Mega party proponents can’t dislodge APC in 2027, PDP remains sure option —Hon. Mike Omogbehin

Hon. Mike Omogbehin represented Okitipupa/Irele Federal Constituency of Ondo State in the House of Representatives on the ticket of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the 8th National Assembly. He speaks with TAIWO ADISA on the spate of defections in the legislature, insisting that the opposition parties should always recover the seats of any defecting member and declares that the opposition would not be able to dislodge the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) if they formed a new mega party ahead of the 2027 polls. To him, the surest way to tackle the APC is to reorganise the PDP, while its leaders sheathe their swords. Excerpts:

Your party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is in crisis and some members have started defecting in the National Assembly, do you see the party ever coming out of this particular challenge?

Well, I don’t think PDP has any peculiar crisis that is insurmountable. We can always go through it. Party politics itself is all about crisis and crisis management. It’s nothing abnormal. We’re having differences among ourselves. What I consider a dangerous trend is this almost irreconcilable positions that are being taken. You see, our leaders at extreme positions. That is my only fear. You know, when leaders begin to take extreme positions on an issue it begins to appear irreconcilable. And once you get to that type of position, it will be proper to exercise fear. So for those who are decamping, particularly, I can mention the Senator from Delta State, the constitution is very, very clear. The situation in PDP today cannot be said to have given him that power or that right to defect. It is in contravention of the constitution. We do not have leadership breaking into two. This is an issue that has been decided by court. So the position of the law is there and the constitution is very clear. It is shameful that he has trodden that path. I think he attempted to be smart. I am sure that law will take its course.

 

Now that he has announced his defection, what should your party do, go to court?

It will be almost impossible to ask the Senate President from a party which is benefitting from his action to declare his seat vacant. I think our loss will be their gain. And unfortunately, we have seen that we have a leadership of the National Assembly today which seems to be more pro-party, not pro-people, pro-constitution and the law. So it’s most unlikely that the APC will be willing to declare his seat vacant. Therefore, I think the proper thing is to approach the court. So that the court will declare his seat vacant.

 

This issue of defection has been rampant in the National Assembly. It’s something that started around 2002, is there no way to put an end to this?

It’s very unfortunate that this issue became more prominent since the APC came into power. Yes, there were a few defections during the reign of the PDP, but I think after the decision by the  Supreme Court, such attitudes got checkmated. Unfortunately, you recall that when the APC wanted to come on board, the first thing they did was to form a parallel PDP called PDP, and they divided the party into two. So that seems to have given them the ground to decamp. But what we have seen since the 8th assembly seems to give recognition to the issue of defection and relegate the provision of the constitution. It looks like the APC leaderships of the parliament seem to be deriving some joy from it.

 

But then, since there is a constitutional provision that forbids defection, why are the parties so negatively affected refusing to defend their rights?

Like I told you, the PDP for example, is gearing up. They’re preparing already their papers to go to court. But you see, sometimes when you have been frustrated by people in government, people in power from angle to angle, frustration tends to go down deep and it goes down. But I think on this particular Delta issue, PDP will not allow it to go down. Just like the Labour Party never allowed it to go down in Abegunde’s case.

 

The crisis at the national level of the PDP equally appears to have affected the fortunes of your party particularly in the last governorship election in your state, Ondo. Is that right?

Yes, once the head is sick, it’s expected that virtually the whole body will be sick. We went into that election without a united force. Towards the end of the campaign period, there were signs that the leaders of the party at the national level came for rallies but can we say that they were absolutely committed to the cause of the party. From my years of experience, I’ll say I did not see that. I did not see the usual mobilisation and all resources required to win election. I agree with you that what is happening at the national level is actually percolating down the states. As of today, we have no single senator in Ondo State. We have only one member of the House. This is unacceptable. This has never happened. I can see the same happened in Edo State. If we had been united at the top, I think we are stronger.

 

These happenings in the PDP tend to fuel the indication that the party may go into oblivion ahead of the 2027 election, especially with the possible emergence of a mega party. Do you have that fear?

