party. In this interview with OLAOLU OLADIPO, he talked about his impression with regards to the forthcoming meeting of the National Working Committee of the party. Excerpts:
The forthcoming meeting of the NWC of your party has been generating heated build up with many of the gladiators engaging in fierce argument with respect to how the party should move forward, are you in any way worried that you might have a stormy meeting?
Yes! You are right in that regard because truly there have been some conversations around the PDP and its NWC meeting and things like that will be begging the issue. Before we went for the first NEC, I mean the last one, there were lots of conversations as to the Damagun-led NWC perpetually in acting situation. You know that the constitution, when the NEC grants authority, that’s it and the NEC has granted some authority until the next NEC giving them enough time and powers to act in an almost elected executive committee capacity until the next NEC meeting. We will have to have patience to see what the next NEC will do. For me, I will just suggest that every legal NEC member who is still a member of our party should endeavour to attend the next NEC meeting so that we can settle the issue within the party and all that. Yes! Those who want certain positions in the NEC will still have to wait for the NEC and those who want alternate positions and those who want a middle ground will have to wait for the NEC. This is because political parties don’t run on whim and caprices of individuals and it’s politics any way and we expect all the necessary negotiations, all the cross fertilisation of ideas of all the caucuses, all the consultations must take place to get to that NEC. In the end, the position of the NEC will be the make or break one. Let us hope that members of the NEC are also not oblivious to what party members are saying and feeling. That’s my position on that. As for me, I am not in any way worried about the fact that NEC will determine the future of the party one way or the other.
At the centre of debate and discourse is the issue of zoning which has polarised the party down the ladder; do you think the party would come to an amicable solution on it considering how it has caused some form of heat in the build up?
I don’t think that there are serious issues around zoning as it concerns the NWC. We had settled the matter before we put in place the (Iyorcha) Ayu led NWC. The sticky point is that while Ayu was the legitimate owner of that particular NWC title of national chairman, Illyasu Damagum became the acting national chairman. In the PDP we have a constitutional arrangement whereby when the national chairman is not around, then the vice chairman from the North will occupy that seat. Unfortunately, Iyorcha Ayu is from Benue State and the people of Benue State themselves were the ones that went to say that he (Ayu) was not paying his annual dues to the ward as and when due. They gave an extremely offensive reason to remove him through the court. Of course, I know that there are some big masquerades behind all these shenanigans. The truth is that it was indeed the height of indiscipline for any party member to do that. Where the issue is, is that some people are now saying that Benue State should be allowed to fill the slot to replace Ayu as the national chairman in appointive situation when you had your own who was originally elected and removed by you. Yes! That’s a possibility, after all, the national woman leader died and she was replaced by another person from her state.
But to me, there is a lot of difference as a state carelessly going to court to cause injuries to the party. Some other people, like myself, are saying, we don’t need all these, just call a fresh congress, so that by doing so, we can refill the seat. We should be looking for people who will be carrying out responsibilities for the party. I particularly feel that it is somewhat childish that after 25 years, you’re insisting that at any particular time in the midst of 17 executive members of the NWC, we are going to reduce the conversation always to one national chairman. That was what we did during the time of Bamanga Tukur. That was what we did with Ali Modu Sherrif, that was what we did with Uche Secondus, that was what we did with Ayu and this is what we are doing with Damagun. My position would be, why do we have a 17-member NWC and yet we will be blaming just one of them. After we use all our efforts to remove that person, we are still stuck again in blaming the new person.
How do you think you can stop that within the PDP?
The system is due for reformation. For a more than a quarter of century, an old political party that has survived up to this level, must reform itself now so that it can be a bit more stable. That is my position but I believe that at the end of the day, frayed nerves should calm, common sense should obviously prevail. We have, luckily, two committees in place now; I mean the disciplinary committee and the reconciliation committee. The people there must be allowed to do their work. Those who love the party must subject themselves to the opportunities that those committee present to them.
Do you think the committees might not achieve their assigned objectives?
I have said before that there is no Messiah anywhere. Everybody must get up from his high horse and that we cannot be scapegoating each other for what I consider to be cooked challenge. I believe that’s the issue that got us to where we are now. There are enough faults and blames to go around and whatever we want to say, we should begin to tell ourselves, how do we win the next election? How do we want to make our party stable? How do we even make the space conducive for younger, fresher ideas to come forward to lead the party?
One other thorny issue which is polarising the party is zoning of the Presidential ticket in 2027, how do you see the ongoing war of words between some leaders of the party over this?
I think that people are just putting the cart before the horse, I believe that luckily, we are a 20- something year old party, so we have a pattern, we have a system and we have an orderly way that we do things. We have not got to the point where the party will be zoning the political offices yet. Before we do that, we will have to first of all tidy up this destabilisation of our NWC and then we will run until that time when the proper zoning committee will usually be set up. The committee will look through the whole situation and determine where the post would be zoned to. We then get to the issues of who is going to be the candidate and what are the procedures and the guidelines for the conduct of the primaries and all that. PDP is not any of those mushroom parties that people will just get up in the morning to claim the presidential ticket. Ours is a place where people keenly contest those positions.
How comfortable is the party with the continued membership of Chief Nyesom Wike when he is currently serving in the APC-led ruling party?
I think that is the biggest elephant in our room and that is the biggest challenge that we have in the PDP because as it is now, the major polarising issue in our party is that. The former governor of River State is still a member of the PDP in the eyes of the world. Even when he says he is a member of the party, is his spirit, body and soul still in the party? Because of past experiences, people are scared but to say that the country has never had a situation where somebody has been in a party and serving another party in government is wrong. When late Chief Bola Ige served in the PDP government of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, he was a member of the AD and when he was about to leave the government then, he was still a member of the AD. So, there is precedence to some of these things. Because we had a situation like that in the past doesn’t mean that we have to be stuck with that. All of these and even more are the issues. In any case, there is a disciplinary committee in place as we speak; anyone who has tangible basis to establish any form of infraction against anybody should present it to the disciplinary committee and we will have to see how it goes.
Are you worried that the PDP has been unable to mediate in the crisis between Chief Nyesom Wike and his godson, Governor Sim Fubara, of River State?
Well, that matter is a little bit difficult; at the beginning, they were together in such a manner that other people who have some gravitas like Abubakar Atiku will not even know where to enter from. When the crisis started, before you mediate in it, you sense that the two or any of the parties are willing to have your mediation. The President (Bola Tinubu) mediated in it, it did not solve the problem. They have been going back and forth in the courts with regards to the matter. We had originally thought that the leader of the party is always the governor. This is the tradition but what is happening in Rivers has shattered that now because we are in a tough but nothing to be proud of situation.