PDP national officers are behaving as if the party is dead —Osun PDP chief, Dele Faseru

Octogenarian Chief Dele Faseru, the Odofin of Ijebu-Jesa is a leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Osun State and the deputy Leader of the party in Ijesaland. He spoke with SAM NWAOKO on the lingering leadership crisis in the party and what he thinks should be done.

The condition of your party, PDP, when it was in and out of power is quite different. How would you describe the party now?

As at now, it is as if PDP is dead. If the PDP was truly alive, they will not recognise people like Nyesom Wike, who, although is one of the foundation members of the party but right now is more of All Progressives Congress (APC) than PDP. He is currently a minister in a government of APC and at the same time, he is giving instructions to the APC in Rivers State. That is not proper, and the PDP leaders are just looking at him as if he is a god. That is why some of us have decided to speak up and ask the party to wake up and act or just close shop. One of his legs is in the PDP while the other is in APC. That is foul. Because the APC is in government, he has chosen to put one leg in PDP and the other in APC.

Given this situation, what do you think is the way forward for the party?

The way forward is for the party to sack Wike and forget all about him. But I don’t know why they feel reluctant and are just condoning him. They just left him to be spoiling PDP and turning the party to something some of us don’t understand.

Is it only Wike that is the problem of PDP, what about Atiku Abubakar and the other stakeholders?

We cannot blame Atiku Abubakar as much as Wike. Atiku has the ambition of becoming the president of Nigeria in PDP and because he did not take Wike as his running mate that is why Wike is doing everything to ruin the party. So, I’m challenging the national executive of the party to do something.

Your party has a national executive council, a national working committee and a board of trustees. What are these bodies doing, including elders like you?

That is why I am challenging the executive committee and all the others. They are behaving as if PDP is dead. They should have removed Wike long ago. Right now, he has all the members of the APC in Rivers State in his pocket, calling the shots and the PDP is looking at him as if he is a god. I’m challenging them to wake up and make sure that Wike is removed from the party and see what would come out of it.

Is Wike the only problem you have identified with PDP, are there no other areas where you think the party might need some kind of revival?

The one that concerns me most right now is that of Nyesom Wike. He is the major problem now because he is behaving like a lord. If he is removed from PDP today, will the party not live? He is spoiling the party and we have the duty to sack him as the party’s immediate problem.

If Wike leaves, how will the PDP live considering the myriad of problems in the party?

I am sure that if he is removed today, the party will emerge stronger. He is dining with APC today and at the same time destroying the PDP. The people running the party should not keep quiet. Removing him is the first thing to do.

Don’t you think that you the elders and other senior members of the party have watched for too long? Is it not too late in the day to do something?

My opinion is that we don’t know what we are doing. Such people who are leaders of the party, some of whom were governors for eight years, now feel that because APC is in power today, they have no choice than to run to the ruling party to take up positions. When they get there, the APC will make them minister and so on. The Senate President is an exemption because he had earlier defected from the PDP to the APC, where they had made him minister. Making him minister gave him advantage of escaping from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and at the same time gave him the leverage to get to the Senate and become the Senate President. A lot is wrong with Nigeria.

Do you think that the administration of President Bola Tinubu is doing enough to tackle those things you say are wrong with Nigeria?

As a politician, we know what is happening. One of their leaders in APC once said if you leave the PDP and join the APC, all your sins will be forgiven and you will become a saint. You can imagine that kind of statement from a leader, and they are living this out. Can you imagine that?

Is the current administration doing enough to make the country better than it met it?

Things are very difficult. People are crying; people are dying. However, let us wait and see. The government came in with a lot of promise and I think we should give them a little more time to see if they would be able to steer the country back to the right path.

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