…Says unbridled ambition of chieftains greatest hindrance to achieving goal
From Aloysius Attah, Onitsha
Chief Ndubuisi Nwobu is the former chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Anambra State and currently the Secretary, PDP Elders Council. He is a consummate politician who has been engaged in various public assignments. In this interview, he talks about the protracted crisis in the party, national political issues moment and the upcoming Anambra governorship election.
Can you confidently say that PDP is in the race for the November 8, 2025 Anambra State governorship election?
Basically yes, the PDP is fully in the contest for the guber election in November 2025. It is political parties that sponsor candidates in an election and as of today PDP is sponsoring a candidate in the forthcoming election. Nigerians and Ndi Anambra know that PDP has been having challenges in recent times. The challenge is not only here in Anambra State but also at the national level. This is a situation where the party structure has not been in place for years. For the past three or four years, when I left office as elected PDP chairman in Anambra State, we have not had an elected chairman, until last October 2024. An organization without a leadership is bound to face such challenge. With the challenge in the state, there are also challenges at the national level where the leadership of party, the chairman and the secretary are in crisis. Honestly, this is not the best of times for the party. It was in the midst of those challenges and the timing of nomination of candidates for the Anambra guber that the crisis arose. People who want to see contest elections, seeing leadership crisis will not be interested. This will also affect fielding the best candidates. You should also bear in mind that this is a party that has its roots in Anambra State. People like Alex Ekwueme, the late former vice president of the county was one of the pioneers of the party in the country. Because of that the party is loved by Ndi Anambra. There is no home in the state, you don’t have PDP person.
Even those people you see in other parties were at one time PDP members. The present governor of the state once ran for governorship election on the platform of PDP. To that extent, you don’t rule out PDP in the Anambra guber election. We are still looking forward and at the end of the day will be able to put forward those that will be considered the best and first eleven for the party. So, the party is strategizing and working seriously for this election.
What would you say is the major reason for the crisis in the PDP today?
Let me start with the crisis at the national level. The crisis has festered for quite a long time over who is the national secretary of the party. Why the acting national secretary should be in office while the people of North Central are looking for replacement of the former national chairman. All these have polarized the party. Unbridled ambition of individuals without being told is our major problem. As the national secretary, you will be among the signatories to the candidates of the party that will be submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. You will be among those who will set up a committee to conduct congress, primaries and rectify the primary and others.
If there is a proper conscience, you ought not to be a judge in your own case. Senator Sam Anyanwu ought to have recused himself as the National Secretary of the party the very day he wanted to contest for the governorship of Imo State. He failed to do that and despite assurances and promises to the leadership of the party in South East, which he made openly in Enugu State at the governor’s lodge that he was going to resign, he never did. In fact, he ought not to run for primary without resigning his position as the national secretary of the party. He as the national secretary is part of those who will determine who will be candidate of the party. This was the reason the former governor of Imo State, Hon. Emeka Ihedioha declined from contesting the governorship election in Imo State that time. Contesting against somebody who will be judge in his own case? It is not right to run a race with that situation. It is shameless on the part of Senator Sam Anyawu not to have recused himself long before now. He is much more unconscionable that he continues to drag the party to the mud till this day.
Just the other Tuesday, he even surfaced as the National Secretary before the National Working Committee, NWC, graciously enough, stopped him and asked him to step aside, while the Deputy National Secretary would hold the position until a the South East zone of the party indicates that it has found a replacement. There are laws but people sideline them for selfish interest and do things out of ordinary. Now, we expect the judiciary to correct the anomaly but it says that the party should handle their matter and affairs.This crisis was not supposed to be in place but because some people want to serve other interests apart from the party own, the challenge continues.
Now, let me say this in a very direct manner, the present Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Mr Nyesom Wike, if he is man enough, should go and pick the membership card of the APC. I am convinced that he is playing cowardice for continuing to say, “I am a PDP but I am supporting Tinubu.” What kind of statement is that? You cannot be a party member and supporting the candidate of another party. It simply means you are no longer a member of the party. These days, people believe that money can buy everything and he is foisting himself as a member of PDP thereby paying some renegades to be causing trouble in the party. They also believe that the judiciary can be bought and therefore they can go there and get one order or another. If what is happening in PDP happened to other political parties, they would have been wrecked by now. PDP is able to contend with the crisis because it is a party that has been able to build some levels of institutions. It has Board of Trustees, BoT, the Governors Forum and a lot of other institutions waging war against people who want to rubbish the party. Yes, there are fundamental challenges in the party, however, I am seeing that the institutions in the party will enable it to overcome those challenges. It is just a matter of little time and everything will be over.
As per the governors defecting from PDP to APC, we know that as a political party, you joined at your own instinct and there is also freedom of association in the constitution. Within the constitution, there is a framework that says that if you defect you lose your seat but because there are decided cases in the case of the executive, they can misbehave. As for me as a political scientist, there is no basis for a governor to defect and retain his seat. When you run for an election, you run on the platform of a political party and you did not run as individual. Even in the result sheet, there is no place where the candidates name is mentioned or written. If you take the mandate of a party and want to leave for another party, commonsense and conscience should tell you to relinquish the office and go to the new party, pick its ticket and run for the position.
As of today, we don’t have independent candidates in Nigeria. Conceding and not accepting that the judiciary has ruled that the executive can defect without losing position, but the Supreme Court has decided that legislatures cannot defect without losing their positions unless there is a division in their party.
In the Rivers State scenario, where people formally and openly defected, INEC should without waiting for any court declare those seats vacant, schedule a date for new election. Let them stand on the tickets of their new parties and run for the election. As of today, they are not representing people they claim to represent, they are just representing themselves. Also those governors that are defecting are defecting for their selfish reasons.
