As a member of the Board of Trustees (BoT) and former deputy national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George says its current leadership has done more harm to the main opposition, in this interview by KUNLE ODEREMI.
What is your position on the seemingly intractable leadership rocking your party?
My take is that the PDP platform is wobbling; wobbling disastrously because of the poor management of the leadership. It has created and veered off the constitution of the party. They have turned it into a private enterprise. The constitution is the grund norm of the party. Those who are there now think they can do whatever suits or pleases them. And that attitude has created hell in most of the state chapters of the party. The saving grace, which some say is to ask them (officers) to go or not, as a far as I am concerned, is not what I want to talk about. Now, the convention is almost around the corner. They should immediately set up a national convention committee, who will run all the congresses from the ward level to the national level. It is not these people that are there because some of them want to contest. Period!
Who should set up such committee?
The committee should be set up by the National Executive Committee of the PDP because after convention, it is the NEC that is empowered to do it. They know what to do; they don’t need to start groping in the dark, chasing shadows. We have missed the road from the moment they assumed office as they veered into a wrong direction. So, let us bring somebody back, who can stabilise the party; who will now arrange and prepare for all the congresses from the ward level. You can imagine the number of wards across the country. You can also imagine the number of people leaving the party. That is an unhealthy development, when the national youth leader made a public statement that the man (national chairman) has mismanaged the party and should resign. The centre cannot hold and we shouldn’t be beating around the bush if they want to save this party. The issues are very ominous; even a blind man can see it; that there is a serious problem. One does not want to start washing the dirty linen in the public as an elder. But the important thing is that we should rise to the level to tell truth to power and immediately set up the national convention committee who will take over all the plans for the congresses all the way to the national convention. New people will emerge. So, the problem is now staring us in the face. Anybody to be voted in to manage the party must have the experience; he must not be morally bankrupt; he must be steadfast; he must be committed; he must be dedicated and respect the rules and the constitution of the party, not you to discountenance the rules because you are chairman. It is not your private company. We pointed that out several times that what they were doing was wrong and improper. And I am disappointed in what the chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT) said: that those who have taken the party to court should be dismissed. What nonsense is that? How did he arrive at the conclusion that they did not exhaust all avenues for conflict resolution in the party? All the letters we wrote from the Lagos State chapter complaining that some people were misbehaving; that you try and correct it; you veered away from the certain sections of the constitution, which are boldly written. A judge wrote a proactive judgment, and you disobeyed it and you are still writing that Deji Doherty remains the chairman of the party in the state. How do you do things like that? There is a court order. If you disobey a court order; fail to respect the rule of law, is that the party we handed over to these people?
How did the situation in the party get to this curious level?
The fact is that there are some people that cannot tell truth to power. There is nothing private; there is no personal ambition in this thing. It is either we do it right or we would all collapse into the hell. Nigerians are now watching for an alternative. Sadly, our platform is still wobbling. I hope that all those who are members of the committee set up to address all the problems in the party would be courageous and sincere in the assignment because we are talking about the future of our children and the entity called Nigeria. Imagine where we are today as a country.
The general belief is that the twists in the rumbling in the PDP have assumed lately are underscored by the politics of 2023; that it is all about members scheming for elective offices.
Forget about political ambition for 2023 elections. If they start having personal ambition and are bringing it to the table, how will the party be stabilised. Let them subsume their interest in the overall aim and objectives of the party. Our founding fathers did not place their personal interest and ambition above a collective goal. They brought about zoning; they thought about camaraderie; they thought about how we can bring all Nigerians together. So, no zone would be left behind; we bastardised it and we are flicking like a chicken without hair. Let’s tell truth to power. If they want the party to survive, they must rise above these pettiness and these blighted ambitions. What is it all about? If God has ordained you get to an office, you will get there, no matter the circumstance. If they do not rise above narrow tendencies, the party could be in danger. PDP is the first political party since we started politics in the 1940s in this country that has a national rainbow. It is not a regional party; it not a tribal party. It is a national party. I have run conventions; I have run political campaigns, so let’s get together. So, if I can’t tell the truth at this age now, what am I living for? If they do the right thing or not, posterity will judge them.
There is the issue of power sharing among the zones making up the country.
That is still an issue they must address. These people have been dancing kokoma, pretending they do not know the Crux of the matter. The very heart of the survival of the PDP has been on zoning, which ensures that every tribe that comes to a meeting goes home with something, which was missing even in the First Republic. Some of the Minorities suffered in the First Republic. General Yakubu Gowon came to power and created 12 states to achieve a kind of balance and inclusiveness. When the founding fathers of PDP came, including the likes of Solomon Lar, Alex Ekwueme, Adamu Ciroma, Bamanga Tukur, even Chief Bola Ige was part of the team of politicians, who did not want to talk to themselves before came together and weaved a solid union called the PDP. Every corner, from Lagos to Maiduguri, from Calabar to Sokoto, from Kano to Jigawa down to Delta, none area was sidelined or marginalised in the scheme of things. There was inclusiveness; everybody went tome with something. There cannot be joy and happiness in a family where injustice, deprivation and exploitation reign. Things cannot work in an environment where the mentality of me and me alone subsists. Nigerians need a party that will convince them that its members and leaders can manage the resources of Nigeria for the betterment of the citizenry, which is failing now. Yet, some people are preoccupied with pursuing their personal political ambition? What has that got to do with what is on ground? The issue of power sharing will be part of the discussion.
