOD members. By this process all our members were trained and their duties and responsibilities were communicated to them.

            The Ward Coordinators also assembled some ward members and executives and taught them on the whole process. Training was concluded a few days before the election, thus making it possible for members to internalize and practice the procedures before the election date.

ELECTION DAY

            Election took place on March 28. 2015 as announced and all our people followed the whole procedure as instructed. There were no major incidents of violence or thuggery. Major disagreements occurred with the malfunctioning of the card readers in some polling units. Our people insisted that there would be no manual accreditation and that accreditation must stop in line with instruction given to them, and this was upheld. Our people also insisted that the number accredited must be loudly declared. This was done.

            Also on the conclusion of voting, all unused materials were cancelled and resulted entered in the form EC8A and publicly announced.

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION RESULTS ANALYSIS

            While we do not agree with the result as published by PDP, GMB scored 13,394 while Goodluck Jonathan scored 368,303.

            We considered the result rather favourable even though we failed, because we were able to reduce the margin of default by a good percentage in comparism with the 2011 Presidential Election in which GMB scored 20,335, as against Goodluck Jonathan’s 4,985,246. This was made possible by our insistence on the laid down rules by INEC such as use of card readers, use of PVCs, rejected of manual accreditation. Etc.

            Inspite of our vigilance, it was clear that some INEC personnel had compromised themselves as can be seen from their body language. For instance, they resisted the announcement of total number accredited and cancellation of extra ballot papers until they were intimidated.

CHALLENGES

            The major challenge we had was lack of money to carry out the assignment. The money sent to the State arrived late (on the eve of the election) and it was boarded by the other group of APC.

            Another challenge is fictionalization of the party. We did not work together as one family. The other faction was money-conscious and that was all that mattered to them. There was no commitment from their side. It is even doubtful if they voted for GMB.

PROSPECTS

APC has bright prospects provided:

(i)       Fictionalization is addressed and the other group accepts Barr. Fabian Okonkwo as the authentic elected State Chairman.

(ii)      Financial disbursements should be made in time to enable the   mobilisation of people.

(iii)     The recent mass exodus of PDP to APC shows what APC will be. A             little caution is necessary here because these people who are          flaunting their pedigrees in politics were there when PDP was         defeated by APC but they couldn’t bail it out. Their weight is       “Paper weight” and since they couldn’t add value to their former    party, they should be eased out.