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Tag: Bode George

  • No clash with Bode George over PDP chair – Daniel

    No clash with Bode George over PDP chair – Daniel

    The former governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, has denied any rift with a former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Bode George, over the party’s national chairmanship position.

    There had been reports of a rift between Daniel and George over the plum party job. The elective national convention of the PDP is tentatively billed to hold in Abuja on December 9.

    A statement issued on Monday by Ayomide Giwa, media aide to Otunba Daniel dismissed reports of the alleged rift, saying they were figments of the author’s imagination.

    The statement said: “While these reports have cited anonymous sources as the authority of the reported disagreement, it is important to set the record straight lest the general public and members of the PDP take them with any bit of seriousness.

    “Otunba Gbenga Daniel has proven time and time again that he is a strict follower of the tenets of Yoruba culture and tradition which places premium on respect to elders.

    “Chief George is not only one of the founding fathers of the PDP but an elder statesman who has made tremendous contributions to the development of the party, therefore, there is no way Otunba Daniel would have disrespected him let alone confront him openly.

    “Report of confrontation with Chief Bode George in any way is only a figment of the author’s imagination and never took place.

    “The focus of the stakeholders across the South West presently is rebuilding the party and reconciling members and factions alike. Achieving a united and vibrant opposition with proper repositioning to offer better alternative to the people in 2019 is the mission at hand.

    “When the time comes, the post of the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party will be a collective decision of members of the party in accordance with the constitution of our great party, the PDP.

    “We call on the public to kindly disregard this ‘sponsored’ report as the incidence cited does not reflect any reality in matters particular.”

     

  • Bode George will transform PDP – Babatope

    Bode George will transform PDP – Babatope

    A former Minister of Transport, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, said on Tuesday the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would regain its voice if the former Deputy National Chairman of the party, Chief Olabode George, leads the party.

    Babatope, who spoke during the Bode George Campaign Organisation meeting in Lagos, said the PDP needs an experience leader to pilot its affairs ahead of the 2019 general elections.

    He said the party was working hard to resolve all its problems, adding that only tested hands will make the party vibrant ahead of 2019.

    He said: “We have absolutely resolved and affirmed that our party can only be enhanced and renewed towards the winning ways only when we bring out the tested, the proven, the matured and the responsible person to lead us to electoral victory in 2019.

    “This is not the time for trial and error. This is not the time for some crude illogic experimentation.  We dare not fail and we dare not falter. We dare not temporize nor make the wrong move. Chief Olabode Ibiyinka George is now the man of destiny. He is the right choice for our party now in these challenging times.

    “I want to be absolutely clear about our purpose here today. What we do here and now is the voluntary collective effort of all leaders of the South West and even beyond who mean well for our party and our nation.

    “Nothing here, let me emphasize firmly, has any direct connection with my good friend Bode. This is our own initiative. We are the people drafting Chief Bode George to put his hat in the ring and come out boldly to contest for the position of our national chairman.”

  • Lagos PDP crisis: Adewale hands over secretariat to Bode George, BOT

    Lagos PDP crisis: Adewale hands over secretariat to Bode George, BOT

    chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State, Chief Segun Adewale, yesterday handed over the state secretariat of the party to the Board of Trustees (BoT).

    Adewale is the factional chairman of PDP loyal to Sen. Ali Modu Sherrif recently sacked by the Supreme Court as the National Chairman of the party.

    Adewale, addressing journalists shortly after moving his possession out of the secretariat, said that this was in line with the directive from the national headquarters of the party.

    He said that a letter from the party headquarters had directed him to hand over to BoT members in the state.

    Adewale explained that the National Caretaker Committee of PDP had ordered that the state secretariat should be handed over to Chief Bode George and other members of the party’s BoT in Lagos.

    He said that the order was contained in a letter signed by the Secretary, National Caretaker Committee, Sen. Ben Obi, and addressed to the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr Fatai Owoseni.

    Adewale said: “I am going to hand over the key to the BoT as instructed in the letter.

    “`As you can see me, I have packed out my things. I am going to drop the key now.”

    He instructed all his supporters to stay away from the secretariat in the interest of peace, even if the key is given to someone else.

    “It is quite unfortunate that those, who as at last week Saturday, were campaigning against PDP while in Labour Party, now want to take over the secretariat.

    “I was the one mobilising for the party during last Saturday local government elections in the state.

