Former Deputy National Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George, in this interview with some journalists, speaks on some issues of national interest, including his party’s recent National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting, the presidential ambition of both former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, among others. BOLA BADMUS brings the excerpts:
Before now, this issue of Lekki Toll Gates is what you have been talking about that it should not be brought back again, how do you feel now that government is resolved to reopen them?
Let me start from the issue of Toll Gates, are they really listening? Now, whether they are listening or not, you know when the #EndSARS happened, they went into some silence. First, they set up the panel, the panel went on and on, and on. They internationalised it, they submitted the report, they were vacillating. The report was genuine, they discountenanced it, even they abused the respectable, the responsible justice who was the chairperson of the committee. But she came out with what she saw, the report was genuine and honest. They wanted to discountenance it and bury it.
Now, I am not surprised that they’ve been quiet for a while and now if you are genuinely responsible, respectable to the people’s welfare, is this the appropriate time to add more burden to the people. You know, we thought that they had almost tossed it away, and thrown it into the archives. Now that they have started, I have told you guys that we are already in that channel, no turning back. It will be an election issue.
And let me remind them, and let me advise. The National Chairman of INEC knows that the procedure of voting in the past is no longer the same now. When your result is electronically captured, there is no ‘wuruwuru’ there. You expect that in a very short time, after the posting of the result, within three hours, because we would keep monitoring them online, they should make sure it is done like it is done in civilized world. Let the will of the people prevail. That’s why in my concluding part, I said look, it will be an election matter. If you think that you have been elected to reduce the burden of the people, make sure you deliver just that. What is democracy, what is democratic governance all about? Shortly defined. It is the management by those people whom you have elected to manage the resources of that land for your benefit.
If you look at it from that perspective, and they are not doing that, then you have a right to say oh, you want to start this mess, we haven’t gone to sleep. You thought we’ve forgotten, we would use all legitimate right, including going to court. I am not a lawyer, but we would engage lawyers to fight these people. We would not accept it and the people of Lagos cannot. And the burden, whether you are a rich man or a poor man now, who is happy? Even all those micro credit people, selling little things are feeling the cost of diesel, how do you manage? How do you manage the cost of transportation? Thank God they have driven the NURTW out of business, whatever they called them, the Union. Let them be disbanded for ever, maybe the transporters would now adjust accordingly and make sure they take the burden out of the people.
I was happy when I listened to the governor saying yes, we would comply with the order from the Federal. You know some jokers who have been collecting this free money are saying, no, they have their independence of doing so, independence of what? In America today, because the price of fuel is shooting up because of this war with Ukraine, the US president and the Congress are looking at going to open up the country’s reserve to cushion the cost of fuel, but rather than trying to cushion the pain of the people, these jokers are thinking of increasing the burden by asking that more be paid at the Toll Gates, does it make sense in an election year? That’s why we are saying that they think, oh, they have won Lagos, they’ve always been winning. That’s all about this archaic system. Let the people turn out in millions, and tell them because the power resides in the people, that enough is enough. There is not any government responsible to cushion and to alleviate the pain of the people. Why are you in government if you are just to serve your wife, serve your son, serve your Iya- Oloja and then you have the nerves?
We have been shouting this. So we will take necessary steps, we would go to court for adjudication. If you are going to fight with us, we would go all the way to the Supreme Court. We will surely win.
Senator Tinubu has declared his ambition for the 2023 presidential poll, what is your reaction to it?
What does he want to do with all this senseless acquisition? Now, he is junketing all over Nigeria, he wants to be president of this country. President of this country, how? Are we all sleeping? You know the moment you throw yourself into the ring, it is our inalienable right to X-ray you and find out the kind of person you are before people can even accept you that you should contest.
What is this? In the international community, now they look at us. Thank God that now, we have a new electoral process of voting because they say he has always been winning in Lagos. Yes, indeed, he has been winning through manoeuvring and ‘magomago,’ and the MC Oluomo Oshodi would now go and take a cool somewhere else because we saw what happened in Oshodi in the last elections and I want to plead with the Chairman of INEC, it is a golden opportunity that would take us from the doldrum. We are back to the level where we are highly respected as a nation, not a pariah country. Where is that giant of Africa?
At 77 going to 78, what is it that you are looking for? My great grand uncle Herbert Macauley, started politics in Nigeria in 1918, and that is who we are following. He didn’t discriminate between North and South. He was trying to unite Nigeria so that we can get independence. These guys are not more educated than us. Uncle was an academic gift to this country. He was on return to Lagos from Kano, trying to woo everybody, he developed pneumonia and he died. So we are following him, and his footsteps. All will be well in this country.
