Dr. Eddy Olafeso is the former National Vice Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) South-West. He speaks with Hakeem Gbadamosi on the current crisis within PDP, the coalition, defections among other issues.
THE crack and growing disaffection in PDP portend danger for the party ahead of 2027 election, do you see the party putting itself together before then?
PDP will not die, take that from me and challenge me in the future. Yes, we have crisis, and if anybody is not holding up to that he’s insincere to himself and millions of Nigerian people looking up to when the PDP will cure and take over the position they took from 1999 to 2015. When they took power from us, Nigeria was growing, our economy was becoming buoyant, our people were enjoying the dividends of democracy before the division amongst us. You will remember in 2014, five of our governors left and that’s when we found ourselves in the wilderness and we are still trying to find our way out. Yes, presently, we in clear danger, existential danger for that matter, because what happened about two days ago showed so much lack of commitment from those who have benefited immensely and tremendously from the PDP. What I know is that they may celebrate today but history will never be on their side and I am sure that is the end of their political life, because what are they going to claim in APC that cannot hold to, they are the founders of the party or they have wasted the people’s time since 1999 whe PDP held sway and the state they found themselves.
I am one of those who believe that no matter how the cloud is, this too shall pass and we are going to get into better time . I’m happy that this is happening now because this is just mid-term and we still have enough time to reorganize ourselves for the 2027 election. But I know the people have seen so much of inconveniences, pains, and extreme economic backwardness that they would have to look up to something that can actually salvage this moment.
So like you rightly said, we are worried but we are working hard and undaunted and continue the struggle for a better political party, the Peoples Democratic Party, and to make Nigeria a better place for us.
The coalition which Atiku is part of those championing, do you see it coming to fruition? Though some PDP governors jave distance themselves from it , are you not seeing it as selfish interest that can finally hammer the PDP
I don’t like mentioning names when I am taking holistic look at something completely strange. First of all, it’s leadership failure, so those within the bracket leadership of the party and those that have served the party in various capacity before and those that are actually given the opportunity and privilege of leadership by being given the ticket of the people, everybody needs to do something differently. I’m not aware of any coalition endorsed by the entire body of PDP, from the National Working Committee to the NEC and to the Convention. When a decision of that magnitude is going to be taken, everybody in the party must be privy to it. No single individual can take decisions on behalf of the party, except when it’s a conclusion and decision of the entire body and thise saddle with the responsibility of managing the party, so if any leader is going through some coalition, maybe they are doing it for themselves because if they are doing it for the party, it is the party that will give them the mandate. Maybe we should ask them who gave them mandate for the coalition. For me I’m not aware of it neither did we sit in anywher in the South West to say PDP is going to do this. We have two governors, they never mentioned it to me that they are working on a poor coalition. But every Nigerian know that in the circumstance that we found ourselves, nobody can win any election alone in 2027, so leadership must built to rally everybody. How do we go about it, what lessons have you learnt from the past mistakes of the past? You all saw what happened in 2023, all the other political parties with PDP scored over 13 million votes and the person that scored eight million is the one that’s President today, you by default, negligence, poor judgement decided to hand over power to a minority President and you will not taken a lesson from that, Nigerians will hold them accountable in the nearest future and that must not happen from this moment henceforth. I am not used to blaming people but we have to call their attention to the inadequacy of their decisions and they should as quickly as possible make a u-turn and do the needful because there’s still time and we must bring ourselves together and if we don’t, we just wasting our timetime and wasting the time of the people. Whatever is going on in the PDP today is a shame to everyone of us because this is the moment every opposition party must actually put themselves together to think afresh for the future of this great country.
Defections in Delta state which has been one of the strongholds of the PDP since the advent of this democracy, is the party not disturbed and what do you think is responsible for this?
I have earlier encapsulated it, it’s poor judgement, selfishness, idiocy, political illiteracy. I have asked this question severally that; how on earth and what are their reasons for joining APC, what have they done with the time people gave to them from 1999 till date? So, they failed people for this long years and now pack their bag and baggages to another party of no ryme or rhythm. You know it’s a high breed of one thousand and one political parties jumbled together with no ideological position and the only leader in APC is Tinubu and yet these people for whatever is chasing them or they are chasing, abandoned mandate of the people freely given to them to lead and they walked away from leadership, history will be so unkind to them.
As one of the national leaders of the party, what is the way out of this quagmire and what are the leaders doing to find a lasting solution to challenges confronting the party, PDP.
