APC leaders are master riggers — George

Former Deputy National Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George, who was in the chairmanship race of the party before he later withdrew based on the way the PDP convention was handled then by the organisers, speaks on PDP and problems bedevilling Nigeria with select journalists. BOLA BADMUS brings excerpts:

You were among other leading PDP members that recently converged in Abuja for a conference organised by the party leadership. What actually transpired at that gathering?

You know I withdrew from the chairmanship race at the party’s last convention because I didn’t want to be part of the charade taking place there, and since then I have been out of the country and I  just came back. But a few days after my return, the party national leadership invited us to a conference in Abuja; it was a conference designed to bring everybody together, including the aggrieved aspirants during the party’s last convention.

But I vividly remember that on that night when I withdrew from the convention, when journalists asked whether I would be leaving PDP, I clearly said no. I said that I would never leave PDP, but added that the day I leave PDP I would shut my doors on politics. That means no more politics for me. That was the decision I took that night because you can’t build a house, and you are a landlord in the house, but because the house is leaking, you then abandon the house to go and become a tenant.

At the PDP conference we attended recently, the rebuilding  and how to re-galvanise the party was well discussed. It was a brilliant conference. The conference reminded the party of the previous years when the party was very vibrant, and I must express my absolute happiness that the speech by Uche Secondus, the party’s national chairman, was very humble. The speech was classic; it was something expected of somebody on a reconciliation mission.

I listened attentively to Secondus’ speech as he enumerated all those shortcomings of the past, such as imposition, lack of respect for the rule of law, and other ills of the party; those things that the party did that brought it to the canvass. Secondus then said that on behalf of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) ‘the party is sorry.’

For Secondus to have accepted that things were not being properly done within PDP as envisaged by the party’s founding fathers really touched my heart. Of course, with this apology, I was really touched, and really is there any human being who doesn’t make mistakes?

I listened to Secondus, and I saw a touch of honesty. For the first time, it must have struck many people that we are no longer in government but that we are now in opposition. With all this scenario, I now saw that PDP is really prepared for the big fight in 2019.

When you were going for the conference, did you prepare for something different from what you encountered there?

No. They invited me saying that the party’s Board of Trustees and the party’s Working Committee were organising the conference, and the conference was the first to be held after the convention. And you know what? You don’t have a second chance to make a first impression, and I would say Uche Secondus did well at the conference. He was very humble, and very reconciliatory.

He spoke genuinely from his inner minds that injustices had taken place in PDP, but that we all need to forget the past, forgive one another, and think of how to chart a way forward for PDP to make the party a vibrant opposition, a party that is ready to take power back from APC in 2019. He also spoke to Nigerians.

Some Nigerians are saying that Secondus’ apology is an admission of failure by PDP, especially, for the party’s performance while in power. Do you agree with that?

When people’s say it is an admission of failure, the result of 2015 general election already showed it, and that was why we lost to APC. So there is no need for anybody trying to make unnecessary political statement out of that. If PDP had not failed as a result of certain ills that pervaded the party then, such as imposition, impunity, lack of respect for internal democracy and others, APC would not have won the elections of 2015.

But that was then, PDP of today is different. We have learnt our lessons. We are now seriously preparing for the journey to return to Aso Rock. If you want to be honest with yourself, you must be able to tell yourself the truth. PDP truly had erred in the past, but today the party is a different one.

After listening to Secondus’ speech at that conference, I told him that now you have talked the talk, now is the time for you to walk the talk. I said now let’s rebuild the party. There is no organisation that will be on the free highways forever. The organisation must, at one time or the other, encounter one challenge or the other. This is what happened to PDP. But we are now back stronger.

•  Kogi politics and ‘sleeping’ opposition

But some Nigerians are saying that things can never be the same again with PDP, as some key members have already defected to other political parties: people like Professor Jerry Gana, and Professor Tunde Adeniran. How would you react to that?

In spite of the past challenges that PDP had, it still remains the most formidable political party in Nigeria today. PDP still remains the party to beat, and I strongly believe that if we work very hard, we are going to retake power from APC. Do you refer to APC as political party? No. I don’t think so. It is a party of strange bed fellows, and this is why you see the party lacking internal cohesion. Most of the times you see APC members working and even fighting against themselves. I believe with our determination to work together as a team now, PDP will be the party to beat in 2019. With the way PDP is bouncing back and waxing stronger, I can say that APC’s days in office are numbered.

What do you have to say on Professors Jerry Gana and Tunde Adeniran’s defection to SDP?

PDP is not losing sleep over Gana and Adniran’s defection to SDP. Although as the saying goes in politics, the more members, the more the merrier, but then Gana and Adeniran are adults, and the Nigerian Constitution guarantees freedom of association so they are free to associate with any political association of their choice. But then I would ask: What is Gana and Adeniran looking for in SDP? Why leave PDP where you are landlords to join SDP where you now become tenants?

Gana and Adeniran are founding members of PDP, and I remember Gana was the party’s initial Protem Secretary. These two are part of the founding fathers of PDP, I can’t understand why they are leaving a party they helped found and build. Do you say that because your house is leaking, you now park out of the house to go and rent another one? No, rather what you do is to carry out repair work on your house to make it okay again.

