Dayo Ogungbenro, chairman, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Oyo State, speaks with IMOLEAYO OYEDEYI, on national issues, including the party’s determined bid to reclaim power, just as he reviews the performance of the Muhammadu Buhari administration in the last seven years.
A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) while assessing President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration claimed that Nigeria has fared better in the last seven years. Do you agree with the claim?
We are all Nigerians and we are all eyewitnesses to what has happened in the country in the last seven years. An average educated Nigerian can critically give a comparative analysis of the former President Goodluck Jonathan administration, which is of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and this Buhari’s administration, which is of the APC. Personally, I don’t expect anything contrary from the APC chieftain as he has to defend his principal. But as far as the PDP is concerned and my humble self as the chairman of the great party in Oyo State, the APC administration has recorded an abysmal failure in every facet, especially when you consider all the key indices of development.
I believe you know all these things too and you live in Nigeria. You know what the exchange rate is now, prices of fuel and several other essential commodities. I am sure you also know the level of insecurity now, not to talk of the rate of poverty pervading Nigerian society. So, tell me, what have they done? Unfortunately, I heard one of the APC chieftains the day before yesterday or so say Buhari has done his best. But the fact remains that Buhari’s best is not enough for this country. It is as simple as that.
But the APC administration on several occasions has claimed that when it came into power in 2015, the country was in a very poor state and your party was in power then. What can you say to that?
They met the country in a very worse state indeed (smiled). Come to think of it, if the country was truly in a very worse state, how come we were buying a litre of petrol at N87 during the era of the PDP and now purchase the same litre of fuel at almost N200? Yet, they call that administration the worst! The Yoruba often say that: Ti enikanbagbon, to nienikejikogbon, baba were ni [Someone who claims to be the master of wisdom and everyone else dunce is a mad person. There are facts and figures out there that clearly depict the failure of the current administration.
The beauty of democracy is that when you are interested in serving your people, you will show expression by taking nomination forms and you then go for the proper election. You either win or lose. If you win, you will say this is what I want to do, but the beauty of the game is that the electorate will have to assess you after the end of the four years. They will find out whether you have lived up to your bidding. The Nigerian people thought that the PDP administration didn’t live up to its bidding in 2015 and they voted it out, but what have they seen now? The Yoruba say that if a woman hasn’t tried two husbands, she won’t know the difference and that if a frog hasn’t swum in both hot and cold water, it won’t understand the danger. Nigerians have now known that the PDP administration was far better than what the APC offered them as an alternative. They were talking of change then, but change for what now? Or what is the essence of a change slogan that didn’t translate into a better standard of living? What are the change elements the APC used to catapult themselves into power? Is the change supposed to be retrogressive?
But the APC claimed that when they came into power, Boko Haram insurgency was at an alarming level…
(Cuts in) Was it at this level? I just want to know. By the way, what brought in the terrorists and bandits into the country? Was it not their inordinate ambition to rule this country by all means? Do you remember that Buhari said it publicly that within his first 100 days in office, he would suppress and stop terrorism? But seven years afterwards, what has been the security situation? People are still grieving over the Abuja-Kaduna train attack, because some of the kidnapped persons are still with the attackers. And that is a country for you that has a former military general at the helm of its affairs.
You don’t seem to see any achievement recorded by the current APC administration. But they have listed infrastructure and construction of major roads and bridges?
(Cuts in) Have they finished the Niger bridge? These are the issues. You are a journalist; answer that question. If they mention roads, the question is how many months or years will it take them to reconstruct the Lagos/Ibadan expressway? Should it take eternity? From Ibadan to Lagos is about 145 kilometres if I am correct.
Based on the performance of the APC so far, do you see Nigerians considering voting for your party in 2023?
I am very sure that Nigerians are very logical people, both the ones that are educated and the uneducated ones, who have native intelligence. They can compare things, because it hasn’t been as worse as it is now for the country. It is what you know. Nigerians are undoubtedly yearning for a change. And we are going to offer that alternative government to them. That is why the slogan of this great party is that we are coming to rescue the country and the people once again. And by the special grace of God, the PDP will come onboard to rule this country in 2023 by winning with a landslide victory and rescuing Nigerians from the clueless government of the APC.
What gave you the confidence that your party will win the 2023 presidential election?
We are not likely going to see any close contest between us and the APC, because Nigerians are tired of this government. How do we explain a situation where the presidential convoy was attacked in broad daylight? Have you ever heard of that? The country is sliding, and we don’t have any other country. So, it has to be collectively salvaged.