One of the critical problems facing our party today is the quality of leadership at the national level. We have lost a valuable time just because decisions are not taken when it should be taken, it’s just ignored, they are self-seeking, nobody cares about the party. It is true we blamed people but some people are saddled to run this party on daily basis and what have they done? This is existential failure, they took the party to the point of death but the future is beckoning between now and next month, the PDP NEC will hold and PDP convention will hold in October and I’m very confident that these problems will oit behind us. I think it’s a worst moment in our history where we have leaders at the National level that cannot dabble or handle matter as before they become hydra-headed. How will somebody who is given the responsibility to relate with all organs of the party will continue to witness this kind of extreme failure everywhere? They need to examine themselves and the party will have to take the decisions on who and who will manage our future for us, honestly these are not the best of time.
So it is not as if the leadership is folding their arms we are talking each other on what we can do to make the party better in the future. The Nigerian people are exasperated and we can seek attention for whatever it is because they have anticipated our recovery and our willingness to turn a new leave and do something that can better the lots of Nigerians but I don’t think we are getting anywhere close. As good as some of our governors are today, I can make bold to say that Oyo state would be different because of Seyi Makinde’s leadership, Osun, they are also working very hard and Bauchi too. I’ve not seen cohesion and unity among those people that reflect and radiate a new beginning for our peopleane that’s the truth.
The issues surrounding the choice of National Secretary of the party which remains unresolved…..
We already took a decision on this , the position has been thrown back to the South East where the position was zoned previously. After the decision of the Supreme Court, as of today the Deputy National Secretary is the Acting Secretary of the party. So Anyanwu and Odey would have to go back to their zone, resolve this matter and take it on, so that one is laid to rest and whoever is supporting who, the party has taken a decision and by virtue of the Supreme Court judgement, the party has the right to do what they did until the people involve resolve with themselves, we will come back to that to resolve it finally. Those are things I was telling you earlier that if the NWC has been very proactive, most of the problems that is engulfing us today would have been resolved a long time ago. Why did we have to wait for Supreme Court to take that decision before, why shouldn’t we take it on ourselves, why can we be selfless a little more and theink about the survival of the party than thinking about self, are we really serving ourselves or Nigeria and do we fail to learn lessons from a across? I ran election and lost and congratulated the winner, I wanted to return to the position of the National Vice Chairman, and there were manipulations here and there and I lost, I congratulated the winner and walk away from the place but not from the party because I believe the party is more supreme than individual. When are we going to learn that the party is supreme than an individual?
If you said the party is more Supreme than an individual, is Wike more supreme than PDP as a party because the party seems reluctant in showing him out of the party despite working against the interest of the party?
I just told you right here that the National Working Committee failed in its responsibility to ensure that issues are dealt with as they arising without become a major catastrophe, but now that has become a major catastrophe, decision will have to come from NEC because it’s only NEC and Convention that can decisions on that class of people.
But it is taking too much time.
It has taken a lot too long and devastated a lot of things but today, it is better to do it right rather than to run to another quagmire that will end up in court, the Appeal court, Supreme Court and a circle of time is lost again. We are being mature about it and dealing with it the way it should be dealt with in a democracy.
In Ondo State PDP, it is also obvious that all is not well and the party has gone to sleep. This led to the resignation of the party’s Publicity Secretary, Kennedy Peretei, alleging the leadership of the party of not serious of winning election.
He is just not serious. Is he not a member of the part of the leadership of the party in the state for eight years? How did he run a party as the Publicity Secretary for eight years and accusing the leadership of not serious, are you serious yourself? In the first instance, what have they done that warranted his resignation from the party? A committee was set up to look at some issue and they are yet to write the report as at today and you left. Is it possible for you to hide under one finger? Desperation drives them into terrible, unfortunate behavior that is difficult to understand. For us, we lost the election, he’s very right but unfortunate, we did the best we can, but the truth is that you knew that the incursion of APC to Edo, Kogi states and Ondo was a hatched plans by the Presidency, including the INEC, the police and these security operatives and do saddle with the responsibility of giving Nigerians a free and fair election. I’m one person who believe that if you say the heaven are falling, it’s not going to fall on one man alone everybody will participate. Those who led earlier where are they today? Those that are living today I can tell you and predict to you where they would be in another five years. You left behind your home and heading to another man’s house and you think that’s where you’re going to find comfort, time will tell.
For Ondo state, we will rejig, we will reorganize it and it will continue to win again. Luckily, you have seen what happened since the February inauguration of the governor in the state, nothing has happened in Ondo State. Insecurity is the order of the day, I can’t go to the farm anymore and they keep saying everything is working fine here, farmers are enjoying, but what are they doing for farmers? There is hunger in the land, everywhere across the country, you will see how people are trying to survive everyday. But they don’t have the problem they are luxuriating in luxury and affluence and influence. Abuja has become the land of land cruisers in the whole world, their luxury vehicles are taking them everywhere at the expense of hungry Nigerians but time will tell, we will return.
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Can you dissect the present administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, your candid opinion of his government in the last two years?
