Former Senate President and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Adolphus Wabara, said on Thursday that the problems facing the party were self-inflicted problems boosted by personal ambitions of those who want to achieve the party for their ambition in 2031.
Wabara, who was speaking with newsmen after receiving the report of the reconciliation committee set up by the BoT ahead of the Ibadan convention, said the convention will go ahead except if stopped by a court of law.
He was confident that going ahead with the convention would not worsen the crisis in the party, adding that as a law-abiding party, the PDP would obey any court order that stops the convention.
He said going ahead with the convention was practicable, saying, “All the organs of the party, before these individual opinions had agreed that we would go to the convention. You know the Governor’s Forum, the NWC, the Board of Trustees, in our last meeting, our communique mentioned our going to the convention.
“But if, for any reason, the Court of Law decides otherwise, because we are relying on the judgment of the Supreme Court, which should have guided the lower courts as of now to make a decision. I mean, in a civilized world, these things are interwoven and interconnected.
“You don’t make all kinds of orders when the Supreme Court has deliberated on that. So you are more or less challenging the Supreme Court of the land. But in Nigeria, anything goes. But as far as the organs of the party are concerned, the convention will hold.
“But if we are stopped by the courts, we are a law-abiding party, we have always been there, we will still get there, then we will probably obey the law, or obey the last order, as the case may be”.
Asked if going ahead with the convention will not worsen the crisis, Wabara said, “It won’t worsen the crisis. As far as I am concerned, there is actually no crisis. I have always said, if you go through my speeches at the Board of Trustees meetings, I’ve always said that all these problems we have in PDP are self-inflicted problems.
“You know, in politics, it’s a function of interest. Everybody has one or two interests. That’s why in the Board, you have old men, even men older than me, who really don’t have political or elective interests.
“The problem is that there are elective interests, which they have to face up till 2031. So some people want the party dead now, and then they will resurrect it in 2031 for their use. So we know all these things.
“They don’t believe in democracy or in opposition. Opposition does not mean taking over power. Opposition generally is to guide the ruling party to do the right thing, provided those criticisms are very objective. So that’s what the Board of Trustees is there for. I am not thinking of contesting for anything.
“So chances are that naturally, whatever decisions the Board takes under my watch will be something to really keep the party alive. That is why we are there. The secretary, to the best of my knowledge, has no interest in anything other than that the party must survive.
“But some others, we don’t want to mention names, we don’t want to wash our dirty linens. I was a diplomat, so I don’t talk carelessly. We don’t wash our dirty linens in the open.
“But I’m sure that even those who are against the convention need the party. They need the party, and they will need the party now, tomorrow, and in the future. This party is a party for Nigerians, for the masses, whether we like it or not.
“You said the BOT is coming in too late. No, we’ve been on this matter for a very long time. But we in the BOT don’t have what it takes to support our positions. We rely on the governors, we rely on the NWC to carry on.
“If you recall, after the 2023 elections, the BOT swung into action, set up a committee headed by David Mark on code of conduct. But because we didn’t have any budget, we could not go ahead. And those who were supposed to provide that money at that time, for the committees to start work, have not provided the money up to today.
“We did not know what would happen next. Otherwise, we would have taken disciplinary action against erring members. But be that as it may, we are in it, and we will resolve the problem”.
Presenting the report to the BoT, the Committee Chairman, Amb. Hassan Adamu said the committee went round, spoke to various segments of the party leaders, Governors’ Forum, and others, and we have now come up with our recommendation for a hitch-free convention.
He said, “Once again, we thank you for the opportunity that has been given to us, but from the onset, we said it’s not going to be an easy task. It’s been a very difficult assignment, but since it’s for reconciliation, we have done our very best to try to present to you our findings, facts, findings, for you to be able to convene a Board of Trustees meeting and deliberate on our findings.” Secretary to the committee and former Deputy Governor of Edo state, Chief Mike Oghiadomhe, said the assignment before them was a very critical one, considering the time frame.
Oghiadomhe said, “We went ahead and saw first and foremost the Honorable Minister of the Federal Capital. We had useful deliberations with him. We proceeded from there to meet the Governors Forum.
“We met with the Chairman of the Forum. He was in the company of the other governors. However, they had pressing assignments, so they excused themselves and asked the Chairman to deliberate with us.
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“We had a useful conversation with the Chairman. We proceeded the following day to have our deliberations with the NWC led by Damagun. Ambassador Damagun himself was not present, but he delegated the Deputy National Chairman to lead the entire NWC to meet with us. Ten of them did follow him; five sent apologies. They took their time and vetted all that they had, and it is documented in this report.
“Arising from that, we decided to meet with the other members who have been suspended, principally the National Secretary, Sam Anyanwu, the Organizing Secretary, and the National Legal Advisor. We met with them in the premises of Sam Anyanwu, and they took their time. They said quite a lot, and we believe that we had a very useful discussion with them.
“We still went on, and we felt we wanted to have an all-round consultation. We met with Bukola Saraki, former Senate President, and he gave his own opinion to the committee. Subsequently, we sat to deliberate on all the findings from the discussions we had with the various parties.
“We came up with some observations and recommendations which are far-reaching. We would like to thank you, the Chairman, the Secretary, and indeed the entire BOT for reposing this confidence in us. We believe that we have tried to connect all the issues plaguing our party today.
“We have weighed the pros and the cons, and our recommendation is based on our desire to present a road map for sustainable and progressive party administration at this point.”