By Joshua Omoloye
National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Hon. Debo Ologunagba, in this interview with Joshua Omoloye, Politics Editor, gives an insight into the party’s position on 2023 presidency and eligibility of every member, the expectation to reap influx of politicians across board from possible explosion post-APC Convention, dismissing threat to Taraba State PDP as a result of Senator Bwacha’s defection, and other issues.
Excerpts………
Senate Deputy Minority Leader, Emmanuel Bwacha recently defected from your party to the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC), what will be the effect on the fortune of PDP?
Well, the defection of members of any political party should be of concern, however, defection is not one-way traffic. While people or members defect on PDP, several other members are defecting from APC and other parties to the PDP, so if you look at it from the real issue, you will find out that because of the failures of APC, there are many prominent party members of the APC and other parties coming into PDP because PDP represents the hope of Nigerian masses. Yes, the defection of the deputy minority leader would concern every party but like I said movement of public officers or legislators or political office holders is not one way. So, it is not just enough to concentrate on one individual that left the party and then not look at how many other party members from Governors, Senators, and House of Rep members are just waiting to join us.
I will just let you know by way of information that yes, in the next couple of weeks, you will see more people who are responding to the interest of their constituents and then reacting and responding to the monumental failure of the APC, moving into the PDP.
As to the other concern about whether that will not affect us. From what I just said, the fact that we are expecting and in fact so many members of the parliament who will be moving to the PDP in the next couple of weeks just before the elections and of course, you will see more from the failures and the inability of APC to manage their own affairs after they have conducted their National Convention that they plan to have which as I speak seem to be completely in the realm of imagination.
So we know that PDP is strong, we are getting many members from across the country and we are ready for the elections.
Can you confirm the governors coming to join the PDP from APC?
The thing is, I don’t sit down here to speculate conversations and then tell you the outcome of any conversation. I do know that many public officers, whether governors, commissioners, whether lawmakers from different levels at the national, state, or local government level will be joining the PDP is crystal clear and the signals are there and the discussions we are having. We don’t do our discussions on the pages of newspapers, I know you are interested in the news but I can tell you that the signals we are getting and the conversations we are having, that many people, many political office holders, and other prominent politicians will move into PDP, so just watch and see what will happen in the coming weeks and months.
Recently, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar was seen in a viral online video with the big shots in APC. Is that a signal that if things don’t work out here, he will go to APC?
Atiku is an accessible person, I know him as such. He’s a very prominent and respected leader in the party. I do not speculate on people’s private visits and the fact that someone or a friend comes to your house tomorrow for an event that does not translate that there are political movements there. So I don’t want to speculate on that and I think as a party, we respect Atiku Abubakar, his contribution and his private visits are not part of what I monitor.
PDP lost elections in 2015 and 2019. What do you really think, expect 2019, was wrong?
It’s a very simple question and I’m sure you know. In 2015, the PDP lost to a massive propaganda campaign which was mounted by the APC using the word “change” and the lies were so attractive that Nigeria bought it all. That majorly accounted for that because, in 2015, the PDP was doing well as a party. The government of PDP throughout the country, you could see a progressive movement going on in terms of positive changes in the country in terms of human capital development, employment, education, security, foreign investments into the country, and everything, the signals were good.
In 2019, the PDP did not lose, it was rigged out and the evidence is there. You saw that. Having said that, we don’t look backward as a party, we are focused on the future and that’s why the conversation right now is to have an interrogation of how the APC has done and between you and I, away from political consideration, you flick, I flick. We look at all the indices between 2015 and now and compare them. So the question Nigerians should answer which anybody can answer is are you better since 2015 than now? The answer is very clear. In 2015, unemployment was 7.3%, today it is 73%. In 2015, the external foreign debt for Nigeria was up to 7 billion dollars, today it is 38 billion dollars and still counting. We don’t know how much it is today. We have just heard the Minister of Transportation say that we are going to look for additional loans because it is beginning to get weak. Loans are not bad but when you find that loans are being filtered away or are being stolen, that is the concern and you can’t explain that because you’ll find out that we take loan or borrow money from foreign countries and these are disturbing debts and we use these loans for unproductive and not self-sustaining infrastructures. For instance, there is a super highway-rail line from Kano to Maradi in Niger Republic, what is our benefit in that.
The total GDP of Niger Republic is about 4-5 billion dollars. Anambra State, a state in the Southeast, the total GDP is between 8 and 10 billion dollars. Now there’s no use lying to our own party. What tells you the nature of this party we are talking about is visionless, that has no mission, that is so tribalistic. So that’s the challenge we have as a country.
Why is the National Working Committee (NWC) or National Executive Council (NEC) of your party so quiet about this issue of presidency. It’s raising dust within the South and the North. Why is PDP so quiet?
