How far have you gone with the reconciliation efforts in the South-West?
We thank God that so far and with the cooperation of our leaders, we have been able to do a lot of reconciliation among the people. There are only a few people trying to divide the party in the South-West, when the majority of our people thought it is about time for us to move ahead, we have been moving speedily towards reconciliation. In the last two months, we have been able to reconcile Lagos, Ogun, Osun and Oyo states, now we have caretaker committees in those places, preparing for the ward, local government and state congresses. We have been able to speak to one another to understand the fact that the Nigerian people need a vibrant opposition and we have to provide that; the last two months has been a wonderful experience being in the midst of all this as the chairman of the zone and as the secretary of the reconciliation committee, I work with a number of our leaders. From Governor Ayo Fayose, former governor Gbenga Daniel and a few of my colleagues at the committee, we devoted our energy and time to listen to the people and bring them together, we found out that what divides us is not as much as what unites us. We worked on that principle of unity, cooperation ans understanding for us to be able to put a formidable front for the coming elections in 2019.
Despite this though, there are still some states that are still a fictionalised, like Ogun State where Buruji Kashamu is still leading a faction.
As far as I am concerned, Ogun State is united at this moment, far better than before and they are working very hard in terms of mobilisation, raising funds for the party, reconciliation with one another and these are the things that we know will continue, as for the very small group trying to create division in the party, they must understand that this will not go on forever, the party constitution in supreme, that if anybody has an injury or something that you want to clear, you must first go through the letters of the constitution and see how best the situation can be resolved rather than going to court, the party frowns on anybody trying to deliberately divide the party and weakening it. The majority will continue to have their way and the minority will have their rights in the law, thank God for the courts, they are beginning to see that they too have to play a role to ensure that the progress we have made democratically in the few years is not eroded.
Has there been any deliberate efforts to integrate the Ali Modu Sheriff’s faction into the party in the South-West?
It is a principle from the moment we left the Supreme Court that there is no victor, no vanquished and everything we have done, we have taken that into consideration. Among the caretaker committees, we have the Ahmed Markafi’s group and the Sheriff’s group working together in the southwest states. It is about listening to everybody, nobody can say they have not done something in the past that has injured the ego of people and made them rebellious but the truth is that people are even using it as a process of merchantilism, securing the tickets of the party structure with a view to selling it to make money and that is what they are still doing till date, but we have been able to show such people that they are not serving the people with such brigandage and they must desist from doing it. We have it at the back of our mind that some people are genuinely divided over principle, while some people are just being mischievous and creating problems for the party and as for those creating problems for the party, we have set up a disciplinary committee to look at all the issues and to resolve them. For those who have genuine reasons, we will continue to work with them, for those who desire to divide the party and weaken it, disciplinary committee is there. We could see what happened in Anambra and a few places. We are not going to wait until the party is shredded, we have a responsibility in our hand and it must be carried out to letters.
Despite the moves, the situation in Oyo State is not yet clear, what is happening to the party in the state?
The speed will be gradual, a plane cannot take off and suddenly get to the cruising level, we are gradually taking off, people that have separated from themselves for a long time, going to various parties, fighting each other dirty behind the scene is difficult to reconcile overnight. But our strategy is to win the 2019 elections in Oyo State. In the final analysis, those that are ready to work together will stick together to secure Oyo State in 2019, and those that are still dragging their feet, time does not wait for anybody, along the line they will see that dragging their feet will not be entertained because the PDP train is moving and a host of other people are coming to join us, so the earlier the better for all of us, so to me it is part of the process, peace is a process and not something that happens overnight and we will continue to do that by quality leadership, assuring that we continue to talk to our people.
That party is heading towards convention, how can the leaders and members ensure it does not lead to another crisis?
We are very sure and confident it won’t happen. Part of what we have done is zoning. We have zoned positions across the country, some to the north and some to the south generally. There were discussions in the botched convention in the South-West that the chairmanship should be zoned to the southwest, we still hope that they will stick to that position and that the presidency should go to the north. Once we have done this zoning, it reduces the tension of everybody just coming to the field to do whatever they want and at the end, they are displaced, some if you are running, you know what you can run for. But in human endeavour, we cannot predict that something will be 100 per cent okay. Leadership is trying hard on a daily basis, the Markafi led caretaker committee has listening ears and they have committed themselves in ensuring that they hand over a very strong, virile party to the coming National Working Committee. If we have been able to do everything by the constitution, whatever come out of it can be defended. There is no room for any kind of compromise and there is no room to create a situation that can bring about friction, we are very focused in ensuring that the dictates of the constitution are carried out to the letters.
What efforts are you making to ensure that the chairmanship of the party is particularly zoned to the South-West and how possible is it for a consensus candidate to emerge from the zone?
We will try to have a consensus candidate. However, given our past experiences, we will try as much as possible to allow individuals pursue their ambitions. If you want to run, you are allowed to run but we will make every effort to ensure that the South-West presents a common front. We have justified the reason the South-West should be given the chairmanship. First, we have not done it before, the farthest we have gone in the party hierarchy was the deputy national chairman, between 2011 and 2015. The South-West zone was particularly marginalised in the process of sharing positions within the party and the reason why our party must see to the fact that the South-West produces the chairmanship is the fact that the southwest is the swing zone that produces the presidency. If you win here, you are sure to win the general election in 2019. Had the APC failed to win the South-West in 2015, they would not be in government today. They are aware of our sensitivity when it comes to that.
Lagos State alone registered 8.2 million voters, not to talk of the remaining five states, so in all this, our party leaders should be sensitive enough to understand the fact that for once, we must be given a sense of belonging and give our rightful place in the party positions that will be zoned. We feel the pain of neglect between 2011 and 2015, yet we never wavered or looked back, we still belong to the party and the only way they can continue to encourage us in the South-West is to give us the chairmanship.
