Mr Daniel Bwala, spokesman for the Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Council, in this interview with DIRISU YAKUBU gives reasons the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), claimed that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress won the February 25 presidential election

What are your expectations as the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal which begins sittings on Monday (today)

An election is in three stages actually; the pre-election which is what people do to campaign, then the election period on the day of the election and then the post-election which is what our law provides where anybody who is aggrieved with the outcome can go to court to test the claims of otherwise or otherwise of what the Independent National Electoral Commission did.

Historically, this election has been adjudged as the worst election conducted so far, not because there were no devices or willing people or low voter turnout. We had an upsurge in voter registration this time around. With the movement and enthusiasm of the young people, everybody believed that this 2023 election was to define the path for Nigeria, coupled with the fact  that you also had a third political party for the first time challenging very strongly.

 Unfortunately, INEC conspired with the government and the ruling party and rigged the election which is why we are in court. That’s why the PDP and Atiku Abubakar are in court at the moment to establish that. I think that the law and the facts are pretty clear; we on our part do not want to be prejudicial you know for obvious reasons.

Apart from being a spokesman, as a lawyer too, this is what I do all my life and I do this for a living. So, we don’t talk about the strength or otherwise of a case; all we can tell you is this is what we brought to the court.

The Commander-in-Chief recently gave reasons the opposition lost the election. He did mention that opposition parties like the PDP and the Labour Party were overconfident, relied on foreign backers and lacked strategy going into the election

Who are the foreign backers? This is not  surprising to me personally. The reason is because, from a vantage point of view, I know that nothing that comes out of the President’s mouth at the moment in a bid to please Tinubu would be enough. In the build-up to the election and even the primaries of the APC, it was believed that Buhari did not work for Tinubu or he did not want Tinubu to win. Whether this is true or not remains to be seen.

So in the general election, you remember when they were fighting each other. The campaign council said the presidency was not supporting them, the presidency was against them, naira redesign was produced to make them lose. There were lots of fingers-pointing among them. Tinubu had to do what he did. So Buhari is trying as much as possible to please him.

 What exactly do you mean? Why won’t Buhari want Tinubu to win?

In retirement, you have to be careful about what you did in the past so that you can have a peaceful retirement.

You see because in 2015, Goodluck Jonathan conceded defeat. Muhammadu Buhari was quoted as saying on the BBC Hausa service that for that singular act of heroism by Jonathan, he would forgive him but was that what happened?

 Later his wife, Patience was chased around on corruption grounds; the people around him were chased. So every President who is alive will have to be careful about that because if your appointee is being investigated, the fear that it might be linked to you covertly or overtly will give you concern and so you will also be careful.

 It is argued that the appointees in the President Buhari’s administration will go as the most corrupt.

Are you saying there are no appointees in this government that performed creditably?

Those people are living in Banana Republic. They are living in a fantasy world. Let me give you an example. They campaigned on three promises and we have gone past campaigns. I hate to have to discuss them as though we’re in a campaign but when they say we are above board, you ask yourself about what?

They set three standards. On those three standards, what have they done? For example, I can only score Buhari fair in the area of insecurity because I come from the North-East and I know where we were before he became president and where we are today right?

Are you saying Buhari made that statement for Tinubu to treat him well in retirement?

That is one but the second thing is that Buhari is leaving. He has said so many things that can be considered as conflicting. On one occasion, he would say we have done better than everyone, on another occasion, he will say I’ve tried my best, forgive me. On another occasion, he will say I know that Nigerians are not happy with me on this and that.

Recently, he said when  he retired, he would go to Daura, but if he is disturbed, he will go to Niger Republic.

The thing is the old man has tried his best and someone like me who has defended him in the past cannot but appreciate the fact of his intentions.

When he leaves office, he will be rated a poor president on the grounds that he was unable to checkmate his appointees.

No president in Nigeria has not taken time to checkmate his people. Buhari never sacked anybody. If you see one or two sacked appointees, it is because the people fought to a point where he could no longer say no.

Back to the elections, did the PDP underrate the strength of the ruling party?

They’re trying to reinvent the wheel. You know they say a lie that is told many times will make the liar think that the lie is not the truth because he said it so many times; it has affected his subconscious mind.

One fact is clear, this the election was not won, so there is no basis to say we were overconfident and these other ones were not, no! The fact remains that the election was won by the PDP, and rigged by the APC.

The entire international community that came and observed, in their reports, have condemned the outcome.

Locally, all the different groups including YIAGA discredited the process and the outcome.

But ECOWAS and the AU lauded the process

ECOWAS is a sub-regional body and you have to understand the strategic gain they benefit when they are currying favour from Nigeria. Nigeria is a big player in Africa so those are understood. That’s why the global community looked at the elections and laughed.

Look at the London Times which said that for this election to be corrected, it must be subjected to litigation in Nigeria and the courts should have a second look at it. So, it was not a case of overconfidence.

Now they talk about foreign backers! I don’t even know who the foreign backers are. All we were saying throughout the campaigns was that the international community should be watchful to be sure that the government of the day, which is common in Africa, did not use the machinery of the state to intimidate the opposition.

Anywhere in the world, if you are coming as an outsider in an election, that is going to be your request.

Ordinarily, in Africa, the problem is they want to intimidate.

Look at what Kenyatta Uhuru did. That is where we in the opposition have confidence that this election will be annulled.

Kenyatta Uhuru did everything but at the end of the day, the Supreme Court of Kenya overruled him.

All we are asking at the moment is that the courts in Nigeria beginning with the tribunal and the Supreme Court should not be intimidated, coaxed or induced by anybody but most especially by the governing party and the government.