Let me tell you this, you are just imagining it. Number one, you are not a member of our party. I know you are a good listener. I don’t know where the news is coming from but definitely not from PDP. The party has a position, the position of the party is that any member of the party who has asked to be president of Nigeria is entitled to it and to take action towards that base on the PDP constitution, its guidelines and above all the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in which their qualifications are well spelt out. We as a party, in all that we do, we have exclusive conversations. All through the organs of the party from the state Excos to the National Working Committee to all the zonal and then we get to the NEC. In all our conversations, there is one guiding principle that the party is concerned within its consideration about the unity and peaceful coexistence of the country and all the tendencies and in taking decisions, all these things are considered. And at the appropriate time when this happens, going by the way as an orderly party, we will be speaking to Nigeria when decisions are made and it will be conveyed through the appropriate means. So if you talk about our reference, that will be imagination and probably this is the voice of the market.
Governor Wike recently said the South-south will soon speak and they will speak so loudly about the PDP presidential ticket. Was he speaking the mind of the party?
Democracy is about canvassing opinions and ideas, so what is wrong about people saying this is what they think as far as it’s for the party. There’s nothing wrong with PDP, democracy is about competing ideas and canvassing interests. That is democracy. That is what we do in PDP. That’s what you can’t find in APC and that is why APC could not have their convention. You notice that the convention of the PDP is of conflicting interests, it’s a negotiation and that came out with a very free convention because out of the twenty-one possible contestable positions, only three were considered. Why? because the PDP has a regulating system that allows you to reconcile conflicting interests and discuss our own understanding. That is what democracy is all about. Why it is difficult for APC is because they don’t have that mechanism. APC is an SPV, a Special Purpose Vehicle that was formed to defraud Nigerians. They came hurriedly, with no mission, no vision and because it is people with conflicting interests, it is governed and controlled by walnuts.
Nigeria today is enmeshed in and enveloped by largely security and economic problems. What do you think PDP will do if eventually win the presidency in 2023. How do you think you will bring Nigeria back?
We are ready to bring confidence to our people, to bring unity, to tell us that we are one people. Under the APC government, Nigerians have never been divided and the only way you believe in a project is when you believe your interests can be taken care of. With tribalism, lopsidedness in appointments, the impunity in promoting one ethnic against the other is of great concern. That is why people do not believe in the project because of this government.
The principle of Federal Character that is in the constitution has been abandoned and the sensitivity and sensibility of Nigeria have been abused. So, what PDP is bringing in is to see that we are together as a people and when you do that people get interested in it. When you are interested in it, you get information, you get advice and the PDP will ensure that everybody has a stake in this business and because you bring out ideas then we can then build together. This is so because PDP is an organic party. PDP is visible in every unit of this country. Two, it is the only organic party in Nigeria today and I can tell you why. PDP has a growth process, there is a strategy for its growth. When it started from G9 to G18 to G34, they came with a vision and a mission and a purpose and that was what drove the formation of the party, so it has a mission. That is why the constitution is so robust, provided for ideas. What was it? The idea was to get the military out of power and especially even in their motto as a vision and that’s why it is an organic party even though there may be crises at different times like everywhere in the world. Although a President has left this party yet the party did not collapse. Governors at some point, several of them left at the same time, National Assembly members, yet the party survived because it has a foundation, it has a mission, it has a vision. It is an organic party. Contrasting, that APC, is a configuration of a faction of APGA, a faction of ANPP, a faction of ACF, a faction of ACN. They can’t manage their affairs because of differences and then every angle is pulling the party apart. They have what we call, the so called State congresses. At the end of their exercise, there were over 80 chairmen for 36 states.
Why is PDP so confident that they will take a ride to Aso Rock in 2023?
Because we have the people and the people are tired. We have a government that is completely a lying government. Nigerians have agreed that this is a government of lying, by liars and for liars. Nigerians are tired because just like anything in life, there’s an expiry date. The lies of the APC and the fact that they have discounted the lives of Nigerians and Nigerians look up to PDP as a hope, therefore that is the confidence, not just the confidence, that is the signal we are getting from Nigerians. They are waiting for the PDP and we are ready to go and you can see how we are ready for the presidency with the way we held our National Convention and the NWC has been doing things in order because democracy is about order.
You are a former member of the National Assembly. If I ask you to rate the National Assembly, will you say they have performed so well?
National Assembly as a whole, we expect them to perform their role and to the extent of what the National Assembly should be, I do not want to rate them. Why? I believe many of their duties, we expect that if they haven’t done well, they still have an opportunity to do that and the only way the National Assembly can redeem itself is to ensure that the Electoral Act Amendment bill is passed to law. The president is to be encouraged or pressured to sign the law. That is the only way.
Photo Caption: Hon. Debo Ologunagba, National Publicity Secretary, PDP.
