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From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is perceived as a party where the state governors call the shots. This is because collectively and individually, the governors decide who gets what politically in the party at the national level and in their respective states. However, a former governor of Rivers State, Sir Celestine Omehia said the tide has changed. The former governor told Sunday Sun in an interview in Abuja that the present crop of PDP governors see themselves like every other member of the party.
He also spoke about the lessons, the opposition party has learnt from its recent travails starting from its loss in the 2015 general election. Excerpts :
Leaders of your party at the party National convention last week said it is poised to regain power in 2019, but the APC said it is a pipe dream
I think for the APC to describe the success of the outcome of the National convention or the PDP as day dreaming, simply means that the result of the convention has sent a signal to them and they are scared of what they think will be the subsequent action in 2019. I know that PDP is a party that every body in this country has come to trust and believe in, including the members of the APC. That is why they (APC) are scared of what PDP can do. I can tell you that substantial members of APC are willing and ready to leave APC to join PDP, including people who were never members of the PDP ab-initio.
Now, what is it that makes me think so? The issue is that APC as now is not a coherent party in all forms and standards. Every thing about APC has scattered. In the first instance, the administration of Nigeria is neither here nor there. APC has not shown that it can handle the affairs of Nigeria and Nigerians. APC is lacking in standard. In the sense, that many of APC members are neophytes. They don’t even know what is called administration. And most of them lack administrative acumen. What they are doing is using coersion, the military form of administration to rule a democratic nation. And so, administratively, democratically, APC is not there and Nigerians are watching. And they know what they want. They want democracy and not forceful administration.
Again, APC has people who are deceitful. They tell you A, when they mean B. They tell you B, when they mean C. If an APC man tells you stand here, look round if they are enemies around the corner. Pull out, run away, because something is going to happen. That is APC for you. I know that Nigerians are very intelligent people. And they know that APC lacks the capacity to rule them. They know that APC has no form or standard in the administration of Nigeria. So, there is going to be a change.
PDP has learnt its lesson and they are ready to takeover the administration because of the yearning of Nigerians. Take over the administration of this country, because of the interest of Nigerians. Take over the administration of this country because we have the intellectuals, committed Nigerians who are ready and willing to bear the cross for Nigeria and not for any particular interest group. Bear the cross for the economic growth and development of Nigeria. You talk about PDP learning its lessons. What lessons exactly did PDP learn from its recent travails?
Prior to the 2015 general election, the misunderstanding that the PDP had was such that if it was properly handled, people who left the PDP would not have left. We lost the election and we have seen the humiliation of losing election in Nigeria. It has never happened like this. PDP that lost election to APC are now being crucified. We are now being punished for losing election. We are now being destroyed for agreeing that so so party won the election. And so, we have seen that it is not good to lose election. We have learnt that lesson. Again, the subsequent battle in the court by those who left the APC and were planted in the PDP as moles and were bent on destroying the PDP, fortunately God came our way and Supreme Court supported and PDP came back to life. I can can tell you that we have leant that lesson, never to take every person for granted as members of PDP. With all these things put together, PDP has learnt a serious lesson and we have come back determined that only members of the party that have the interest of the party and Nigerians put together will be put into positions of leadership in the party. All these are lessons we have learnt, which will be put to good use in the future.
Many are quick to point out two issues that contributed to the woes of the PDP-lack of internal democracy and overbearing influence of PDP governors on the affairs of the party-are there likely going to be any change in these regards?
Like, I told you that the internal wrangling in the party before the 2015 election led to many things. And one of the lessons why we lost the election is the imposition of candidates. Those things have been streamlined. The governors have also agreed on their own terms, that is the present governors, that things will be done differently. If you remember the present governors were not the ones that ran the last election. The present governors know that if they impose themselves on the party and the people, what happened in 2015 may happen again. So, it is a lesson they have learnt. I give you an example. In the last national convention, every person you saw there came on his own. The governors did not control the affairs of the convention. At least, I was the chairman of the Accreditation,Contact and Mobilisation sub committee. The governors never influenced the convention. No governor directed me to do this or that. It simply means that the governors also have decided that the party should run on its own will and dimension.