    “Even at that, I am ready to leave the secretariat, the police asked us to sign an undertaking that there will be peace in Ikeja.

    “I am not fighting with anybody, because if we continue this way, we will continue to lose elections in Lagos,” Adewale said.

    The crisis rocking the party at the national and state levels made those loyal to Moshood Salvador to make an alliance with the Labour Party.

    Salvador is the factional chairman loyal to Sen. Ahmed Markafi, who was declared by the Supreme Court  as the authentic chairman.

  • Bode George seeks Nigeria’s restructuring

    Bode George seeks Nigeria’s restructuring

    Former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chief Olabode George yesterday said the implementation of the reports  of  2014 National Conference will douse tension in the country.

    Speaking at a conference in Lagos, titled: “Enough of the Drum Beat of War”,he said the reports of the conference dwelt on most of the issues working against Nigeria’s peace and unity.

    The PDP chieftain explained that restructuring the country would remove unnecessary burden from the centre.

    He said there  was a certain disturbing divisive temper across the country, noting that everywhere there was an unfortunate passion of ethnicity.

    “From the North to the South, there is that befuddled and reckless upsurge of ill-conceived provocations towards the abyss. From every nook and cranny, some people are hurrying and stampeding everyone else to a disruptive agitational campaign.

    “From the Biafran young crusaders to the young Arewa reactive promoters of disunion and the Yoruba presumptive withdrawal into a fanciful Oduduwa Republic, they are all wrong. We are all living in unpleasant economic season.

    “We must all step away from the abyss. We must all sheathe our swords. Enough of this unrealistic war clamour. Enough of these provocations of national destabilisation.

    “It is true: There is indeed no perfect union. A nation is always a work in perpetual rebuilding and reformation. A nation is never a finished product. There are always rough edges. There are always areas of rectifications  and amendments.

    “But the ills of a society are not to be cured on the fields of war or the muddled recourse to the wielding of the cudgel. Nigeria as a union has existed for 103 years since the 1914 momentous amalgamation of the North and South. Sure, we are all disparate and very diverse people with unique culture, with unique languages and with unique values and varied historical beginnings.

    “But our strength and our invaluable profile as a nation lies in the collective totality of our size and in our various normative cultural portraits.

    “We must talk to each other. We must listen to each other. We must encourage an appreciation of each other’s unique asset.”

    George said the eviction order from the Arewa youths to the Igbo living in the North was misconceived, stressing that similar threat blossomed into a civil war that led to death of millions of Nigerians.

    “There is no strength in disunity. There is no value in the rupturing of our national fabric. I do not say that there are no problems in the present composition of our union. But I insist that these problems are not unresolvable. The perceived wrongs and the inequities in our national union must be resolved on a roundtable and never in the trenches.

    “The last civil war which provoked millions of deaths and incalculable destruction both in physical and in the moral psyche of the survivors must never be repeated again. The American Philosopher, George Santayana told us that “Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it” We must never repeat the darkness of our past. We must move forward with truth and certainty.”

