Wike’s attempt to control PDP and APC in Rivers is laughable, says Kola Ologbondiyan

Kola Ologbondiyan is the former national publicity secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). In this interview, he takes a critical assessment of the party, why it has failed to provide strong opposition, why the party is crisis-ridden, decamping, Governor Siminalayi Fubara/Nyesom Wike feud, and the leadership failure, among others.

 

 

 

Your party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), seems to be comatose, not providing the needed opposition voice. What is happening to the party?

 

Not at all. Our great party, PDP, is not in comatose. The truth is that the party is currently facing serious challenges.  This is the obvious truth we cannot run away from. But the party is not comatose, it is very much alive.

 

Throw more light on what we are witnessing in your party, which is unsatisfactory to political watchers…?

 

It goes beyond the change of circumstance. It could be as a result of people doing certain things as you have noted, and it could also be because the party is out of power and thus not many people can sustain being in opposition because people believe they have to always be where it is happening. And you know Nigerians normally believe that they have to be where it is happening, so if a party has been in opposition for such a long period, it can face certain challenges about membership. But it is not a situation to give up. I think what is important now is to re-energise the party in a manner that can contain the current situation and effectively provide opposing views to the governance of our nation.

 

Is it not unfortunate that the PDP isn’t taking advantage of the present Nigerian condition to mount serious opposition and prepare fully for the next elections?

 

I think the party is being held down by certain forces and it is being denied the chance to propagate as it ought to have been. But I still give it to the national publicity secretary, Debo Ologunagba, because despite all that is happening, he is still trying to provide a voice. But I think the contending forces within the PDP are the problems of the party today.

 

What are these problems that are holding the PDP down because some people think your party’s problems are self-inflicted resulting in defections or you don’t think so?

 

You see, talking of defection, I give it to the Ebonyi team, starting with the former governor, Dave Umahi. When he felt that he no longer had a stake in the party or was given the position of the party and that he no longer was satisfied with the system, he took his leave. That is honourable and I also have seen the former Senate president and secretary to the government of the federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, saying he is dissatisfied with what is going on in the PDP, saying honourably that he was exiting; that is integrity, that is also courage. I think that if you are going to war and you have a thousand men behind you who don’t believe in the cause you are fighting for but are pretending to be with you, you are bound to fail. But if you have two people who are committed to the battle you are fighting for, you might succeed. So, the disposition of Senator Pius Anyim in the issue is agreeable to me as a person and as an individual. If you feel you can no longer take the nonsense that is happening and you take your exit, honestly that is honourable. It’s better than staying in and seeking to destroy the foundation that made you who you are.

 

But if you feel to leave honourably given that you are dissatisfied, is it right to join your main opponent, this is what those leaving the party are doing…?

 

To be honest with you, it depends on the individual involved.  For instance, there are individuals here in the PDP who won’t go anywhere no matter how they feel dissatisfied with the situation. They will see the situation to the end. Some individuals cannot withstand it, but the ones who are staying in are not pranking about their allegiance. They are there to work for the success of the party. But some are using the party as well to satisfy their desires. Such people don’t mind if the party becomes comatose or dies tomorrow. For instance, you mentioned the FCT Minister. As we speak today, the FCT Minister, former Governor Nyesom Wike, is in charge of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State. He is also in charge of PDP in Rivers State. And to me, it is laughable because we have a governor in the state who, according to our party’s constitution, should be the head of the party in the state unless he agrees to the contrary. Even as we speak today, he is the governor under PDP but hardly the party has been working with him unless Ologunagba stated to say we cannot abandon our own. So, the whole system in PDP needs to be recalibrated to work in the interest of the people.

 

What kind of recalibration are you talking about?

 

We have said openly that we need to rejig the party in a manner that it can serve the purpose for which it was formed and at this moment I want to call the leaders of the PDP, particularly the founders who are still here with us – whether you have left the party or not or whether you have retired from politics because I do not expect them to stay away at this moment, but to intervene because they laboured during the military system to come this far with the party. We can recall what they went through to bring the PDP alive. So, it’s not just a party that any individual, no matter how highly placed, should just come and destroy and then walk away. I think everyone has a responsibility in this regard, particularly if they understand the danger of having a one-party system. We should have an opportunity to say look, we are in government and we are going about it this way or that way, but when we lose such a voice as the opposition, then it becomes a problem. I think this is the time for the founders and leaders of the PDP to do something urgently.

 

Former Senate President, Anyim Pius Anyim, not only left the PDP, he left with a whole lot of people and Ganduje, the APC National Chairman, described this as a huge blessing to the ruling party; isn’t this a big loss to the PDP in the light of what is also happening in Rivers State?

