From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
Recently, former Vice President and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2023 general elections, Atiku Abubakar, called for opposition political parties to unite to checkmate the All Progressives Congress ( APC).
However, while Atiku’s supporters are subtly pushing for the opposition to rally round the former Vice President, ahead of the 2027 general elections, a former presidential aspirant on the platform of the PDP, Chief Cosmos Ndukwe, said the former is not in position to provide leadership to the opposition, ahead of the next general elections.
Ndukwe, who spoke in an interview, with Daily Sun, also stated that the PDP must merge with other opposition parties, to form a mega party, if it intends to survive. He expressed displeasure that leaders of the opposition party rather than working towards repositioning the PDP are locked in supremacy tussle over who would be national chairman and national secretary of the party.
What do you think should be the way forward for the PDP?
PDP should find a way to integrate with other parties and form a mega opposition party if truly it wants to survive. Otherwise, PDP may be going extinct. I think it is time for Nigeria to cut down on multiplicity of parties. The issue of having too many parties is not enough.
The country is battling with a very bad economy. The country is broke. And as such, we need too much parties that the government will also fund. During elections, they will give money to this party. We need to cut down, if we really want to heal the nation and move it forward. People are angry. The nation is breeding. And we need to heal this wound.
This multiplicity of party to my mind, I would say that they should adopt one opposition party. They did that before to have APC. And it is time now for PDP to do what ACN did to form APC. I can’t see what any party can do to challenge APC; except they are turning Nigeria to one party state, then all of us will move to APC.
But if PDP wants to survive as a party, it is time to jettison pride. It is time to come together. It is time to form alliances to get a mega party. And that mega party will be the only panacea to fight APC, if they really want to survive as a party. Since 1998 that the party was formed, it is time for them to open their flanks and admit other parties and form one single, very strong reliable party and move forward.
The PDP is yet to heal from the wounds of the last election, how do you think the party can unite its members going forward?
What I suggested will equally help in the healing process. Because I can assure you that for some members of PDP now, it is one leg in, one leg out. I can assure you of that. That will equally help in the healing process. For the party to heal completely, we need others to come in.
And you will now know who really wants to stay in PDP and who wants to go.
All of us are carrying bullet wounds. I have my own wound. And so many other persons have their own wound. We all have bullet wounds. And this wound, if we don’t heal it on time, will deteriorate. It will make us to move to APC; some of us who feel neglected, like me I contested the presidential primary. Since after that, no one has called me. No one has called stakeholders for a meeting after the election.
The former VP, who was PDP presidential candidate in the last election, called for a merger of the opposition. Do you see Atiku as capable of giving a direction to the opposition starting from the PDP?
If Edwin Clark at the age of 90 and above is still strong and still contributing to discourse on politics, if Bode George is still a member of a political party, Atiku is not all that aged to quit; except he has family pressure. If not, if he feels he is strong and he has the vitality to continue running, and continue being a member of the party, why not.
But if I may advise, some of these old men, should leave the scene for the younger generation like us to come in. But that is a personal decision anyway. He has his right to continue running for President until he quits the scene, or as a member of the party. That is his personal right and no one should truncate that. That is his constitutional right as a citizen of this country.
So, I will not want to make a comment concerning if Atiku is staying or not staying. But whether he is staying or not staying, he should be able to forgive and be able to reconcile the party if truly he wants to still be a member of that great party, the PDP.
The problem in the PDP is still widening by the day. They are arguing over who should be the national chairman and who would not be. The camp that will produce the national chairman and the camp will not produce the national chairman. The camp that will produce the secretary and if the secretary that left to contest in Imo State should stay or would not stay.
But if you are in the street, the preponderance of the members of this great party feels that PDP is like over staying its welcome. It is time to form a mega party and that will save Nigeria a lot of problem.
A lot of persons are saying Atiku’s ability to provide leadership for the PDP is contingent on whether he is going to contest for the 2027 presidency or not …?
Atiku cannot be a strong voice for the opposition. He has little time that he spends in Nigeria. He is always in and out of the country. How long does he stay in Nigeria to be seeing the ills of the country that he will correct?
For you to lead an opposition, you must be a very strong voice and you need time to move around. You need to shake hands across the Niger. What I am not sure is whether he is strong enough to lead the opposition. Let him make himself available.
What the people want is one who can associate with them and not somebody who is on his high horse. He needs to come down from his high horse if he needs to lead the opposition. He needs to sit in Nigeria more. You can’t run the opposition from Dubai.