The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is going through protracted crisis, making many to doubt its survival. In this interview by Assistant Editor, Emmanuel Badejo, a former governor of Benue State, Senator Gabriel Suswam, contends that there is need for a total overhauling of its leadership.
Your party has been in crisis for several reasons. Chiefly among them is the feud over the office of PDP national secretary. Where do you stand?
By law and based on the judgment of the Supreme Court, Senator Samuel Anyanwu’s claim to the office of the secretary of the party is in order. This is because his name is still what the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has in its register. However, by our party’s constitution, it is stated that once you’ve left to contest an election, you should have left the party’s exco, which was not done in this case. Unfortunately, many of us didn’t know that wasn’t done. As at the time he left to contest the election, the South-Eastern zonal organ of the party had chosen another candidate for the office. But, because Anyanwu didn’t resign, he returned to the NWC and he was reabsorbed.
The National Working Committee under the leadership of the acting chairman has been very unfair to the party. It is the same chairman who insisted that Anyanwu is the secretary of the party after he came back. Now, he is singing another tune. He is creating a lot of confusion. If the National Working Committee (NWC) had taken action at the time the Southeast organ of the party had nominated another person, we wouldn’t have been in this quagmire.
All sides are laying claim to an order by the Supreme Court to maintain the status quo. What’s exactly the status quo because we’ve been hearing different interpretations to the court’s verdict?
The real thing is with the INEC. As it stands today, Senator Anyanwu is the one recognized by INEC. And this is because he was elected and his name is still there. When he left to contest election, it was for our party’s National Chairman to have informed the INEC that our secretary had left and gone to contest another election. But, he didn’t do that. I have always indicted the acting National Chairman.
So, are you saying your chairman is the architect of this problem?
He is, of course. This is because when Anyanwu came back, I was in a meeting of BoT, where the Southeast vehemently raised this issue. He, the chairman was sitting there, but he didn’t listen to them. Rather, he told them that Anyanwu is the secretary.
What has now changed?
Well, that is the question we should all be asking. I don’t know what has changed. The acting chairman has successfully thrown the party into this mess, and painfully, many are not holding him accountable to it.
In your own wisdom, having been a two-term governor and a senator, how best do you think the party can handle this?
Well, based on the judgment of the Supreme Court, the power to sack is with the National Executive Committee (NEC). It is for them to accept the report from the Southeast saying that the region has now nominated somebody to replace Anyanwu. Then, the acting chairman will write to INEC informing it that the party’s NEC has approved a new secretary for the party. Without that, there’s no way out of this conundrum.
Sam Anyanwu was elected by the convention. Can the zonal organ of the party be asking for his replacement?
Sam Anyanwu actually tendered a letter of resignation. You can’t say you want to leave to contest an election and return to that office. Our party’s constitution is clear on that. The acting national chairman is complicit in all of these.
Does the constitution of your party allow you to resign and return to the same office?
This is why I say that most members of NEC are complicit in this. After he resigned and he returned, some people raised the flag that he had resigned. But, some members of the NWC came out to defend him saying he actually took leave of absence.
This always happens. Why is Anyanwu’s case different?
No, his case is not different. He was supposed to have been replaced at the time he left to contest, but they didn’t replace him because they had ulterior motives; they had ulterior motives. It’s unfortunate that most stakeholders of the party in the Southeast have left the party because of this issue. They were angry with the NWC, which didn’t listen to the region on their nomination to replace Anyanwu.
Apart from the secretary issue, some believe there are bigger issues plaguing the party like the Wike-Makinde feud. Is the party not sinking further?
I will say I’m not competent to speak on the agreements the Federal Capital Territory Minister, Nyesom Wike had with those governors. This is also an unfortunate situation. If you and I hold a gentleman agreement, it is just honourable to honour your side of the agreement. It was reported that they met in Lagos and Abuja. That means the meeting in Abuja was to conclude that which was held in Lagos. They agreed.
There was another meeting I was privy to when the incumbent governors invited all ex-governors. Wike was also invited. We all came. And Wike at the meeting also said they invited him. So he, Wike, believed that whatever they had agreed would be implemented. Funnily, at that meeting, no one mentioned to us that they had had two previous meetings with Wike.
So, they have been unfair to him (Wike) based on what’s on ground now?
Yes, they have. That’s why I said before that I don’t blame Wike for saying what he’s saying. These are the leaders of the party for crying out loud.
Are you worried with Wike’s statement “I will fight to finish?
I’m not worried about what Wike said. I’ve avoided it in the past to reduce the conflict in the party to become a Wike thing for the reason being that if the NWC had done what they needed to do at the onset, we wouldn’t be where we are today. All of them are responsible. Good enough, Wike is not somebody who hides anything. When the chips are down, he reveals everything. The question I keep asking is that why did they enter into such agreement when they knew they won’t honour same? I put this blame squarely on the acting national chairman and the chairman of the PDP’s Governors’ Forum, Bala Muhammed. Bala is the president of the PDP because he leads the arm of the party that sponsors the party. Governors are the ones providing the money. If there was proper leadership, we won’t be where we are today. So, when they say Wike, Wike, it’s not about Wike at all. It is about incapacity on the part of the leadership.
So, you’re putting this blame on Umar Damagum and Bala Muhammed’s doorsteps?