Due to the kind of democracy we are running in this country, many of our leaders have become so corrupt. You see somebody who becomes a governor and by the time he leaves office he must have amassed so much wealth for his fifth generation which he might not know how they will exist.
The government knows that these people have their stains here and there and if any one proves stubborn, they will come after him with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and once they are around, they will say instead of coming after me, let me slow down. This ought not to be what democracy should be.
If Jonathan had played the kind of politics these APC people are doing today, there won’t be APC today. We are having people in power today who are pretentious about democracy in Nigeria. Before now, they had the impression that there will be democracy, freedom of speech, true federalism and everything in place. All their actions today are contrary to all they advocated for in the past.
So, why are the political parties not retrieving their mandates from the defectors?
The political parties and the judiciary should be blamed for the non-retrieval of those mandates. There are cases where parties went to court and won, that is the reason I said that there are decided cases that if you defect you lose your seat. When a case is decided, it becomes a law and people should not be allowed to go through the stress again. You know when you go for litigation in this country, you need a lawyer and most times you will engage a Senior Advocate of Nigeria because you are going to battle with somebody with so much money. To get a SAN, you need millions of naira for just consultation. How many of these political parties can afford such amount? Again to follow up the case, then the judiciary will come up with one technicality or the other to dismiss the case. Notwithstanding these challenges, the political parties should be able to follow up those cases to logical conclusion and if they don’t follow them up the present situation will remain. Today, some people when they defect to their party they are happy, but when PDP was in power, when someone wanted to defect, they would be shouting. Today PDP is at the receiving end. This is the reason I want us to look at the law and not only when it affects or favours us.
Why is it that PDP cannot discipline Nysesom Wike despite seeming obvious disloyalty on his party?
If you recall very well, when Wike was the governor of Rivers State, he was like the alter ego of the party. He was doing everything showcasing that he was fighting to sustain PDP and in the course of doing that, he was able to prop up loyalists and associates in the party leadership hierarchy. Those that emerged as members of the National Working Committee, NWC, Wike had greater involvement in their emergence. Starting from the National Chairman, the National Secretary and others, he had serious influence in their emergence. And still influences what they do. That is the reason it is difficult for some of them to frontally address the issues in the party. The good thing now as starting point is that we are able to deal with the National Secretary which is very strategic and we will soon deal with others. The party will hold its National Executive Council, NEC meeting this month and during the meeting, most NWC decisions will be ratified. After the council, there will a National Convention where a leadership will emerge and which will have the previous colouration that held the party hostage. When they emerge, they will have the courage to stem those fomenting trouble in the party.
There is a general impression among Nigerians that the APC is not doing well, but with the wave of defections to the party, it appears that politicians are not feeling the pains of Nigerians. What is your take?
When you look at the situation in this country, the political class forms very little percentage of political activities of this country. The political class may have their views but what determines the political direction of the nation is the people. If the governors are so powerful, why would they be spending so much for their reelection bids? For example, in Delta State where the governor defected with the former governor of the state, who was the PDP vice presidential candidate, that cannot be equated to say that the entire Delta State has defected to APC. In 2027, the people will determine the direction of the election and not the governor who will determine the direction of voting patterns. Many factors will determine the election.
Are you saying that Tinubu and APC will not win 2027 election in Nigeria?
It is very much possible and not just if it is possible. Honestly, it is very possible that APC will lose the election given the general public feelings about the party. The hardship everybody is experiencing is enough for the party to lose the election.
But given the impression that votes do not count in the country but the umpire’s decision and government in power, is it possible that Nigerians will get it right?
There is no power greater than that of the people. These INEC people you are talking about, are they not Nigerians? Do they not come from home? The pains people are passing through, are they not passing through the same pains? In fact, what we have in Nigeria today is peace of the graveyard. When it bursts, everybody will run.
The PDP obviously appears to be dismembered today. How do you think the party can come together to challenge the APC and what arrangements are in the offing to make PDP win the 2027 general election?
I watched and read the communique of the PDP governors in Ibadan, Oyo State. These are governors I have great respect for but I tend to disagree with them, with all their wealth of knowledge and influence. I am convinced that they are not reading the mode and feelings of the nation right. PDP is a great party with structures across the country, it is not about that. We need to tell ourselves the truth, we need to wrest power from APC for the greater good of the people. It is not something the party can do alone. There is no point looking at yourself as being at a higher level and we need to come down. PDP needs to be in a coalition with other political gladiators to wrest power from APC. We must do it not for sake of PDP but for the sake of the masses of this country. If the governors say the PDP will do it alone, I will tell you it is a failure already. PDP needs to spearhead in conjunction with other forces to see that power is taken away from APC. Coalition is the only way out and any person who tells you another thing is not being honest.You may have dismembered parties, but certainly not dismembered people. There are still individuals within those parties who can mobilize the people. If Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar could set aside their pride and come together, they would stand a strong chance of winning the 2027 election.These two individuals, in collaboration with other political forces and leaders, can take power away from the APC. There is significant disaffection in the country, even among APC members. Please don’t overlook the fact that they are using the power of incumbency to suppress others. However, a realignment and coalition are likely in the next election. I can tell you that a coalition is possible, but those organizing it must be sincere and transparent about their intentions. They need to let go of pride and act swiftly if they are to take power from the current government. This process must begin immediately because the people need clarity about the identity of the party they are expected to support.To secure public support, the coalition must provide proper education and raise awareness about the party and its goals.