I believe that this is going to continue like that. The governors influence over the party has been whittled down, and they see themselves like any other member of the party. And if for any reason, they want to contribute, which is natural, in the affairs of the party, any how they are free to contribute. But to say that they have overwhelming control over and above elected officers or national working committee is not possible.
Don’t you think that during the elective convention coming up later in the year, the governors may want to dictate who leads the party, as has been the case in the past ?
In the May Convention, the party decided that Sheriff was not the person to lead us. It was not as if the governors decided. It was the general opinion of everybody in the party.
In August, another Convention was held, that was a non – elective convention, because they realise that there were court orders. The court gave us a limit to what we could do during the convention. So, we went back and operated according to court order and extended the life span of the caretaker committee. I can tell you how the chairman and members of the committee emerged. They were nominated and voted for by people who attended the convention. Not by the governors. I was there.
The issue of governors, I think this present governors, unlike the previous ones, know the consequences of the imposition of candidates on the people. So, they don’t want to make the same mistake the previous people made.
Your party is proposing to reduce the period of membership before a person gets the party’s ticket or get appointment from two years and one year respectively to a uniform period of six months , what is your take on that?
I think it is in order. Two years period is long enough for you to lose a brilliant and intelligent potential member, who could be used properly for running the affairs of the party. The fact is that many people who think if you let in somebody from another party and the person become so vibrant and an important person in the party, he will be competing with him in his own area, what they did is that by the time the person is two years in the party, the person would have been tired and worn out. But they didn’t look at what the party could gain by using that vibrant person. So, the party looked at it and said no, let us be objective enough. Let us not look at individual interest. The mere fact that somebody is six months only in the party and qualify to contest election does not mean that the person can win an internal election. It does not follow. It also does not follow that the person can be given an appointment. But the fact is that you free the person, give him the liberty to flow freely in the system. You give him the liberty to act like any other member of the party. You give him the opportunity to believe in himself, why he should work hard. But if you leave it at two years, the person sees it as a long time, and he may not be able to contribute more, because his contribution will not be recognised. You tie down the viability of the person for domestic interest. I think it is proper, you allow six months for the person to be given time to be part of the system. I think it is good.
The APC has relentlessly accused the PDP of corruption and causing all the problems of the country. In light of the above, what will you be telling Nigerians in 2019?
In the place where I come from, I come from Ubima in Ikwere local government area of Rivers State, there is a saying that it is good sometimes for a man to marry two wives, and see the difference between them. Nigeria and Nigerians have married two wives. They have married PDP. They have married APC. And they know now which one is a better wife. The issue of corruption in Nigeria that has been levelled against PDP. You now ask is it PDP as a party or individual Nigerians that are corrupt. If there is corruption in Nigeria, what about the system that is generating corruption? If those systems are still running. Then APC is corrupt.
Let’s look at it as individuals. APC has as members, governors that were members of PDP and they have been exonerated from corruption. APC has ministers who were members of PDP. APC has National Assembly members, who were members of PDP. And if all these people were PDP members , it simply means, APC is as corrupt as PDP.
PDP established several institutions to curb corruption. If PDP were corrupt, it would not have established institutions to fight corruption. ICPC was set up during PDP administration. And the whole idea of ICPC was to fight corruption in Nigeria.
EFCC was established by PDP to check corruption. The Due Process Office was established. PDP established these bodies to check corruption.
Yet, the APC says PDP is corrupt. If PDP is corrupt why did it establish these agencies to fight corruption. Mind you, APC has not come up with a new idea at all to say this is their ways of fighting corruption, except what was established by PDP.
What APC is doing now is using brute force against perceived enemies. It is not as if they are fighting corruption. Their aim is to humiliate political opponents, not to establish a system that will run in Nigeria like PDP has done .Whistle blowing is neither here nor there. It is a system of looking at PDP members and implicating them if possible. Most of the people that the whistle goes against are PDP members. Have you seen the whistle blow as a a referee against the other party? It has never happened.