Squarely, I put it on their doorsteps. If they had done what they needed to do, we won’t be where we are today. I think there’s a lot of deceit and that’s what Wike is complaining about. He entered into an agreement with them believing they’re the leaders of the party. I am a stakeholder in the party. Why didn’t he, Wike, enter into such agreement with me? He entered into agreement with them because those are the leaders. You can’t extricate them, the party leaders, from the crisis in the PDP.
Are you able to provide the needed leadership for your party? Myself? If I’ve not been given the opportunity, how will I do that?
Will you be able to do it, if given the opportunity?
That was why I wanted to be the chairman.
Your kinsman, Senator Iyorchia Ayu, was said to have led the party into this mess. Can we trust another Benue man to lead the PDP?
Running an organization is not a tribal thing, it’s about individuals. You, as an individual can handle this program better than me as an individual. That you couldn’t handle it doesn’t mean I won’t be able. It is simply because you have failed as an individual. The acting chairman of the party has failed us. Let us call a spade, a spade!
If Gabriel Suswam is given the opportunity, would he do much better?
I would have done far better because I won’t engage in agreement with the Minister of FCT and renege on it. If I engage in agreement in consultation with stakeholders, we would have done better than that. What you see is people engage in agreement without consultation with stakeholders, meanwhile the interest of these stakeholders is at stake.
The feeling is that the PDP is dead. Would you be able to lead a dead party?
I have said it repeatedly that the party is in intensive care unit. And since people survive from intensive care unit, I believe if the right thing, which I doubt, will be done, is done, the PDP will revive. The major problem I have is that most people no longer have confidence in the leadership of the party. So, it is difficult for us to resuscitate the party with the current leadership we have.
The current leadership should leave in November. Isn’t it?
Yes.
There’s going to be a mid-term convention in August?
Between now and August, so many things might have happened. For the first time in the history of the party, PDP has two factions in almost all the state. We now have a situation where we have two chairmen in many states. This is fundamental and it must be addressed. If not addressed, why going to convention without dealing with the fundamentals that had led to this problem?
Is the PDP serious enough to wake itself up with the way things are going in the party?
At some point in this country, the PDP was everywhere. Look at the case of the current president. At some point, Alliance of Democracy (AD) was the only surviving party in the whole of Southwest. That was under President Olusegun Obasanjo’s second term. That time, one would have thought AD was completely dead. But, that didn’t happen. It metamorphosed into Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), and thereafter to All Progressives Congress (APC). If the governors had put themselves together, with sincerity of purpose, the party can be revived. It’s unfortunate that there’s no sincerity of purpose. People have inordinate ambition, one leg in, one leg out. Majority of the leaders of the party is being driven by ambition and not the interest of the party.
People have said the PDP is already at the burial ground and can’t wake up over North-South zoning arrangement. Do you agree with this view?
I don’t agree with that view. President Obasanjo did eight years. Good luck Jonathan did six years. Both of them are from the South. I don’t believe the major problem in our party was because we didn’t allow a southern candidate to emerge in the last election.
Are you saying another northerner could have emerged after Mohammadu Buhari did eight years?
No, Buhari is an APC, and not PDP. PDP has its own regulation.
Does the PDP operate outside the society?
It’s not a question of operating outside the society. What I’m saying is this: you have a society and within that society, you have associations that are regulated by their own rules. Presidency has gone to the South and the Yorubas have it twice. Are there not other people in the South? Presidency has come to North too and a state has produced the president twice. Are there not other people in the North. The best way to correct this is to specify the zone to occupy an office at any given time.
Are you saying the PDP can actually field a northerner?
I don’t really know yet. We haven’t gotten there yet.
Northern and Southern controversy angered your friend, Samuel Orton and many others.
It was more of interest, I mean personal interest and less of northern-southern rage. It was a question of selfish interest. Incidentally, the person you mentioned (Orton) was the chairman of zoning at the time, but his committee couldn’t zone, and that led to the current crisis. In this country, we lay so much emphasis on where the president comes from. We don’t talk about the capacity of the person occupying the office. It doesn’t matter to me and to most Nigerians who the president is provided he can put three daily meals on my table and transport themselves with ease from one place to another. And because we have dwelt so much where the president comes from, people began to appropriate the presidency to themselves and not to the country.
What’s your assessment of the current government?
My assessment of this government, just like any other Nigerian, is that this administration has not done well at all. As a student of global economics, I would say that when you embark on certain economic policies that may impact negatively on the people that you govern, you must also in the same vain, initiate factors that will mitigate the effects of those policies. Unfortunately, you devalued your currency, removed subsidy on energy, transportation, fuel, increased MPR (Monetary Policy Rate), there’s no way any country, particularly, a developing economy such as ours, can survive. I know of the Asian Tigers like Indonesia, Malaysia, only Singapore was able to see through. There’s no way a developing country like ours will survive that. This government didn’t give any buffer. The government should have first put in place mitigating measures.
In the last two years, how can you assess this government?
Nigerians are groaning; Nigerians are groaning. If any person is deceiving any person, there’s palpable poverty in the land. And this government is simply not mindful about the pains of the people. Yes, those economic policies were okay, but they weren’t to be taken in haste. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu can fix it, If he sits with his lieutenants and they are sincere about it. But that will be difficult to do with so many sycophants around him. Now, the President, if he’s intentional with those economic policies he took, then I’ll blame his lieutenants.
Many APC chieftains endorsed the President, but you’re saying otherwise?
I was in government when Jonathan got so many endorsements, yet we lost that election. My advice is that the President should attend to the people and forget about the sycophants who are endorsing him. Let the President face the people.