They abandoned the people. They are pursuing their own goal and interest. They care less about the welfare of the common man on the streets. They came up with the fact that after the removal of the fuel subsidy and the free flow of the Naira, after the abandonment of their responsibility of ensuring fiscal and economic policies that can bring prosperity, they allowed people to just wallow in poverty, every decision taken is against the people. Fuel rose from less than N200 to N1200 and hovering between N100 and N900 for months now. Nobody goes anywhere, you see few vehicles on the roads, people cannot go about their duties anymore, there’s hunger in the land, no contract anywhere but states government and their operatives are just feeding themselves and you can get anything anywhere. You will hear about billions of Naira coming in and out but you will never know exactly what it’s used for. So, the APC government under President Tinubu is not serving anybody but themselves. What’s the total population of the APC to the 250 million of people, they have failed to secure the Nigeria people, the economy is in very bad shape, our fiscal policy is nothing to write home about and we are at the mercy of the elements, it’s very, very unfortunate for Nigerians, nobody imagine we will look this down.
But the oppositions are quiet over all these, nothing is coming from the camps of all the opposition political parties to criticise these.
It is the role of the government to subdue opposition but it is the duty of the opposition to rise above such occasion and speak truth to power. Our people just cave in without a fight but the new generation is coming to give a good fight, younger generation that was denied will return, nothing is working for our people anymore. Has unemployment improved? No. Time will refine how long these people are going to oppress us.
Why do you think Nigeria is not making any progress?
He told us to fasten our seat belt, he loosened yours, you spent money in quantum, buy new private jets, your minister are living larger than life, those we elected to the National Assembly are the new Lords of the manor. There’s conspiracy of oppression between the executive, judiciary and the legislature, the political class had coagulated and make themselves a block as an enemy to the people they are supposed to liberate. So, the reality of it is that no matter what we do now the people will reclaim their powers. Nobody is saying Tinubu is the only problem in Nigeria because if he’s the only problem, it could have been solved. Every other person hired, elected, selected or appointed has turned their back on the people and all they do is continue to take money in quantum for themselves and their family and their friends, this is where we found ourselves. How can anyone say Nigeria is doing very well in this circumstance? A create of eggs, a tin of milk, fowl, goat or cow, how much do we buy them now? When you take transport from Akure to Owo or Ondo how much do you pay and how many people can afford it? School fees has skyrocketed and people are dropping out of schools and I think this is what will confront them in 2027. Let me tell you this, no matter what they are doing to enchain that one party system on Nigerians, it will not work. The real problem confronting the country is leadership. Can you compare Nigeria with Burkinafaso today? Traore a 37-year-old boy dreaming about a better Burkinafaso and these people are thinking of making million in Abuja. Leadershp will define the direction people will go. When you say tighten your belt, you tighten yours too. But they only fight among themselves, it’s now sex galore at the National Assembly. They come back to us and say we are doing the best for us. Can we say Nigeria is under democracy? It unfortunate. Leadership, the beginning, leadership, the end, leadership is the problem facing Nigeria and until we get it right, if we don’t get it right, the situation will continue.
What can be done with the disturbing and aggravating insecurity situation in Plateau and Benue States?
Leadership. When it changes because you have the right to protect your people. Our borders must be protected if they are claiming these people are foreigners, we will create an open border situation, Nigeria is just as free as water that passes through it. Any criminal from anywhere we walk in unchallenged and they will walk out. It’s a war within. They have abandoned us, they don’t care to do the hard work that leadership entails, they looking about the siren, the beautiful brand new jet, the free fund that flows into their pocket and there is no distinction between government money and what the governor of President is holding in trust for the people. They no longer live by their salaries anymore. Security when late Rotimi Akeredolu was alive, was it this bad? No. He wouldn’t have allowed what is happening here today. He would have challenged them on why will they make Nigeria a one-party state. Everyone has joined, I know they cannot knock my door and say come and join, they know I will ask questions on what they have done for us lately, especially in Ondo state.
You are able to drive to this place freely, without Aketi, it wouldn’t have been tarred, we owed him a lot of gratitude and wherever he may be, may God rest his soul. I am a PDP person and he was an APC man but that man worked when he was here.
Are you saying he’s better than the present Aiyedatiwa’s administration in the state in your assessment?
Nothing to compare my dear friend, nothing. Is it not when somebody is working that you compare? We’ve not seen anything since Aketi left, it’s zero. But it’s not me that will assess him, the people who out him there will assess him, the people will assess him. All we just need is good goverance that will harness our resources and give us the best they can ever offer, without that it’s an exercise in futility and we continue to roam like somebody in the dark. It’s so unfortunate that Nigeria would have to be in the situation, that’s the truth the bitter truth.
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