OPC leader, Gani Adams, in an over an hour long interview, has defended his support for former President Goodluck Jonathan at the last general election saying that he was exercising his franchise.
In an interview with journalists at his Lagos home over the weekend, the National Coordinator of the O’odua Peoples Congress (OPC), Gani Adams, defended his support for former President Goodluck Jonathan at the last general election, saying that he was exercising his franchise.
He insisted that his bias for Jonathan notwithstanding, the OPC were not partisan at the election.
"We don’t believe that anything we did during the election was wrong,” said Mr. Adams, who heads a faction of the OPC.
"It’s matter of ideological decision. Assuming we go to full partisanship, it could be worse than that. You did not see me during the election putting on PDP clothes, you did not see me in the election at the rally of PDP.
"But I, Otunba Gani Adams, as a citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, am I not more than 18 years? I’m 45. And we have many who are above 45, according to the Constitution they have the right to exercise their franchise to the candidate of their choice. And that does not mean that you belong to any political party.
"Why should I regret at the age of 45 to vote for someone? In any democracy, it’s either you win or you lose. Jonathan has moved on from the election. He’s the one being assigned by AU to monitor the election in Tanzania which was free and fair. Let them be shouting about Jonathan and shouting about Gani Adams. They have to face their own music and their problem now. If you are not in power people will not see you, you are in power what will you give to the people now."
He justified the OPC’s procession in Lagos just before the general election saying it was in protest of an impending faulty electoral process.
"Now the table has changed. Some of them that abused us online cannot come out again. They don’t know what to say.
"You now see that they were not trying to drive Jonathan based on ideology, they want the power in the centre because of economical reasons. And most of them, Buhari has told them that you are not getting the kind of system you got from Jonathan. I’m not the kind of person that will give you dollars when you come to my office, it’s handshake and photograph."