  • Only Supreme Court can end PDP crisis, says Bode George

    Only Supreme Court can end PDP crisis, says Bode George

    Former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George yesterday said it is the Supreme Court that can settle the crisis in the party.
    At a news conference in Lagos, he said the political solution being proposed by the Beyelsa State Governor Seriake Dickson-led PDP Reconciliation Committee would not end the crisis.
    He said from the way the committee was going about its assignments, it would not achieve the desired results that could stand the test of time.
    George noted that the party was between survival and extinction, adding that the best way out of the logjam was to adhere to the party’s constitution.
    He said: “We must make a stand to confront the many maladies now confronting our party. We must be counted to be on the righteous and the redeeming side of history. We must take the hard and the most enduring choice.
    “We have derailed in a mournful way from the guidance, the nuance and the formative directions of our founding fathers. We have upturned and distort the normal building blocks and the structures of an orderly organisation.
    “The issue at stake now is: who is the rightful, legitimate and validly entrusted entity that the constitution of our party recognises to lead the party presently?
    “Ordinarily, there should not be a dispute on this matter if we are all correctly attuned to the constitutional guidance and the stipulations that are etched in our collective norms, in our practices and traditions.”
    He said that Senator Ali Modu Sheriff’s appointment in an interim capacity to carry on with the business of party administration, was to act as a stop-gap until a formal convention was organised.
    George added that Sherriff jettisoned the constitution and actively took part in the electoral process without recourse to due process.
    ” Our acting – chairman Senator, Sheriff came out to contest for the chairmanship position. He collected the nomination form, paid for the form, filled the form and submitted it to the appropriate election committee.
    “According to our electoral guidelines, Sheriff as an acting chairman was deemed to have vacated his seat as soon as he submitted himself for the nomination process at least seven days before the convention.
    “Had he been a substantive chairman, the guidelines stipulate 30 clear days for him to leave the position before the convention.
    “It would have been virtually unfair, indecent, crude and primitive for an incumbent chairman or any office holder for that matter who wishes to contest for an office to now sit in arbitrating supervision over the process of his own election! We can be sure of what the outcome of such illegitimate process would be.”
    The PDP chieftain explained that the Appeal Court pronouncement did not help the situation, noting that whatever the Supreme Court come out with would settle the matter.
    “The Appeal Court in Port Harcourt in a split decision has muddled the issue by ruling in favour of Sheriff.
    “There is indeed a lot about this ruling which ridicules rationality, which distorts and negates the norms and the fundamental articles of voluntary association.
    “The judges in their wisdom appear to be dictating, remolding and recasting the spirit, the tenets and the foundational principles that are the very structural pivot of party identity.
    “The judiciary is a very powerful tool in the stability and in the endurance of a democracy. It is the neutral arbiter that ensures the faithful interpretation of laws, resolved and established on principled purity that compels fairness, impartiality and strict adherence to the principles of equity,” George said.

  • Bode George to Fed Govt: don’t use force in Niger Delta

    Bode George to Fed Govt: don’t use force in Niger Delta

    Former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Bode George, has urged the Federal Government not to use military action against Niger Delta militants.
    The former military governor of Ondo State noted that using military force would have grave consequences on the nation.
    Addressing reporters yesterday in Lagos on his 71st birthday, George said dialogue remained the best way to resolve the Niger Delta crisis.
    The politician said the nation’s colossal revenue loss since the renewed hostilities in the Niger Delta could not be quantified.
    According to him, it is better to engage the militants in mutual dialogue than force them to disarm.
    George added: “There is need for dialogue with the parties involved in the Niger Delta crisis. The revenue of the country has gone down since oil well and pipelines were being blown up. It is only when you have money that you can run a government. That is the reason the government must open discussion.
    “We must reach out, otherwise the issue will become monotony and boring. I am really worried and concerned about what is happening in the country, especially the dwindling fortune to meet the needs of the people.
    “As a naval officer, the clemency of that area would not augur well for any warfare. Democracy is not monotony; it is a creation of dialogue. Sometimes, you win some, sometimes you lose some. I was told that even the pipelines that were recently repaired have been blown up again.
    “Having been in the Navy and you know we have these riverine people who are with us in the Navy. They are not special sea divers, but can stay under water for a long time. That is their general terrain. It is not a warfare that is required. There must be a lot of patience.
    “Even if people are talking rubbish, you must listen. One single man’s vote is very important and since he or she voted, you have to listen to him. The government must give the people education, which is very important, to elevate them from poverty. It makes people easy to govern but very difficult to deceive.
    “So, whatever is needed to show them that government cares for their welfare must be embraced.
    “In the same vein, the nomadic education for the Fulani is very important because that is important to those people from that part of the world. Government must look at all that is needed to make the people feel they are part of government.”
    On next Saturday’s Ondo State election, George said there was a fundamental flaw ahead of the poll.
    The retired Navy commodore described the political developments in the state as unbelievable.
    He said: “The electoral laws are clear. We all saw what happened in the Ondo primaries. Delegates were generated through the normal process. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must be there when you carry out your primaries. They were there in Akure; the police and the Department of State Services (DSS) were there. They did it and we all watched it.”
    “Some people congregated at Premier Hotel in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, three states away from the centre of Ondo and came out with a candidate. I thought it was a joke. But before we knew it, they went to Justice Abang Okon to approve their candidate. But how will Justice Okon be remembered? This is because whatever anybody does will live after him.
    “It’s a very clear thing, even to a daft person, that this is odd. We know that this is absolutely illegal. Now, you have put a stamp of legality on an illegality and suddenly decided that this man who conducted his own primary in one room at Premier Hotel is the real candidate.”