We are heading into a convention. If they want to leave out zoning, that will come from that meeting. All the zonal leaders will meet to discuss it in the spirit of true democracy. You don’t just sit somewhere that as chairman, you are the Alfa and Omega. It is not a private enterprise; it a national organisation and you should manage it in the same manner by being national in your outlook. You don’t depend on hearsay and side talks to address issues. That itself is not just a bundle of contradictions but a veritable ground for crises. You have to listen to both sides in every matter and with due respect for the constitution of the party and the rule of law. The present management style of the leadership of the party is so arch and dump. I spent 10 years at the PDP national headquarters. I moved from being national vice chairman (South-West) to deputy chairman (South) and deputy national chairman. So, why are they now trying to reinvent the wheel? Let’s respect the constitution of the party. Things should not be done based on the whims and caprices of an individual. It’s not your private property, for God’s sake! And the time to start the 2023 for us is now.
But PDP chairman says a big wig of the party that possesses a heavy war-chest, hoping to seek a higher elective office, is behind the current leadership crisis in the party.
What does he mean? Take Lagos State as an example when a former chairman of the party in the state left for the All Progressives Congress (APC). The PDP Constitution is clear in the event of anybody resigning or leaving the party, or even dying at any level of the organ. The full executive committee of the party at that level must call a meeting to reappoint somebody from the same zone where the one who left came from and would act out the time of the fellow who left. That is very simple. You violated the constitutional provision; you started selling forms after we had met and took a decision based on laid down principles and guidelines. There was an election, only for you to start writing letters that you want to come a congress in Lagos. So, I asked: you want to come and conduct congress, to do what? That is an affront; that is completely ultra vires; totally against the PDP Constitution. And when we went to court, the judgment that we got was emphatic and unambiguous. It went into details about our norms, procedure and due process and told them that they had violated the constitution. Yet, they still have guts to be defying the order of the court. Where are we going? So, his claim is a non-issue; that is his personal matter.
Go round the state chapters of PDP across the state; there is crisis everywhere today. I am very upset because jokers go to him with tissues of lies and he doesn’t deem it fit to authenticate those fallacies. Is that management? You have resorted to an alibi that a certain individual is behind a plot to remove you from office. Who is that individual? It is nothing but an afterthought; a complete alibi because the circumstance you have found yourself is self-inflicted due to the way you have been managing the party, which the youth leader said was curious and improper. So, if they do not do the needful now, they will get the result. But, I am happy in my mind that I have consistently told them the truth. I owe them nothing; I owe this country so much because it trained me and we must not see it go down to the hole. As PDP members, we sent a copy of our observation on the situation in the Lagos chapter to the chairman of BoT. Why should anyone start talking about people not going through the avenues of the party? You told us to go to hell and that led to the court action. But you are now disregarding the judgment.
A former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega said both PDP and the APC have disappointed Nigerians on the issue of good governance, coupled with what he considers as the high scale of corruption in the country. He advocated an alternative capable of rescuing the country from its current predicaments on all fronts.
The hood does not make the monk. If you say the two parties have fell-short of expectations, are their members not Nigerians? Who are the people that will be the members of the new party or alternative platform he is advocating? If your house is leaking, do you abandon it and become a tenant elsewhere? You stay there and repair the leaking roof. All those people moving around, jumping from frying pan to fire are missing the point. What happened to us was that when a crisis starts, there is always a leader, who is not a member of the national working Committee (NWC) to rein everybody. Our former presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar should have intervened to call them (PDP leadership) to order; to tell them the truth. Atiku remains the leader of the party until another presidential candidates emerges. Unfortunately, there was a vacuum and you can’t create vacuum in life. So, everybody started doing what they liked. The time has come to tell truth to power.
What is required for the South-West PDP producing national chairman for the first time since the inception of your party in 1998?
They must call a meeting and do re-zoning for the position to come to the south-west and it must be convincing enough to say where the position should go to. Call a meeting of the national caucus of the PDP; Bot and others so that we can come to an agreement on all the issues. it should not be case of an individual deciding for everybody as if it is your private company. Somebody said the president does not resign when an election is coming. Is it the executive that conducts a national election? You can see the lack of knowledge of such people. You cannot be a judge and jury in your case. Nigerians are watching committedly because they want this nation to succeed. You can see the cacophony of voices and noise in the form of ethnic agitation because the centre itself is not holding. It is worrisome that PDP that its founding fathers came from all the corners of the country, for the first time in our history, you are now allowing it to drift to nothingness. Shame on these people! You do not consult elders before you take a decision. You think you an executive chairman; no, you are not. You moved from state to state creating crises. Nigerians are confused about what is going on?
Look at the people running away from the party now; I feel sorry for such people jumping ship. They should have remained in the party to repair their house, and not to become beginners else. And the party they have run to is not just leaking; it is hobbled. After all, what we have, we hold. If the house has problem, we fix it. A rolling stone gathers no moss. As long as our attitudes don’t change, we will not make progress.
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