Also Read: PDP coming convention ‘ll kick-start party’s journey to 2019 ―Bode George
Talking about 2019, do you think it will be easy to defeat an incumbent government as it was the case with President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015?
It won’t be the first time an incumbent government will be defeated, it depends. If APC is doing very well in the estimation of the electorate, they will win again, but if not they will not. If you ask people today if their lives were better than it was two years ago, the answer is no, their lives are not better. What has happened to the economy? What has happened to employment? What has happened to inflation, infrastructural development, security and safety of our people across the nation? Did the form of agitation happening in Nigeria today happen about two years ago? We made some mistakes while we were in office but the truth remains that we are very sensitive to the yearnings and aspirations of Nigerians. We maintained peace and for the first time in this country, an opposition party won an election and we conceded, so we are very confident that with our own strategy, we will win the 2019 elections, we are very confident about that. We will continue to work hard and reconcile our members. We allow new faces to come in, new ideas, that can bring development and economic advancement.
In the wake 2015 elections, many bigwigs of the PDP including governors, senators, Rep members joined the APC. What are you doing to bring them back into the party?
Very soon Nigerians will see the migration back to their party, a home is a home. No matter how you wandered away from home, one day you will return, we have been beckoning on all our people that left that they should all return to build a new PDP, give it a new face, re-brand it and adapt it to the yearnings and expectations of our people. Lately we have seen the movement and a lot of people are returning to our party from APC, not only at the zonal level, but across the country and the pattern will continue to be intensified as we march towards 2019. The same migration in 2015 away from us might be the same migration towards PDP in 2019, it is a history in full circle.
Also Read: 2019: Southeast PDP backs zoning of President to North
Recently some loyalists of Sheriff defected to APC and Sheriff also sighted at Aso Rock meeting with the APC chairman and the vice president just about two months after being sacked by the court, what is your take on this
This has confirmed our fears that the crisis in the PDP was masterminded by the APC and we still believe that it is truth and APC should learn from history that there is no way they can think with the opposition and get away with it.
It is their inalienable right to join anymlarty they want, we cannot force them to stay with us, besides their staying with us has been with a lot of scares and unfortunate incidences, their walking away will bring peace to our party and we can begin to realign and reconfigure our party again to move towards a carefully managed political party that can win elections. It confirmed our fear that they must have been used by the APC to destabilise us, so that they are going back now is not new to us we can only wish them well and we can wish the APC to please watch out because if you can promise somebody to give a stab at the back to somebody else, be careful at you own back too.
The APC has been governing for over two years, after mid term, what is your assessment of the Muhammadu Buhari led government
In all front it has been unfortunate failure, colossal failure, they couldn’t do anything with the currency, things are getting worse on daily basis, cost of food is astronomical, security is becoming a major problem, agitation all over the country, they promised one meal per day to schools and they have failed to deliver. The APC promised quantum, but delivered nothing. They are very tall on promises, but very short on delivery, very unfortunately the people are beginning to realise that they have been taken for a ride, two years have gone, it is our prayer for them to succeed, as members of opposition we never wished the president nkt to succeed because his failure will impact tragically on the society and that is exactly what we are seeing today. On IPOB, Arewa, the Odua group everybody is agitating for one thing or the other, it is the uncertainty, the insecurity, the fact that people cannot believe the government, this has made people to go into their tribal enclave looking for redemption and looking for cover. I am one of the people who marginally believe that there should be restructuring, the critical factor is that is people have confidence that they are not going to be cheated in the system, they will probably allow the system to run but the fact is that they are not seeing that. All the appointments made tilted towards one zone, while the other zones are completely forgotten, the presidency is loaded with people from specific tribe, others are just looking inside fom the window, so when you locked out people, they must find a way through which they can also secure survival, that is exactly what the APC government has done, the Nigerian people have been locked out, they are very confued, the only thing on the agenda js to blame PDP but I doubt if the Nigerian people voted for them to continue to blame PDP, they voted for them because they didn’t believe in some of our policies and they took their destinies in their hands. We expect them to do far better, in a situation where people will say bring back the PDP. People say they can eat during the time of PDP, a bag of rice was 8,000, a bag of cement was less than 2, 000, transportation was not this astronomical, infrastructures were not completely bad like this, one cannot travel from the west to Abuja on road anymore, it has been disconnected because of poor road and we are hearing nothing from them. So looking at this we see that they cannot meet the yearnings and aspirations of the people, nobody says it is going to be easy, we are not saying they should solve all the problems in two years, but we are expecting certain policies, visions that all of us can latch into and make Nigeria a better place. It is an extreme failue for not getting the vision and policies that can take Nigeria to the next stage, I am very convinced that the sense of mediocrity and sobriety that has pervaded the environment was created by the lacklustre performance of the presidency and the government of APC in the last two years without any redeemable circumstance through which they can galvanise the people back on line to support them, things have been going very bad for the Nigerian people and they need the best change at this moment and that is why the PDP has accelted that we have done certain things wrong in the past but we are willing to listen to you, let us do it right together, let us create a new vision for our nation. For those clamouring for restructuring, it is because of the uncertainty in the country, for those saying we are no longer safe, it is because we are no longer safe. The issue of the herdsmen attack has been there for years, it has never been laid to rest, I have not seen a country that is so brutal and life meaningless like Nigeria, but we are hopeful, the future holds a lot of promises to the Nigerian people and along the line a good leader will come that will lrobabl6 lead us to our eldorado.
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