How ready is the PDP for the 2023 general election, can you let’s know what the last PDP NEC meeting was like?
Like I said, it was glorifying, a fresh breath. When I went for that meeting. I haven’t been to Abuja in four years. When I got there, the NEC meeting was like a rebirth of our party, a rebirth of the national convention in Jos in 1999.
I was happy those who are still alive, those who are still crawling, those who are still gingerly moving, everybody was there. There is hope. The PDP is back and the discussions, the way they managed the party meetings, and fireworks, you will expect fireworks, that’s the essence of democratic meeting. People would explain themselves from all sides, but it was in the atmosphere of friendliness. I was so happy the way it ended. Before it was going to end up, we were in the precipice, but it was rejuvenated. The discussions were robust, they were highly enlightened, they were academic, they gave everybody that new sense of belonging. It is a fresh breath for our country, and we can’t all sleep and face the same direction. But let the majority present their cases. We would all look at it, but once a decision is taken by the party, it becomes sacrosanct, and I must tell you that I was happy I went for that meeting.
I have traversed the length and breadth of Nigeria, PDP is the only party that is national in outlook and with spread. Suddenly, the contraption called APC wanted to join everybody together, it’s a contraption, a congregation of strange bedfellows. See what is happening about their planned National Convention concerning dispute over zoning of offices. Twenty- six of this month would be their convention, who can guarantee the convention now? This is a party that once said it didn’t believe in zoning.
Former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has publicly declared his presidential ambition despite the fact that the Southern part of the country is insisting it’s the zone’s turn to produce the next president of the country. What is your reaction?
They said former Vice President Atiku is pressuring the party. This party is a national and very dynamic party. It is not the property of any individual. Former Vice President Atiku has his inalienable right to contest, the party never told him you cannot contest. That would be fighting against your right as a Nigerian.
But it is also part of the principles that zoning and rotation are the kernel and the mainstay of this party. It was through that that we were able to continuously manage Nigeria for 16 years uninterrupted. You know now, the mistakes had been made, we came back, we told ourselves some home truths. That’s why I said it was a gift from the founding fathers that with it you bring back semblance of oneness.
And it is not novel because when you look at Switzerland, the only country in Europe, in the heart of Europe, they have never gone to war. They don’t even have a standing Army. Two World Wars sailed through Europe, nothing came to Switzerland. The Germans are located in Zurich, the Italians are located in Lugano, the French are located in Geneva. It is still one indivisible nation, what do they do to keep that? They do zoning and rotation of offices. You can’t hear any ‘papapa’ or disagreement. Once you know it is your time, you take it, you spend your four years because it is a continuum. Politics is a continuum. Till today, no standing Army in Switzerland and they have never been involved in any world war. Let us continue to build on it, that sense of belonging. Turn by turn Nigeria limited.
So he (Atiku) has the right to pick up the form and to go and do whatever he wants to do. But it is our grundnom, one of the principles of our grundnom, that is the party constitution. It states unequivocally that zoning and rotation must always be adhered to. So what do you do? That’s all we are saying. Let the party pronounce it, that this thing is zone A.
And I tell you. You know somebody said the South has ruled for 14 years and the North has ruled for ten years in this present dispensation. That is true, when the founding fathers sat down, nobody at that time expected that someday, there could be another political party that can produce the president, you understand. The political equation now has changed. It’s a new parameter to consider that another party can produce. What do you do? You discountenance that parameter, no. You must weave that into your equation to get the proper answer.
Is President Buhari from South-East? Is President Buhari from Lagos State? Is he not a Nigerian? You see, it is a new dimension because in the future too, there could be a situation where it can happen in the South too, so what do you do? You discountenance it, let us tell the truth to power. That is the essence of this Zoning Committee that the party has set up. This is because nobody at the time those Babas were sitting ever envisaged that, this is a party with national spread. Which other party? ANPP, AD, APGA? They are all tribal parties.
There is this video in circulation, this time around Tinubu is talking back on the vow that you once made that you would relocate outside the country if he becomes the president of the country, saying Chief Bode George is free to relocate if he likes, what do you have to say to this?
Tinubu vs Bode George: What has it got to do with the price of milk? I said too that if I want to relocate, I can do so. We have been shouting and I am happy the president has signed the new Electoral Bill into law. If by whatever chance he (Tinubu) gets to the Villa, I wouldn’t be part of this country, I am not joking, I am not joking. I can go to Ghana, and live in Ghana, and be watching you with a binocular from my apartment. You would see what would happen. You are seeing this Alpha Beta in Lagos, he would create some Alpha Beta somewhere to carry your money and carry other things. His wife will now be Senate President, his son would be governor of Lagos State. His daughter would be Iya- Oloja of Nigeria. What has he done to prove that he deserved to be honoured by anybody in this country? Nothing personal.
