A former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George, in this interview, speaks on issues of national interest. BOLA BADMUS brings excerpts.
The issue of insecurity has been on the front burner on national discourses with various stakeholders offering suggestions. What is your opinion on the issue and what is your advice for the president?
Insecurity is a national malady. We cannot continue like this. The first responsibility of any government is to protect the lives and property of the citizens. If you are no longer safe in your neighborhood because you can either be kidnapped or robbed publicly, it doesn’t augur well for our nation. We are deteriorating as a nation in terms of keeping our people and their property safe.
My advice for the president is simple: he is not only the leader of this country, he is also the Commander-in-Chief. I cannot teach him the rule of engagement. He needs to have what we call aid to civil power. Policemen are so disenchanted that they don’t even feel safe when they face hoodlums. As a retired General and a concerned leader, he must do something. He should get leaders of thought together to chart the way forward for the country.
The issue of herdsmen in the country, why now? This is not the first time we have seen them in Nigeria. Why now? I am 76 years now. When I was a young man in Lagos, Fulani herdsmen were bringing their cows. After selling their cows, they would sell what we call ‘Agunmu daadaa ni’. In every household then, there were no electric and gas cookers; it was firewood that was in use. They used to sell urine of cows. We didn’t know that was ammonia. In those days, children suffered from convulsions, like they were dying. When such happened, the family members would rush to the kitchen at the back of the building to bring the cow urine that was bought from the Fulani people, put it in the nose of a convulsing child and they would wake up. So, what is amiss now? There are all kinds of stories; all kinds of rubbish all over. This is not an issue of political parties now; it is an issue of how we can survive as a country.
Look at the number of first-class companies that are running away from Nigeria to Ghana. The CBN is even printing money to be able to pay states their allocations. The financial situation in Nigeria is dire now, because who wants your crude oil? This is because there is plenty of crude oil all over the seas. So, Oga Buhari must do something immediately. This is May. By the 29th day of the month, it will be exactly two years left for him to spend in office. He can still do something. But my position is that we must revisit the system of governance in this country that allows one man sitting at the top to direct and manage Nigeria from one source. It is not possible. It is not a military government.
Local government election in Lagos State has been fixed for July by LASIEC but the public has not seen much activities from the PDP, while the ruling APC has inaugurated a high-powered committee headed by the deputy governor, Dr Obafemi Hamzat. What is the PDP doing towards winning the polls?
For the local government election, you know we have just finished the zonal congress. Congresses are coming but I am sure that from this week, the exco of our party will embark on trying to get those who would contest.
We have very little interest in the exercise because you saw what Bola Tinubu did during the last general election. You saw bullion vans in his house.
The members of LASIEC were appointed and cleared by him, so how can there be justice? How can there be fairness? We have had so many elections with them. They will just go and write results. But we will compete so that people will go round and see how many people will come out. That would be a measure of the lack of interest by members of the public.
From the conclusion of the zonal congress of the PDP, one can see that the party is still factionalised. How do you hope to bring the party together ahead of the 2023 general election?
We will try our best. You saw how Fayose said he had accepted the outcome of the zonal congress. He was there, present. You saw what he did again a few days later. You can’t talk from both sides of your mouth. If he continues the way he is going, what will he tell his children about his position on many issues in this country? Someday, he would look in the book of record and find out what he did.
I remember him as a young man when he was going to contest for governorship. We supported him. Today, he keeps abusing us and he was insulting Governor Seyi Makinde that he was a small boy. Why is he abusing those who are older than him? He is my aburo (junior) I hope he can learn certain lessons now. He should take it easy and cool his temper. If he comes to me, I will not drive him away. If I meet him, he would greet me. I am his egbon (senior), I would advise him.
About factions, people thinking they are doing factions, the first pages of our party’s constitution state that nobody should have any faction. It is illegal. It is not acceptable. It is an offence to have any faction in the PDP. If you do it, you will be summoned before a disciplinary committee and you can be expelled because it is not acceptable in our party. So, all those who are parading themselves and wanting to do faction, I told them, don’t drive them, let them come. Anybody who comes with any vagabond office and tries to disrupt the exercise would be expelled from the party. There must be discipline. It is what we do well that will endear our party to the people. So, all those who organised themselves, calling themselves factions, it is because they have not read the constitution of the party thoroughly.
The next congresses coming up this year will be open and fair. If you lose, we expect that you will come back next time and work together as committed members, loyal members of the party. It is not a private company; nobody owns the party. Those who are voted in are supposed to go and serve the party for a particular period of time. Nobody owns the party. After my tenure as Deputy National Chairman of the PDP was up, I left and I have never at any point in time thought of leaving the party and go elsewhere.
I contested for the national chairmanship of the party. They muddled up the exercise. They frustrated all the efforts. I said okay, fine. It is now our party that has become a new bride. If we are not fair, if we are not just, we should sit down and think. There should be no wuruwuru (tricks) there. We should sit down and look seriously at the issues. For example, if the APC elects somebody from the South to be their presidential candidate, isn’t that a tone to our ears? Do you want to field the North and South at the same time? There would be period of discussion, which is the normal thing we do in the PDP. We would discuss. There should be no manipulation. Manipulation would send us to the canvass.
We have to be very careful. We have to be committed. We have to be loyal to the system, not to any individual. Those people of yesterday, where are they today? Let us ensure what is decent, what is right, what is just and what is fair. That is the only way we could deliver ourselves.
Concerning crisis here and there, we have resolved here in the South-West that no longer will we accept any interloper trying to direct us on what we should do in the zone. Also, let the others in their zones do this and then the leaders of the zones would now meet, have full discussions on where we are heading to. We must be unanimous and decide. You must not think because they made you the chairman, you think you have it all. You have nothing because there will be a day after your appointment. Let them think about it.
I am saying this because we have a golden opportunity now to win the hearts of Nigerians. They are tired. I have said it many times before, the APC is a contraption. It is not a political party; it is a congregation of strange bedfellows. So, why don’t we seize the opportunity to do what is right and acceptable.
I wish us the best of luck as we look forward to the rest of the year in a positive direction, but if this insecurity is not contained, who would go out to vote? But I hope it would not lead to that. I know what it is to have a war and I want to advise our people: Lagos is God-given. You see all the high-rises. Apart from Lagos, which other state has all these high-rises? Maybe Abuja and it is yet to catch up with us.
Looking at the economic standard and the level of income in Lagos, we get N60 billion every 30 days as Internally Generated Revenue. Ninety per cent of VAT alone comes from Lagos and when it comes back after manipulating it, through the revenue sharing formulae, only 11 per cent of the collectable comes back here.
We need to be very careful. We don’t shout war! War! It is better to jaw-jaw than to war-war. I am speaking from experience. We must learn to disagree without being disagreeable.
I am sharing my experience with you. Let us talk. That one man would sit in Abuja and be giving orders is not appropriate. Look at the police system, the one we thought we copies from the British. Even the British, in their country, have police in various areas. They have the National Police. Police is local. Let the states control their police so the boys in their areas would be the ones in the force and if any of them misbehaves, you know where his family house is. You can go there and report him. So, they cannot afford to misbehave. But a situation where you have a national police and a man who is not from an area, who does not know the area, is put in charge, how effective will he be? The DPO here, how effective can he be if he is not from here?
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