Let me say that it is to the credit of the PDP that most of the parties that started in 1999 have all been submerged either by the power of government or by whatever you want to describe. The PDP  has stood its ground up to this particular moment. We have overcome similar crisis in the past. Remember the Sheriff crisis,  but I think we should have learnt a lesson particularly for those who initiated the first implosion in PDP. Virtually everybody involved had their fingers burnt. I think reason should prevail. That is why all of them must come back, bury their differences and let’s put our house in order. If you ask me whether we can have any coming together of forces or a third force or whatever to displace APC from power, I doubt that very much. We’re talking about 2027 here. We’re in 2025 already and we’re talking about government that will be formed in May 2027. Before you begin to identify who and who are coming together before you begin to identify the party structures and all those, time would have gone.

 

The APC has been in charge of Ondo State for some eight years now, how would you compare service delivery under the PDP to what we are seeing from the APC?

I will not even allow you to compare. If it were possible for you to isolate the development PDP brought to Ondo State from what is on ground, you will see that we have nothing and absolutely nothing. I have shouted. I have been saying it in the seven years of Aketi, may his soul rest in peace. The only thing tangible I can say I saw is the establishment of the Amotekun corps to safeguard the life and properties of the people. But even at that the crime rate was still progressing. That is the only legacy Aketi’s APC administration left behind. Except to say that he completed the roads or extended the roads that were started by PDP. In the days of PDP, we had students’ scholarship and the rest. Today, there is nothing like that, all we are seeing is that we are signing memorandum of understanding. And one expected that since my brother, and friend of many years, came into power, Aiyedatiwa, that he would have learned lesson from the failure of his boss and hit the ground running. One year is gone. Nothing on ground. It looks like the APC government in Ondo State has absolutely no direction. Yet they have everything going for them. They are having three senators, eight members of the House of Reps. about 20 or 19 House of Assembly members. So where is our money going? No direction. You are buying a jeep for a commissioner at N230 million. That jeep must have been padded with gold. N230 million Prado jeep. So you know, It’s unbelievable what we have, It’s laughable.

 

But it looks as if the opposition in the states is not taking on the governors to provide virile opposition.

You’re a journalist and beyond political desk, for a very long time, and you know that to run a political party, to run a secretariat is not cheap. It has mostly to do with funding. I can tell you that. You have to go to court to stop the government from carrying out some activities, you need resources. I think that simply is what we are lacking. It’s not that we are lacking the knowledge. It’s not that we are short of what to do but because we do not have the resources. That is just what is happening. Not that we do not know what to do.

 

So is there a way to grow our democracy in this circumstance?

Well, with the way we are going, it looks very clear that the aim of APC is to make Nigeria, a quasi, if not totally a one party system. That is what they are planning to do. They want to have all opposition weakened and they would have one strong political party to stand. They want to absorb everybody, from the other political parties, it doesn’t matter whether they have room for them or whether they can create enough appointments for them. This is actually weighing down on our budgetary provisions. Take for example, an APC government that we are talking about over bloated bureaucracy, just created five new commissions. Five plus the North-East that was created under Buhari. You know what that means, and the pressure that would be putting on the overhead. I’m therefore not surprised that even in this budget, the government is having an overhead budget of 1 point something trillion. You know, N1.065 trillion. Personnel cost of N7.537 trillion. And the pension and gratuity component of N985 billion, Service Wide Votes of N2.578 trillion. Put all this together and you can see how large the recurrent expenditure will be. And we are borrowing, we are in deficit budget and we are still borrowing. So what is the reason? What is the reason for creating all these bureaucracies? How are they going to be funded, from this borrowing? From debts? We are going to service this, we are going to service that.  We are going to service debts this year with N16.327 trillion.  And you are creating five brand-new regional bodies. So it’s like they have held everybody down and driving us up and down without direction. You know, it’s unfortunate. You cannot even find provision for agriculture in this budget? Defence is having N4.91 trillion and agriculture is having virtually nothing. So you begin to ask, what are we doing in a year with N826.5 billion for agriculture. So, I don’t know. I don’t know where we are going. We just pray that the opposition will get themselves together. I just hope so and that they will do what is right. I think the burden of actually revamping the country lies fairly on the hands of the opposition leaders, the PDP leaders. They just have to bury their differences, come together and be formidable.

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