In fact, my niece, Deola Macaulay, called me, he said Egbon me, you know some of their people are saying that he gives me money, that they abuse me. Let him bring the money, I would tell him to follow me to Lagos Island, people who are hungry are there. I grew up there in Lagos Island. I went to that popular St. John School, Aroloya, played the local football there. I grew up there, not in Ikoyi here. But we thank God today, we were educated.
My father was a civil servant in the military till he retired. My mother was s nurse in the Island Maternity. They sent me to school. And thought the rascality of Lagos was too much, they shifted me to Ijebu- Ode Grammar School because there was the ethics, the fear of God. It’s about what you expect you to be, and to live up to be. Money is not everything, it is your character that matters. This is because the day you pack up, and you never know, when the angel comes, and he says it’s time, don’t tell him, give me two minutes, you are gone.
Remember Alexander, the Great, that great general that ravaged the world made so much money, so much assets. In the end, on his way back home, he fell ill. He called for his doctor and he said I am likely to die but make sure that that coffin you are putting me in, you put my hands out. So he started dolling out assets that he had acquired, and said they should leave his hands outside the coffin, so that people would see that he went home with zero. Isn’t that enough lesson? Let him go and read history.
The richest man in Kuwait, the same thing. He had gold plated aircraft, gold plated vehicles, gold plated beds, gold plated everything. When he died, they showed that small place where he was buried, end of story. If he (Tinubu) gives you money, collect it, it’s your money, but think before you vote.
He (Tinubu) said me relocating, sure I am not kidding. The day they announce that he is the one, I would leave you alone and go and hide and be living my life quietly because the Almighty God tells us that you have three scores and 10 years to live. So if God makes you to reach 70 years, the rest of your life, you are already on the departure lounge. They can call your flight anytime o.
What is your opinion on the last PDP Congress held in Lagos and how far has the appeal committee gone to address the various complaints associated with the exercise?
On the latest Congress held in Lagos PDP. My comment on that is that it was the most shambolic thing I have seen. And I kept wondering where is the honour? It doesn’t matter to me who becomes whatever, but go on that path of justice. Remember the four cardinals I told you. The man met me, the governor, Mr. Douoye Diri of Bayelsa State, who was chairman of the Congress Committee. He invited me to a meeting and spoke to me as leader.
He told me everything he could tell me, and I listened to him. He accepted. Of course, the leader of the party in South-West, Governor Seyi Makinde, had been here severally, meeting the leaders. And we came, with the debris of the debris they created at the Ward level, and the man who created and managed the Ward Congress had been declared illegal by the court of law. So he said look, thank God you now have consensus, you have indirect, and then you have direct. Consensus is legitimate, and so we all met, did the consensus. He met and he called this other fellow, I wouldn’t mention his name, and he said he is dissociating and disagreeing. There is no basis for it, it’s not my personal party. If I don’t believe anymore in that party, I am going to my house. I don’t know what they are looking for.
I am challenging them and I want the press also to find out if there is anybody at any level who is my son, my daughter, my relation or my brother or my whatever from all the 20 local governments and the 245 wards in this Lagos State. That’s not leadership, why should it be? Why should I put my own son, my own brother, my relation, for what? Tell me if I have gone to any local government to say don’t take this, take this, that’s unleadership. How have I been able to sustain myself up to this level if I have been like that? They would have kicked me out.
And you now came half way through at 1 O’clock in the morning when you have told them it’s consensus. So many people went home, by 1am, they have been there since 7am in the morning. They did accreditation to only three local governments. And suddenly you woke up, I don’t know from where? You now said ah, we would do voting because people disagreed to go by consensus, did you go back to the leaders? He said some leaders were there, who were those leaders that I have no knowledge about? What is it that you call leadership? When it comes to financing the party, supporting the party, they know where the leader is. So who are those leaders that congregated with him. Remember, he himself just left the House of Representatives and headed to become governor. So who are those leaders he now called leaders?
Don’t fool yourself, the Lagos PDP Congress was shambolic to say the least. If the party wants to be just and fair, I wish them the best of luck. Don’t just rush it because there are two states in this country that are very electorally important, Lagos and Kano. They have added extra 5,000 polling stations in Lagos now, what does that portend? It means ‘berekete’ votes, Kano, 3,000 extra polling stations. You want to toy with Lagos, and make ‘wuruwuru’ so that some ‘yeye’ person would emerge as candidate, who would vote for them? Let us do what is just, let’s do what is right, let’s do what you can feel proud of.
and then