In this interview with John Alechenu, a former National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Kola Ologbondiyan, speaks about the party’s internal crisis, the performance of President Bola Tinubu-led All Progressives Congress administration and sundry other issues.
Is the PDP dead?
No. The problem as we speak today is that the party has gone comatose but it’s not dead. So, the issue of a requiem mass like some commentators are suggesting does not arise. I must, however state that the party has been allowed to wax cold and rendered ineffective in the performance of its function as the leading opposition party expected to put this trial by error administration on its toes.
Those in the current leadership of our party are going to tell you that oh, they have conducted Congresses conviently skipping the fact that the outcome of a majority of these congresses are currently subject of litigations in various courts. They will also tell you that o, they’re selling forms for zonal congresses but these are all games in which many party members are no longer interested because they’ve seen the direction these people are taking the party to. So, if any one says our party is dead, I’ll tell such a person that our party is not dead but it needs to be re-calibrated. It needs to be revived from its current state of coma.
Do you subscribe to the school of thought that believes the PDP is finding it difficult to function as an opposition party because it wasn’t built to function as one?
I don’t. Let me explain. I don’t believe any party is built from the get go to only function as an opposition party. Parties are built to mobilize the people, sell their manifestos, to canvass votes and win elections to govern. I think this is the basis upon which political parties are formed and nurtured. This also speaks to the fact that you can be in power today and out of power tomorrow. In the same breath, in wherever situation a party finds itself, it must be able to engage in a revival such that will inject life into the party to put it in a position that will appeal to the electorate to vote it into power to render service. To me, it’s incorrect to say the PDP was built to function only when it’s in power.
Your party was in power for 16 straight years but was defeated by a coalition which later became the APC. Where did the rain begin to beat the party whose symbol ironically is the umbrella?
Sadly, we cannot run away from the fact that the PDP laid the foundation of its eventual exit from power. It began when successive leaderships began to deviate from the principles of fairness, equity which were the foundation upon which our founding fathers built the party.
Let me give you a classic example of what led the party into its current situation.
Section 45 and 47 (6) of the constitution of our great party are very clear on the issue of succession.
Much as some would rather we stop talking about this, the fact remains, it is at the core of what the party must deal with to move forward. We had a National Chairman in the person of Dr. Iyiorchia Ayu who for reasons that are already in public domain resigned.
Out of respect for our constitution, the proper thing to do was for the party to elect a chairman from the North Central Zone where he hails from to complete his tenure which was truncated. If you recall, the Chairmanship position was zoned to the North Central in line with our time tested zoning formula which takes into account our diversity as a nation.
There have been several instances where this was done since the party came into existence in 1998. Even as recent as 2014, Adamu Mu’azu from the North East took over from Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, after the latter resigned. When our National Woman Leader passed not too long ago, her replacement was elected from her zone. The North Central is not asking for too much. Our leaders must look at the bigger picture and address the truth wherever it is required.
We must continue to tell those who have undertaken to either kill the PDP or render it comatose that unlike other political parties we all know, no individual can claim ownership of the PDP. The party is owned by the people of Nigeria, it was so from the beginning and we don’t see that changing anytime soon.
Just for people to respect our constitution has become a problem. They are dancing around, jumping from Court to Court seeking how to manipulate simple rules written in plain English for their selfish purposes. If you look at time past, you will see that similar situations led to crisis. We even had a strange occurrence when people went and brought in a member of an opposition party to be Chairman of the PDP. We have had situations where waivers were created to allow certain individuals use our platform to contest elections. We have people who not only disagree with the established rules but look for ways and means to set it aside. These are some of the actions that have led the party to where it is today.
Would you say the exit of the party’s founding fathers played a major role in the current state of affairs?
When you talk of the exit of founding fathers, it is not all the founding fathers that have left the party. There are founding fathers who people even see as having exited the party that are still indirectly providing genuine advice to the party. People who say look, I’m no longer able to play partisan politics but once in a while chip in an advice out of love for democracy, the nation and the interest of good governance. So, you can’t say such founding fathers have abandoned us because they are no longer in the party. And that they are no longer interested in what is going on. But I can also agree that we can have situations where people who have the right experience and sufficient institutional memory have maintained a deafening silence maybe because those who are in charge of the party now are not prepared to take advice or even consult.
What’s your take on a situation where some of your party members are playing active and visible roles in the current administration?
It will not help resolve our current problems, I can tell you that for free. I guess you are speaking of people like the former Governor of Rivers State, Chief Nyesom Wike, who is a serving minister in the current government and also holds unto his membership of our party. Such contradictions have not helped the cause of the PDP. I say this with every sense of responsibility. You can’t be in a government that is being run by another party no matter how much you want to help the cause of your original party- you will not be in government and want that government to fail. You are indirectly loyal to the government you are serving in whether you admit it or not. You will do everything possible to put your adopted party and the government in good light. These contradictions surely have an adverse effect on the party.
One of your former National Chairmen, the late Chief Vincent Ogbulafor, once boasted that the PDP which was then in power was going to rule for 60 years. With benefit of hindsight, do you think there was perhaps a possibility of that happening?
Curled from Vanguard