PDP did every thing to curb corruption. And the APC has not done anything to tackle corruption.
Don’t you think that during the elective convention coming up later in the year, the governors may want to dictate who leads the party, as has been the case in the past ?
In the May Convention, the party decided that Sheriff was not the person to lead us. It was not as if the governors decided. It was the general opinion of everybody in the party.
In August, another Convention was held, that was a non – elective convention, because they realise that there were court orders. The court gave us a limit to what we could do during the convention. So, we went back and operated according to court order and extended the life span of the caretaker committee. I can tell you how the chairman and members of the committee emerged. They were nominated and voted for by people who attended the convention. Not by the governors. I was there.
The issue of governors, I think this present governors, unlike the previous ones, know the consequences of the imposition of candidates on the people. So, they don’t want to make the same mistake the previous people made.
Your party is proposing to reduce the period of membership before a person gets the party’s ticket or get appointment from two years and one year respectively to a uniform period of six months , what is your take on that?
I think it is in order. Two years period is long enough for you to lose a brilliant and intelligent potential member, who could be used properly for running the affairs of the party. The fact is that many people who think if you let in somebody from another party and the person become so vibrant and an important person in the party, he will be competing with him in his own area, what they did is that by the time the person is two years in the party, the person would have been tired and worn out. But they didn’t look at what the party could gain by using that vibrant person. So, the party looked at it and said no, let us be objective enough. Let us not look at individual interest. The mere fact that somebody is six months only in the party and qualify to contest election does not mean that the person can win an internal election. It does not follow. It also does not follow that the person can be given an appointment. But the fact is that you free the person, give him the liberty to flow freely in the system. You give him the liberty to act like any other member of the party. You give him the opportunity to believe in himself, why he should work hard. But if you leave it at two years, the person sees it as a long time, and he may not be able to contribute more, because his contribution will not be recognised. You tie down the viability of the person for domestic interest. I think it is proper, you allow six months for the person to be given time to be part of the system. I think it is good.
The APC has relentlessly accused the PDP of corruption and causing all the problems of the country. In light of the above, what will you be telling Nigerians in 2019?
In the place where I come from, I come from Ubima in Ikwere local government area of Rivers State, there is a saying that it is good sometimes for a man to marry two wives, and see the difference between them. Nigeria and Nigerians have married two wives. They have married PDP. They have married APC. And they know now which one is a better wife. The issue of corruption in Nigeria that has been levelled against PDP. You now ask is it PDP as a party or individual Nigerians that are corrupt. If there is corruption in Nigeria, what about the system that is generating corruption? If those systems are still running. Then APC is corrupt.
Let’s look at it as individuals. APC has as members, governors that were members of PDP and they have been exonerated from corruption. APC has ministers who were members of PDP. APC has National Assembly members, who were members of PDP. And if all these people were PDP members , it simply means, APC is as corrupt as PDP.
PDP established several institutions to curb corruption. If PDP were corrupt, it would not have established institutions to fight corruption. ICPC was set up during PDP administration. And the whole idea of ICPC was to fight corruption in Nigeria.
EFCC was established by PDP to check corruption. The Due Process Office was established. PDP established these bodies to check corruption.
Yet, the APC says PDP is corrupt. If PDP is corrupt why did it establish these agencies to fight corruption. Mind you, APC has not come up with a new idea at all to say this is their ways of fighting corruption, except what was established by PDP.
What APC is doing now is using brute force against perceived enemies. It is not as if they are fighting corruption. Their aim is to humiliate political opponents, not to establish a system that will run in Nigeria like PDP has done .Whistle blowing is neither here nor there. It is a system of looking at PDP members and implicating them if possible. Most of the people that the whistle goes against are PDP members. Have you seen the whistle blow as a a referee against the other party? It has never happened.
PDP did every thing to curb corruption. And the APC has not done anything to tackle corruption.