  • Wike, Fayose ‘ll ruin PDP, says Bode George

    Wike, Fayose ‘ll ruin PDP, says Bode George

    Former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chief Olabode George yesterday said the party was in ruins and imminent danger.

    Addressing a conference at the Lagos PDP secretariat, George’s Political Adviser, Mr. Uthman Shodipe-Dosunmu said Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike and Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose were bent in destroying the party.

    He said the August 17 convention would have divided the party more, stressing that the convention was hijacked by the two governors to prosecute their 2019 ambitions.

    George said: “This is indeed a sad period for the PDP; the sky is dark and bleak. The party is now at the edge of a cliff, dangling before imminent ruins and forfeiture. Our party has lost its soul, its fundamental defining logic of existence, stripped of all values of justice, fairness and equity.

    “We thought that the crisis provoked by the issue of Senator Ali Modu-Sheriff would be finally laid to rest after the August 17 convention, but we couldn’t be more wrong. To be specific Wike and Fayose have both succeeded in forming an unholy alliance against the growth and development of our party.”

    He said having reviewed the situation, leaders of the party should never allow Wike and Fayose to come near any crucial decision making process again.

    “Port Harcourt should never be allowed again to host the convention as long as Wike remains governor.

    “We are happy the charade was halted in its tracks. The dubious convention was written, produced, directed and managed by Wike and Fayose. This will never happen again.

    “Our party is dying. Benighted and unprincipled men have seized the jugular of our party.”

     

    They are hell bent on destroying what they cannot build. They have apparently sworn to destroy, to manipulate, to thwart the people’s will and sabotage the cause of democracy,” he said.

     

     

     

  • Convention: PDP to screen 57 aspirants

    The  Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Convention Screening Committee, Gabriel Suswam, has said the committee will screen 57 aspirants jostling for various positions in the party.

    Suswam, a former Governor of Benue State, stated this at the commencement of the screening exercise on Monday in Port Harcourt.

    The PDP national convention is expected to take place on Wednesday in the oil city.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)  reports that the committee has screened the PDP former Deputy National Chairman, Chief Bode George; a former Minister of Education, Prof. Tunde Adeniran; the Chairman of Daar Communications, Chief Raymond Dokpesi and other aspirants vying  for the position of national chairman.

     

     

  • Bode George declares for PDP chairman

    Bode George declares for PDP chairman

    Former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chief Bode George yesterday said the party has been rendered ineffective because of internal squabbles.

    He said the PDP’s effectiveness as opposition party has become inconsequential, noting that it was time to save the party.

    Speaking at his declaration to contest for the PDP National Chairman in Lagos, George said the party has derailed from the normative pattern of the founding fathers.

    He promised to urgently return the party to the position where members would live in peace and harmony.

    The PDP chieftain said each day, there was a new trouble on the party’s table, stressing that it was time the crisis is nipped in the bud.

    He said: “Today, our effectiveness as the opposition party is being rendered inconsequential and virtually of no value as we engage ourselves in a very destructive mutual consumption.

    “Surely, this is not the way the principles, the purposes, the originating tenets and the founding idealisms of our party were grounded and then enforced when the sacred seeds of the formation of the PDP were sowed and nurtured on the unifying soil of Abuja.”

    Lagos PDP chairman Chief Moshood Salvador said PDP under George would be repositioned to meet world best practice.

    He said the PDP was not in a position to experiment on leadership, stressing that the party has all it takes to succeed in George.

     

     

     

  • Bode George: PDP ‘ll overcome its challenges

    Bode George: PDP ‘ll overcome its challenges

    Former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George, spoke with EMMANUEL OLADESU and MUSA ODOSHIMOKHE in Lagos on the crisis in the opposition party, the Edo primary and other partisan issues.

    Senator Sheriff has described the Edo governorship primary as illegal. What is your reaction?

    My reaction to that is that as my friend, I appeal to him because I have known him even before I came into politics. I was in the Navy, when I knew him. That kind of statement portends two areas of concern for the party. So, as a friend, I want to appeal to him that he should distance himself away from this political lunacy, because there is a subsisting legal directive that he should not parade himself as chairman of the party. So, what other authority does he want? He should have respect for the rule of law.