In recent times, various APC chieftains have always been quick to distant the party’s presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, from the so-called failures of the current administration, saying that his achievements in Lagos will make Nigerians vote for him massively ahead of your party’s standard-bearer, Atiku Abubakar, can this be really true?
That is politics for you. They are saying that Nigerians will vote for Tinubu, because of his achievement in Lagos, but ask them, is Atiku a novice in Nigerian politics? Don’t forget that he has been a former vice-president of the country for eight years. So what are they saying? I can’t see anything new or extraordinary in their assertion. You don’t expect them to say otherwise, because they are members of the ruling party and have to protect its interest. But we don’t see Tinubu matching Atiku in 2023, especially considering the fact that Tinubu has nothing to fall back to.
Don’t forget that he was at the forefront of Buhari’s emergence as Nigeria’s president, just like he put it himself. He said the man came out the first time, but O lu le! He came the second time, O lu le! Tinubu said having fallen the third time, the man was weeping on national television. You heard it from him in Abeokuta now. Don’t you? That’s Tinubu for you. He claimed that he came to Buhari’s rescue. But both of them did not come to the rescue of Nigeria. And that is why we are determined and ready to rescue the nation from the pit they have thrown it.
But what exactly do you think gives your candidate an edge over other candidates like Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP)?
I have respect for Peter Obi, because he is one of the brilliant sons of this land. But it takes more than Peter Obi now to rule this country.
In what ways?
It is in many ways, because Nigeria is a very complex nation to lead. But Atiku has been tested at the national level. He has not only been tested, he has also been trusted having found to be competent. So, let’s try him. He obviously has a clear edge over all other candidates.
But the APC has claimed that Atiku hasn’t held an executive position and sat as commander-in-chief of any government even at state levels the way Tinubu and Obi have done in their respective states…
(Cuts in) At the state level, which is just one out of 36 states? What are they even saying? Can they compare a vice-president of this complex nation to the governor of a state? You can’t obviously compare the two. You will remember vividly that when former President OlusegunObasanjo and Atiku came onboard, because of the shattered image they inherited from the military, Obasanjo was moving around on shuttled diplomacy to rectify certain things and bring Nigeria back as the centerpiece of Africa. People have failed to remember this! I am a student of contemporary Nigerian history.
Obasanjo left Atiku to do most of the domestic affairs and it was the two of them that worked together to salvage the country. Can you remember this? Of course, you should. When the military butchered the country, Babangida, Abacha and the rest of them, we didn’t know what happened then that Abiola died. Shortly, AbdusalamiAbubakar came onboard with the promise to return the country back to civilian rule. Then, there was the need to pacify Southern Nigeria particularly the South-Westerners. They thought that they were playing safe, so they went for Baba Obasanjo.
And when he came onboard, being a former military General, he said openly that Nigeria has been shattered. This forced him on shuttled diplomacy to return the country to where it rightly belonged as I have said. The man left the domestic administration to Atiku and we know how he performed.
So how do you compare such a candidate with someone that has ruled a state, which is one out of 36 others in the country? All I will say is that let us wait and see if truly they are comparable. Don’t forget that as I have said earlier, Tinubu has nothing to fall back to.
Why did you say so?
I have to say this, because the APC federal government has not performed and this has been the consensus opinion of Nigerians. That is exactly why we are coming out to rescue this nation from their clueless government that has destroyed the fortunes of the country and subjected the people to abject poverty through nepotistic and corrupt policies.
But looking at your own party itself, with the way it has been having internal wrangling in recent times, especially with the Governor NyesomWike…
(Cuts in) Such is expected, because we are running a party.
But there are fears that the unfolding crisis may affect your party’s chances in 2023, especially with the various reconciliation moves not seeming to yield convincing results.
I don’t see how the issues will affect us, because politics is essentially about interest. The moment your interest is not properly taken care of, you are bound to cry out. But we have internal mechanisms through which all the issues will be sorted out. We are already making the necessary moves and luckily, for us, we still have some months ahead before the presidential election which comes up in February, 2023. This is still August.
What if your party eventually fails to reconcile the aggrieved camp?
God forbid that.
I said this because a former governor, SuleLamido, said recently that PDP can win without Rivers State votes.
That is an over-blown statement. I don’t expect such a statement from a leader like Lamido, who is a nationalist. He should have refrained from making such a statement. But all the same, we are going to resolve our problems the way we used to do and we are going to give this nation an alternatively good government in 2023 by the special grace of God.
I will just commend Nigerians on the sacrifices that they have made so far in contending with the hardships from the present APC government. And I want to assure them that the PDP, which is the largest in Africa, will definitely rescue them from this incompetent government.
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