By Omoniyi Salaudeen
Alhaji Shuaib Oyedokun is one of the founding members of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
In this interview, he examined the ongoing power play between the North and South on the issue of zoning arrangement, declaring that Southeast deserves to pick the presidential ticket of the party, if only the stakeholders in the region are ready to work together and take their destiny in their hands. Excerpts:
As a founding member of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), what are your perspectives on the ongoing power play on the issue of zoning arrangement in the party?
What is happening about zoning arrangement is not peculiar to the PDP; it is also in other political parties that are presenting candidates, except where there is no competition at all or where parties belong to a sole proprietor and where that proprietor offers himself as a presidential candidate. But in the two major political parties where there is competition, I see it as democracy in practice. However, a situation where there is no effective and unbiased central control, where everything is thrown open, it might also lead to rat race competition. With the situation we have found ourselves now, to my mind, zoning the presidency to a particular zone is belated. The best thing is to allow those who have been successfully screened to go into the race provided we can set up an unbiased umpire to conduct the primary. I am sure, before the day of the election, with all the consultations going on now, a moment will come when it will become obvious to everybody where power will go. As it is now, everybody is out making consultations and the days are close by. All I know is that in this country, when things are bubbling like this, and the situation is becoming tense, within a moment like British weather, the bubble that we feel will burst will just get deflated and everything will simmer down. That is my hope.
If eventually a candidate from the North picks the ticket, will it not increase the level of separatist agitations in the South?
The fear being entertained about North and South dichotomy, to me, is very fluid. Because of our unpredictable nature in terms of voting and political calculation, one thing I am sure of is that the North cannot go 100 per cent North and the South 100 per cent South. There is no way we can have such a clear cut dichotomy. If we present a Northern candidate, you will see many Southern supporters who will support the candidate and vice versa. So, it is very dicey. What I may likely predict is that we will all go one Nigeria in this election, but the result might bring out more agitations which could lead to self-determination by some regions. It all depends on how we handle the situation and the will of God.
How will you situate your premise within the context of the Southeast aspiration for presidency of Igbo extraction?
Let me be frank with you, politics is about pursuit of power and influence. And in a federal system like ours, we have to be fair to one another. If we follow the policy of fairness and the spirit of give and take, I will say that there are two regions that are more deserving of it – Northeast and Southeast – but political calculations don’t go that way. But if we say it is South versus North, it then means that South-South, Southeast and Southwest deserve it.
Can you say in all fairness that Southwest deserves it, bearing in mind that former President Olusegun Obasanjo had spent eight years and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo is also serving out his eight-year tenure under the present dispensation?
If we limit it to the Southeast and Southwest, I will say Southeast deserves it.
And is the present political calculation in favour of Southeast?
We are all watching and consultations are on. Maybe this time around, aspirants from the region will come together. The fact that there are so many aspirants coming out to contest the race from the region is in itself their greatest undoing. The permutation that power will shift to the South is the reason they have more aspirants than the Southwest. If they cannot agree among themselves and pick a consensus candidate, they will all lose out. The problem of Southeast when it comes to power play is the fact that everyone looks at himself as superior to the other. I remember during Obasanjo regime between 1999 and 2007, every state in the Southeast had a Senate President one undercutting the other. If they do it this time around, they will lose out. Again, how can a region so desirous of producing the president of the country allow its security situation to degenerate to a level where life is no longer safe? There is a total lack of peace in that region now. The stakeholders in the region need to come together to provide a suitable political environment to actualize the desire to produce the next president. They should appeal to their youths to avoid violence because that is why some people are scared of supporting the agitation for president of Igbo extraction. A lot of people are scared of supporting the Southeast because of the ongoing violence. They need to put their destiny in their hands.
If your party is able to resolve all these issues amicably, can you authoritatively say that PDP will unseat the APC-led government in the coming election?
PDP is facing the problem of presenting a formidable front in this coming election. Once we address that challenge, I can consider it that the PDP has won the election. Usually, the problem of the opposition party winning an election usually comes from two sources. One is the power of incumbency because the president is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. The second incumbency factor comes from the governors. This is considering the fact that APC has control of 2/3 of the governors in the country. But fortunately for PDP, Nigerians are no longer docile as to allow this suffering to continue. So, with or without the power of incumbency, Nigerians don’t want to hear anything about APC anymore. Therefore, if there is any attempt to manipulation the elections, there will be civil resistance. And that civil resistance is desirable because the mindset of the people is totally against the APC. The international community is also not in support of the continuation of the current hardship in the country. APC coming back to power has become more like a curse to the people, which they are rejecting from what I have seen so far.
PDP and APC are billed to lock horns again in Osun governorship election coming up in July. How good is your party to go into this election, bearing in mind the bickering and disagreement that trailed the two parallel primaries held to elect its standard bearer?
The two parties have their own headaches and the headache is what I can call division. It is how each of the parties solves its problems that will determine the winner. I can’t talk about APC, but I can talk about PDP. Yes, we had two parallel congresses, and we are in court. I want to reserve my comment until after the judgment because it will be subjudice. But I have a very strong comment to make.
And you are desirous of having the PDP taking control of the state. Isn’t it?
I am a founding member of the party; I want to leave a legacy of solid structure for the PDP in the state.
Why then are you not looking at the possibility of out of court settlement to actualize that desire?
It depends on court judgment.