Former
acting National Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr.
Charles Remi Akitoye, has said that based on the indices on ground, his
party would win the 2019 presidential election....
In an interview with VINCENT KALU,
the former Lagos State commissioner for Agriculture, noted that with
Chief Bode George emerging as the national chairman of the party, the
PDP would take back its lost glory.
What has been the state of the PDP after its 2015 presidential defeat?
The state of our party in the country
today is something one has to look critically into. Maybe the party
didn’t prepare to lose in 2015, and thereafter, as we were trying to
count our loses, we ran into series of court cases that for almost 15
months, nobody could decide the fate of PDP until the Supreme Court
judgment, which was a landmark.
After the apex court judgment, Ahmed
Makarfi, well educated, very sensible, and very upright started
rebuilding and repositioning the party so it can take over from the
ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
But there are challenges within and outside the party.
The PDP is still the best opposition in the country. Democracy is about government and opposition.
The challenges are what we are trying to
surmount – human errors, human interests and others are what the party
is trying to resolve.
The party is doing its best, and when you
look at when the Supreme Court judgment was delivered, just about two
or three months ago, you can’t imagine the achievements of the caretaker
committee headed by Makarfi, that is stabilising the structure
nationally and at local levels to reenergise the party.
So, it is a matter of goodwill and
tidings for the party, but a lot of works still need to be done,
especially to ensure discipline, expunge the principle of imposition,
and enshrine fairness and fair play at all times; then PDP will surely
come back to its former strength.
What are the chances of PDP winning the presidential election in 2019?
The party will re-invigourate and
re-strengthen itself and at the end of the day as I said, without
imposition and unbridled indiscipline, the party will in 2019, go out to
fight a big fight and its chances are very bright of winning the
election.
The indices and other factors are
pointing to the fact that a lot of situations will put the PDP in 2019
ahead of all other parties, including the APC.
You mentioned enthronement of equity,
fair play for the party to come back to its lost glory, but few months
to come, the PDP will have its national convention to elect its national
chairman and other officers. Which zone do you think should produce the
national chairman for there to be fairness?
At the national caucus meeting of the
party, it has been categorically established that the presidency in 2019
goes to the North, therefore the chairmanship to the South, that is,
South-south, Southeast and Southwest.
At that meeting, it was agreed that the
chairmanship seat should be zoned to the South West. The reason was
because when you look at South-south, it has produced the party
chairman, as well as the party leader in the past. The Southeast had
also occupied the officeof the party chairman in the past.
South West had never produced the chairman, and so fairness judges the fact that it should go to the South west.
I can remember a statement by one of the
leaders at that caucus meeting that if we truly want the party to remain
one, the chairmanship seat should be in the Southwest.
If the chairmanship is retained in the
Southwest, how do you people bring out the best in the person to lead
you to the battlefield?
At a meeting of elders of the entire
Southwest states in Akure, Ondo State capital, it was considered and
approved that Chief Bode George should be the candidate for the zone.
Governor Ayo Fayoshe of Ekiti and former
Ondo State governor, Olusegun Mimiko were the co-chairmen at this
declaration, where everybody affirmed that Chief George would be the
chairman elected by the caucus of the South West.
However, there are other people who
said they wanted to contest, especially, Prof Adeniran; some are also
mentioning Chief Raymond Dokpesi, who said that the chairmanship was
zoned to the South, not South West particularly.
When you look at these people, the only
person who has the pedigree, experience, boldness and the wherewithal to
lead the party to the promised land is Bode, among those who have
indicated their interest in that office.
None of them can deny that he had never
benefited from Bode in terms of appointment, in terms of helping them to
become ministers, in terms of helping them to prosper their businesses.
Anytime, there were intrigues in any area, be it political
or social, or economic, from experience I have cultivated in politics,
there are one or two contenders at any given time, but there are lots of
pretenders.
A friend told me that he bought a form to
become a senator in order to boost his CV, that whenever he goes to
American Embassy, they will say, he is a former senatorial aspirant or
candidate and that brings respect for him.
So, some people pretend by collecting the
application form for governorship so that they could be listed as
former governorship aspirant or candidate. I don’t know where Nigerians
got that mentality from.
At any given time, both those we knew
wanted to run for the chairmanship and those yet to come forward, Bode
George remains the best. He has been a military man, professionally when
you look at his CV, he has experiences in politics.
George was one of the men that helped former President Olusegun Obasanjo to achieve so much for this country when he was ruling.
Tell me which of the governors in the
past that didn’t pass through George to achieve what they achieved.
Maybe the younger ones may not know his impact, but he has gone out to
reach out to the youths, and they are ready for him.
He is the best candidate to take the party to the promised land in 2019.
You have stated the sterling qualities
of George, why is it that he has not been able to make impact in Lagos
election. The state was AD, AC, ACN and now APC, his party is yet to
register its presence in the state?
That is because Lagos is a potpourri of
Nigerian citizens. Tell me which native or community is not present in
Lagos. It is a mini Nigeria. In the past, we worked together to be able
to give good frontal fight, but some of us go behind to become
disobedient and self-centred. I don’t want to mention names, but I’m very sure that Nigerians know those I’m talking about.
They not only dined with the hares, they go behind to hunt with wolfs.
The other factor, like a former governor
told me is that the local government election is a bonus for the
governor in power, that if he doesn’t write the result, he is stupid.
A sitting governor told me not to waste
my time in local government election in Lagos. Local government
elections are bonuses for the sitting governor because the governor of
that state will elect the judge, the lawyer and prosecutor for the
election.
Lagos generates more money that more than
20 states put together, by the time you as an opposition want to fight
such a party,you must be asking money from the angels and from God
because elections are monetarily based in this country. He who has the
highest money probably buys the highest votes. Those with the lesser
money will go to the tribunals. These are the three factors that have
not helped us win elections in Lagos State. Without mentioning names, a
particular party has cornered the state. If elections were to be
conducted by INEC, it would be different.
When you say George has not shown his
clout in Lagos, you should remember that at the last general elections,
we had eight House of Representatives seats, even in Lagos State House
of Assembly, we had two or three. If election is free and fair in the
state, PDP will win.
In 2019, if we gather our efforts
together and stand as a front in unity, chances are that the table will
change in Lagos and at the centre. There are many groups in the state-
the Arewa, the Igbo and even the Lagosians, where the PDP will spend
N10; the ruling party will pump in thousands to scatter these groups.
It is not George alone, it is these three
or four factors that have not allowed our party to win. At that last
local government election, PDP won in some local governments, but
government magic and magnanimity made it a bonus for the governor, as
the results were changed.
It is not Bode, he may be the leader. He
has been fighting that we win Lagos. Remember Obanikoro’s son won in
Ahmed Tinubu’s local government, as chairman, look at the way it went.
There was an election where the returning
officer announced in the television and radio that PDP won, but it went
the other way. So, when they say local government election is a bonus
to sitting governors, I quite believe.
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