    There was a directive from a court that there should be no election into the office of chairman, secretary, and auditor. The party complied, and there was no election into those positions. According to our constitution, the convention has a right to set up a committee it deems fit. So, legally, the Ahmed Markafi Committee is constitutionally established and it has the right to manage the party until the next convention. Sheriff has ceased to be chairman of the party.

    This crisis has prevented the PDP from playing the role of a vibrant opposition…

    What he does not understand is that the PDP is not the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP). The PDP is a formidable grassroots political party and we have an incredible resilience. Of course, it is affecting our focus because of the court injunctions; political parties are not run that way.

    I want to say also that we should take part of the blame, because when this judicial rascality came into the party, there is a section in the party’s constitution that forbids any individual from going to court without exhausting all the avenues within the party. So, most of these people who headed to court, thereby creating unnecessary diversion, should have been fired according to the party’s law.

    Everybody kept quiet because they didn’t want to offend anybody. So, if you don’t like heat, get out of the kitchen. This is a party that has rules and regulations which were conceived by the founding fathers.

    It is believed that the APC may have planted Sheriff in the PDP? What is your take on this?

    I do not have concrete facts, but if you look at the behavioural pattern, what would you conclude? He is playing dirty politics. If you don’t put up the real story, rumours would start flying. Whether it is true or not, I am advising him not to be a cannon fodder. He should not be used by others; what would be his benefit? Does he intend to decimate the PDP? He can’t achieve it. The PDP is deeply-rooted with the people. Yes, we made our mistakes, we have learned our lessons and we are ready to present new managers for the party. We must convince Nigerians that we are ready to manage them again.

    What is your position on the decision of the EFCC to freeze the bank account of Governor Fayose?

    I am going to be like an elder here. Ayo is my son, the first time he came to be a governor; it was impressive. Two wrongs cannot make a right. I read a presentation by a lawyer on the matter and I also read the EFCC version of the accusation leveled against him. My plea is this, as a concerned Nigerian; we still have the rule of law and everybody must subject himself to it. The EFCC cannot do anything to him because of Section of 308. They should be patient, because the law is no respecter of anybody. I have gone through my own experiences; the law is still there. They want to fight him because they said Ayo made certain comments against the First Lady. If it is proven that it is wrong, I know Ayo would be the first to jump up and apologise. But, two wrongs cannot make a right.

    The position of the EFCC was well stated in the newspaper, but how many people would read that? So, they should balance it.

    What is your reaction to the faceoff between the Senate and the Presidency?

    My take would be like a spectator, because I am not directly involved. I think this is the time for some senior Nigerians, former presidents, and elders to get involved. The government is a tripod; if one leg is wobbling, then there is instability; if two legs are wobbling, then the instability is increased. Now, of course, the judiciary won’t talk even if they are aggrieved.

    It does not matter whether it is party A or party B. Recently, the President had a meeting with the National Assembly members during his one year anniversary. I believe something should be done. If it were our government and our party, the Board of Trustees (BoT) would have waded in, because that’s one of their functions. I don’t know whether they have a BoT or not; if they don’t have, they have elders.

    When I listened to the language on the floor, I was a bit scared. Is it so bad? Where are the leaders of the party? If the Senate President and his deputy are being charged to court for alleged forgery, it gives me worry, and they should play it very gently.

    There is no problem in the PDP. Sheriff, who has just joined us, Wale Oladipo and the other young man, for auditor or whatever, should go home quietly. All the other zones are stable and we would do the elections and compete with vigour that God gave us and battle Edo to give Edo people brand new government.

    There is this impression that Southwest is backing Sheriff, because Buruji, Oladipo and others are angling to become eventual leaders in the region…

    The point is this: you cannot but find Buruji’s hand in all these. His tentacles are all over the place. He is an ardent supporter of Wale Oladipo and Adewole Adeyanju. Now, I want to talk to both of them to cast their minds back when they were being nominated to represent the Southwest. We had a meeting in my house in Abuja, they had so many other contenders. All the other zones had nominated their own exco members. When the elders met, they were there. We begged those competing with them to step down. We did not go to the field looking like an untutored and uncultured zone. That was what we did. Now, they are trying to use the old Akintola taku mentality; that is why they have refused to leave. They went there representing Yoruba people. A professor, Wale, a professor of some kind of physical or scientific nomenclature, I would expect him to have a deeper and more rational mind; a reflective mind that portrays what we in my part of the world call Omoluwabi.