…says Wike is still a member of the PDP
Kola Ologbondiyan is the immediate past Publicity scribe of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in this chat spoke on recent developments in the major opposition party in Nigeria, excerpts.
Recently, a powerful state in the Niger Delta defected with it’s entire structure into APC, is this not a sign your party is dying?
The governors, some of our leaders have been hounded to support the current government.
Hounded by who?
Hounded by the government and its party. Can we play ignorance? We can’t now. Are you not aware that people are being invited by the EFCC? Are you not aware that people are being threatened that if you don’t come and join us, you will not write your own results.
Are you not aware that people are being blackmailed that even if you win your election by popularity in your state, we will go to the Supreme Court and annul it.
So when such fears are instilled in a political environment, in a political climate, people will fear for their own position also and would want to jump and say since I don’t have a party that is going to defend me, unfortunately the party has become so weakened except for this intervention now, that is trying to bring it to level where interest for anyone running on the platform. Except for that, otherwise they will tell you, you better come here, if you don’t come here, you will take lose that state.
The minister of the FCT Nyesom Wike held a media chat on Monday, and one of the issues that he raised there was what some of the newspapers have brought out this morning talking about the need for the PDP to make clear its position concerning where it is zoning the presidential ticket for the 2027 election. And he gave a warning, one that sounded quite stark, that the party could face the same fate it suffered in 2023 if it does not zone the presidential ticket to the South. What are your thoughts on that?
It’s a narrative. Ahead of every presidential convention, there will be narratives, various narratives. Somebody else can come out tomorrow and say, oh, okay, yes, we will go to the South but we will go to a particular place in the South.
We can come up and say, yes, there is no problem of going to the south, but the South must be South East, it’s a narrative. Somebody else can come up and say, oh, yes, we cannot say that we must go to the South, we must go to the North, and we will go to a particular place in the North. It’s a narrative.
Ahead of every presidential convention, the PDP, much as I know, there will be different narrative and you cannot say anybody cannot express his opinion, no, you can’t. So everybody has a right to their opinion in the party. But at the end of the talk, what is the final decision? That’s what matters.
So to me, the FCT minister, since he’s still a member of the party, and he’s even suggesting that a candidate must come from a particular place, is one narrative, so let us wait for what other narratives that will come up. Let us see the direction that the party will go. That’s my own opinion.
He also mentioned the fact that internal divisions could also sound the death nail of the party. Now, the latest moves, how, first, your reaction to that is it possible that these internal squabbles could lead to the end of the party? And if that is possible, what was the party doing? Do you think that the latest moves, the reconciliation committee coming out of the meeting of former governors and governors, is that likely to be the panacea to the problem?
Well, I’m excited that leaders have now realized that these squabbles in the party might become an Armageddon and lead to its end, it’s exciting to know that. And I also pray and I wish that issues in the party will be allowed to be resolved.
But talking about the leaders, the current, the latest decision of the party to bring in Sen. Saraki, he has done that role before, ahead of the 2019 election, where we were driving all over Nigeria and reconciling members, leaders of the party and others. He has done that with the constitution before.
But hopefully, the people who are responsible for these squabbles will listen to the other voice because no matter what we carry, no matter the ideas that we share, if we don’t allow the matter to end, to be properly reconciled, then we cannot run away from the crisis.
For instance, one issue that has remained and I have spoke about it over and over, and I will never get tired of talking about it, is the fact that the Acting National Chairman seized that position and occupies it illegally. It’s a fact. We cannot run away from it because that is what the constitution of the party says, 47 C, it’s very clear, it’s unambiguous. And you cannot trample on it.
So the party must look at itself in the face and tell itself the truth. But we are not able to do that, we are not going anywhere.
Look at Anambra election. Anambra is also a formidable state of the People’s Democratic Party. But we had a situation in which people had to be begged and they were forced to buy form at reduced rate to get an aspirant.
I just want your own opinion. What are the chances of ending these squabbles? Do you think it is still possible?
It’s possible. It’s politics now. It’s possible.
It’s also possible that leaders can go into a room, they’ll come out and say, well, we are going to defend you. It’s possible. It’s politics. Nothing is constant.
Since you said nothing is constant, what do you think of the response that the APC Chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje, gave to the former governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, saying that they will soon receive him to the APC?
Let me use this opportunity to congratulate Mallam Sule Lamido, who is launching his book today. Congratulations to the respected leader of the party.
Having said that, if Ganduje is talking I don’t listen. I’m not a member of his party, and I can’t listen to him, that’s one.
Two, what leadership is he going to show me? Somebody who himself benefited from a multi party system, who has now come out to propagate a one-party state. What does he have to offer?
So it’s about what Nigerians will say, and where this thing fits. That’s what justifies what he says. So if tomorrow again he comes to the other flank, he will say what is current.
And that’s why I told you that in politics, particularly in the political system of our own clime, nothing is constant, nothing.
Only interest.
Only interest.
Now, looking at the fact that the PDP used to pride itself as Africa’s largest party, it held sway at the national level from 1999 all through 2015, the party has been blamed for quite a large proportion of Nigeria’s problems. What do you have to say concerning that?
Well, when they say that PDP is responsible for a large proportion of Nigeria’s problems. It’s awfully laughable to me. You know why? The PDP has its own challenges while in government.
For example, go and ask many Nigerians who are out there, just ask any Nigerian today, that when the PDP was governing and now APC is governing, which of the parties did well for them? They are likely going to tell you that it is PDP.
PDP held power for 16years and now we have APC, by May 29 this year, APC would have governed for 10 years, more than half of the period that the PDP governed.
And it has not been able to deliver on the change that it promised. The only deliverable arising from the change, which APC promised in 2014-2015, is that the life of the ordinary Nigerian has moved from better to worse, and from worse to worst. And we are not going to contest these things, the signs are out there.