There is no political party that can be like PDP. PDP is the only true national party in the country. The way the founding fathers of the party designed the party’s constitution is that no geopolitical zone is to be left out in the sharing of political offices and key appointments. At every point in time, each geopolitical zone must hold one vital position or the other. This arrangement was deliberately designed by the party’s founding fathers to ensure that no geopolitical zone feels marginalised in the nation’s political arrangement.

Agitations for a Third Force to take over power from APC and PDP have been waxing stronger, and such calls have led to the formation of Nigerian Intervention Movement (NIM), and the Coalition Nigerian Movement (CNM); how do you view these developments?

What is Third Force? What do we need Third Force for? Third Force is a waste of time; it is another deceit by some of our leaders. Are those people that are in NIM and CNM not Nigerians? From membership names being linked to these groups, are those names not names of people who at one time or the other were in either APC or PDP? Are those people that will make up the Third Force coming from outer planets? Third Force is a deceit, and a waste of time. Advocates of a Third Force should be ignored. They are confusionists. The promoters of NIM and CNM should be ignored. They are selfish. PDP still remains the best option for Nigerians. It remains the best alternative to APC.

As I said earlier, we agree that we made some mistakes in the past, but the party has now learnt its lessons. Nigerians should team up with PDP. Now that Nigerians have the opportunity of comparing the two parties, APC and PDP they know the difference. They are clamouring for genuine change; they should team up with PDP to vote out APC.

Let’s have your take on the present security situation in the country, especially killings by the herdsmen in Benue, Taraba and other places across the country?

It is quite sad and unfortunate that innocent souls are being lost. The killings have to stop. If we have genuine love for one another, and see each other as brothers and sisters, there won’t be all these bloodshed. The Federal Government has to find a way to stop it. Thank God, a lot of other prominent and eminent Nigerians have been speaking out against it. Where we have genuine love for one another, these killings won’t be happening. Where we see ourselves as one, we won’t take each other’s lives in cold blood.

This is why I usually recommend Lagos State example to other states in the country. Lagos State has become a role model that should be emulated by others. In Lagos State, we welcome others, and this is why Lagos State has become a melting pot for Nigerians. These is no ethnic group that is not represented in Lagos and the Lagosians welcome everybody. We show everybody love, we don’t discriminate, we allow you to realise your potentialities.

Lagosians are very accommodating. I will like other parts of the country, I mean ethnic nationalities, to emulate the spirit of Lagos. Lagos State I’m sure is the only state where you have non-indigenes representing the state at the National Assembly. It is because Lagosians are accommodating that we allowed Bola Ahmed Tinubu, somebody from Iragbiji in Osun State, to become governor of the state.

Are you saying Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu, APC national leader, is not a Lagosian?

Yes of course. Tinubu is not a Lagosian. Quote me on that. It is because Lagosians are liberal and have accommodating spirit, that was why we allowed him to become governor of Lagos State. It is not only Tinubu that is benefiting or that has benefited from the spirit of Lagos, there are countless others. It is that same spirit that we have in PDP in Lagos State. In the run-up to 2015 general election, PDP met and agreed to be liberal in picking candidates for different levels of the elections. We also agreed that in areas where we have large Igbo population like Ojo, Ajeromi-Ifelodun, Festac and Amuwo that we will field Igbo candidates. This we did and it paid off. This is why today you have Igbo PDP members representing Lagos State at the National Assembly. Igbo PDP candidate even defeated APC Lagos State Chairman, Henry Ajomale, in his Oshodi-Isolo State and Federal Constituency during the elections. If other Nigerians can emulate Lagosians, this country would be better. If other parts of Nigeria can emulate the spirit of Lagos State, this nation would be a better place for everybody. As long as we continue to discriminate against one another, there won’t be peace in this country.

Sometime ago, you publicly commended Lagos State governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode, and with this your open support for Ambode, what happens next year? Is your party going to endorse Ambode for a second term or what?

Nigerians need to get things right. We should not turn every issue into politics or play politics with everything. When we see excellence, we should not only commend such but also shower praises on the person who made that excellence a reality regardless of the person’s political party’s affiliation. I saw some good work being done by Akinwunmi Ambode, especially along Epe axis of the state, and encouraged by what I saw, I openly showered encomiums on him. That’s the way we should play our politics. Although I’m a PDP man, but when I saw the governor, an APC member doing something good, I openly commended him, that’s the way we should play politics. When we see something good, we commend and when we see something bad, we condemn.

I have no apology to offer anybody for commending Ambode, but my commendation of him should not be interpreted to mean that I’m supporting him for a second term. I’m a loyal member of PDP, and I want to assure Lagosians that PDP will produce a candidate that will do better than Ambode for 2019 general election.

PDP has since 1999 been unable to win Lagos State; why has it been impossible for it to defeat the then AD, later ACN and now APC led by Tinubu in the state?

APC leaders are master riggers. They have been manipulating election in Lagos State over the years. They not only manipulate, but openly rig elections in Lagos State. But let APC be told that 2019 general election will be different in the state. Lagosians are now wiser and tired of APC.

There is nothing special about Tinubu. So nobody should try to create a myth around him, or associate any political prowess to him. The political end of APC not only in Lagos State but also in Nigeria is imminent. The era of deception is over. The game is up for Tinubu and his clan of political jobbers in Lagos State.