 

In the case of defection in Rivers State, everyone knows the truth. You also know as a parliamentarian, as a member of the House of Assembly, you cannot defect on the floor of the house and expect to regain your seat. So, if the Rivers State House of Assembly members that defected had done the right thing from side A to side B and their record had gone into the proceedings of the house, that would have been different. But if you also listened to Dave Umahi because I heard what was ascribed to him after the defection of Anyim Pius Anyim that the former Senate President had been with them even before the 2023 election. He made it clear that Anyim had been with them even before the election. If that is the case, what we witnessed over Anyim’s defection was just a formality. But I am saying that the PDP as a party needs to be recalibrated; it needs to be rebuilt and it has to be now because you cannot give the soul of the party to people who are neither here nor there. We need to rescue the party from those pretending to have its interest at heart and it boils down to the leadership of the party. I like to say that when former Ebonyi governor, Umahi, was rallying with the APC before he finally left the party, the leadership of Uche Secondus issued him a query and asked for reasons towards his actions then. So, when people come to say PDP is watching former Governor Wike and that the party doesn’t have the gusto, it is always funny to me. The question is how and in what manner is the leadership functioning presently to tackle these challenges of recalibration?

 

So is the problem of the PDP a leadership problem and who is going to take responsibility and take the initiative in the recalibration you are talking about?

 

When we were in office as the working committee and the party had this kind of challenge, we sat down and discussed among ourselves, that it was a responsibility given to us and that at any point in time, we believed that the people who gave us the responsibility believed we could handle the task. We hand over the power to them back and walk away. So, when they finally said we should get out, without hesitation, we left, so you cannot have a situation in which agents of the national chairman of the party are in court against the working committee, against the executive committee and any other committee. The chairman, through agents, is in court against himself as the leader of the National Working Committee, against the NEC of the party, against the Board of the party, in fact, against virtually all and you expect that things will work well?

 

Don’t you think part of the problem is a result of the absence of ideology in the party that makes members jump ship at will?

 

Look, just like we believe we don’t have enough rules to guide us. This is not an issue of ideology because I know every party has its way of doing things. But you know the Nigerian factor in us or our inability or resistance to do things right or to follow rules is the challenge. For instance, there is a recent Supreme Court decision on the financial autonomy of the local government, but we kept aside the spirit and the letters of the 1999 Constitution and we are now following the court ruling. I ask myself what are we doing? I expected that the Supreme Court would mandate the National Assembly and the state Houses of Assembly to amend the constitution; that is the guiding rule and that is the principle upon which we are built as a nation, but rather than doing that, we are giving judgment and that judgment has not amended the constitution. Are we then confused about the right thing to do?

 

Many people thought after the 2023 election and given many circumstances, the PDP would have been more united than this. Also as some of the big guns in the party are dumping PDP, how do you go about recalibrating the party?

 

This is exactly what I have been saying, it goes back to the issue of leadership. After the 2015 election, we in the executive sat to look at factors that made us lose the election and the party tried to be guided by the outcome of such investigations which we carried out. This is where leadership comes in. Everything, as I said earlier, goes back to leadership and it goes back to those in charge of the party to say we need to take this or that step. I don’t think it will be the wholesome number of party members that should point to the direction for genuine recalibration of the PDP, but even if that is the case, it still boils down to leadership for it to be effectively carried out, to start a process, to make recommendations. But where the leadership appears to have been taken over by an individual, you get what we are facing today in the party.

 

So, can’t the members remove the leadership and move the party forward?

 

Well, the process of removal has its way in the constitution, but I just told you that agents who I believe are working for the leadership of the party are in court to say that the constitution of the party cannot be upheld. As we speak, they are in court to say we cannot unfold the principles of the party’s constitution.

 

Let’s zero down to Rivers State, Governor Fubara who has also cried out that the PDP leadership has abandoned him to swim in the crisis, all alone.  Why is that so?

 

I have been asked this same question on different platforms and my answer has not changed. You see, I  have been in sympathy with Governor Fubara over the situation that he finds himself in the party and I say this because, I recall that when this crisis first started  I did say that the party must rise in support of the governor, whether he intends to leave or stay in the party. As we speak since he hasn’t made a public declaration that he would leave the party, it is the responsibility of the party to rise in his support and defence. Events that followed showed that the party didn’t rise in support of the governor. Why did I say so? I recall that at the last National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting Governor Fubara made a demand concerning the caretaker committee that was constituted in Rivers State. He said that from his expectation he didn’t expect Rivers State to be listed among the states that would have congresses since the issue of the Executive Committee (exco) of the party, particularly the caretaker exco of the party hasn’t been resolved. The national chairman, Ambassador Umar Damagum said that they had agreed at the caucus last time to find a political solution. Later I read about cases in the court that encumbered the political solution. Even as we speak I don’t think the party has acted enough in Fubara’s favour or even in a reconciliatory situation in favour of Governor Fubara. If the governor says he has been abandoned by the party it will be difficult to fault him or say that what he is saying is not correct.

 

We watched as what happened in Rivers continued to deepen as you just pointed out without much support or input from the PDP at the apex level. We see what is also happening in Edo State given the latest developments…?

 

I have always said that the party is currently haemorrhaging and as a result of that it has its internal crisis, perhaps this has formed a distraction for the party to be able to make decisions that would keep the soul of the party together. So, as we speak the tendencies are seriously competing and because of that sometimes it’s even difficult to explain the circumstances under which the party operates.

 

Do you think that the PDP is paralyzed because they’re stuck at the mercy of their benefactors?

 

I don’t know who the benefactors are and I don’t know if there’s any paralysis on account of the position of benefactors, but I know that people have been elected into office as leaders of the party and they have a duty to themselves and a duty to the party and a duty to Nigerians and I expect them to live up to those responsibilities.