Why it’ll be difficult for Sheriff to achieve unity in PDP —Olabode George

Former Deputy National Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George, speaks on the Appeal Court pronouncement on PDP crisis. BOLA BADMUS brings the excerpts:

THE Court of Appeal sitting in Port-Harcourt delivered a judgment on the PDP crisis, pronouncing Senator Ali Modu Sheriff as the authentic chairman of PDP; what do you have to say on this?

I was shocked and the decision would shock a lot of our old men, those founding fathers that thought of uniting this country and bringing oneness to Nigeria. It would shock them in their graves and the ones that are still alive, I pray that wouldn’t send them straight to early grave. It is shocking to see the party that was in government, very well-established, that even called itself the most populous political party in the whole of Africa, being decimated and reduced with Sheriff as the chief manager. He just came to the party. democracy is not about a one party-state or one-man or one political party activity; Democracy is about aligning all voices: the majority and minority to have a debate and I am still very sad, I feel very sad. This is nothing but a complete muzzling of opposition, but we would await the full decision of the court.

My spirit has never been this low as it is today. I am talking personally about myself; wither Nigeria, where do we go from here? A lot of people expected a vibrant opposition, now they have taken the opposition’s vibrancy to be an appendage to the ruling party. I cry for our beloved country. I weep for my country. When President Muhammadu Buhari comes back, we would continue to pray for his good health, he would come back. Those who are masquerading and manipulating all these things should hands off and allow the system to run. Don’t kill the goose that has laid the golden egg of political activities in this country. Don’t do that.

Whatever we are doing will come on the pages of newspapers. We cannot afford to ride another dark period in the democratic history of our nation. It was a bad decision for the court. Fortunately, I am not a lawyer. So to them we are unlearned, but I know what the logic says I know what it takes to stabilise the system. That is a complete direction towards instability. I don’t know what the reason is that they nullified our convention; I don’t know why they did that, because that is the basis for which Makarfi emerged as the caretaker chairman of the party. Are they saying we didn’t hold that convention or the convention was not organised?

Do you think there is redemption for the PDP?

I have grown in the party and I know the nooks and crannies of the party. I have worked so hard, because I spent 10 years as one of the managers of the party. We did our best building it up; it is a political colossus. The PDP is not something you can wish away. Any decision taken at the national convention is sacrosanct and it is only another convention that can change the decision of that convention.

Now, the judiciary has said they can change the decision for the party. I wish our nation the very best. We need prayers. During the 16 years of the PDP, we never went on that channel to decimate any political party. We never did. Rather, our approach was to use the powers of government to woo the hearts and minds of the people to the party. That is what is done in a civilised world.

This is logic, what rule did we flout before the court set aside our convention and gave the chairmanship to Ali Modu Sheriff? But it appears there is somehow a written or unwritten agreement before the judgement of this court that whoever the court pronounces as chairman, all the factions will come together and support such a person. I wish them the best of luck, but I will never be part of that. I can’t be ‘A’ today and ‘B’ tomorrow, one needs to be steadfast on his mind; flip-floppers don’t achieve anything.

Are you saying you are relinquishing the membership of your party or what?

I will sit in my house. You can still be a member and be watching and by the time it is settled, you will know where they are going.

Is reconciliation not still possible in PDP?

The reconciliation started, but Sheriff backed out. Now the court has given him the mantle of office. We didn’t pull out of reconciliation; they did. Now, it is winner takes all. To him now, he is in a position of strength, legal strength but does he have the muscle and the people? That is another problem. How he will convince a lot of party faithful who have been labouring for this party since 1998, I don’t know.