The national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus, in this interview with journalists in Abuja said they are more concerned with re-building the party now rather than strategising for the 2023 general elections. ABDULRAHMAN ZAKARIYAU was there.
The Buhari Media Organisation is making mockery of your party that for 16 years in office you could not complete your party Headquarters.
It is entirely the business of PDP to determine when we are ready to pack into our new secretariat. We have secretariats, we have offices and as you know, we have one at Wadata and another one at Legacy. That one is still under construction so be patient till we pack over there; but we have very good offices.
To where will the party zone the 2023 presidential ticket?
Today, we are more concerned in re-building our party. When the time comes for the nomination of a presidential candidate the party will come out with its position. You know the Constitution allows everybody, whether you are from the North, whether you are from South to contest. No one is going to stop anyone from contesting even when it is zoned to a particular region and I am talking about in the past. So, every person still has a right to contest; so if you are qualified and desire to run for the office of the president you are free to contest.
There is rumour that your party plans to change its name…
I am quite glad that you called it rumour and I would regard it as gossip. And everybody, every free thinker is allowed to think but we never considered name change. It has never happened and no suggestion but like you said, it is rumour and anybody can throw the rumour to his face. It is not being considered by our party at all, it is not part and parcel of our agenda for now.
Is your party considering a merger?
Why not, when the time comes, if there is need for people to pull their resources and pull their strength together, it can happen, it is possible. Our focus is in making sure that our party is strong and viral and ready to win election.
Your party spent 16 years in office and the only thing it could put in place regarding electoral reforms is the card reader. Many of us believed that if your party was honest enough and not benefiting from electoral fraud, there could have been a more solid reform which could make it difficult for individuals or groups or parties to rig elections.
If you recall when PDP came into power in 1999, I want you people to rewind a little bit because we must know where we were coming from and where we are now. It took 16 years for us to carry out electoral reforms which gave us what we have and which were not implemented. First, the laws were analogue. Second, there have been several reforms within the 16 years and it became like rhetoric and you know part of it, part of our challenge was that the Constitution of our country must also conform to the desire of the change and reform which we proposed before we handed over in 2015.
It was the PDP that equipped the INEC with all the data and with all the machine and also the transmission of result sheets electronically, but when this government came, they discarded all the structures that was put in place even though the electoral law didn’t quite capture it because of the impediment of our constitution because a major aspect was that we need also to change a major aspect of our constitution as regards the electoral reforms and this requires everybody. When we called a few days ago for electoral reforms we were not calling only the APC, the PDP everybody in our nation because we must move forward.
Now, 16 years was not a joke. I suppose you should appreciate that PDP has done very well bringing us to where we are today and it is left for those in government now to quickly, all the structures are there, in fact the last amendment that was done I the 8th Assembly, this president, President Buhari refused to assent to that Bill to become law. Elections results can be transmitted from the voting point to the centre. The president refused to sign it, so why are you putting the blame on PDP? 8th Assembly amended the electoral laws so you don’t put that blame on the door of PDP put it squarely on the door of APC government. They are now in government for five years running so put that on their door step. And we believe that if we don’t at all do the needful and reform, we cannot move forward as a nation, we can’t.
A sitting governor of your party was publicly campaigning for a governor of another party in another state. Why could the party not call him to order?
Being a governor does not deprive an individual from airing up his own view; I am quite sure you understand that. He hasn’t come out openly to say ooh, this is PDP position. If he has aired up his views in terms of Edo, I am quite sure that people can do so in a democratic world and free speech, people can have the right to do so, but that is not the position of PDP. And it is time for our country to move from a situation of sentiments and emotions and all what not. We don’t listen to gossips, some may be correct, some may not be correct, but let’s drop this idea of rumour or not rumour and you link it to PDP. Our position is very clear, we are going to contest for the election in Edo, we are asking for reform and that is the position of the national leadership of our party.
The PDP under your watch is perceived as weak in terms of discipline. Sometime ago, the governor of Rivers state accused his counterpart in Baylesa of anti-party activities, insisting the you were aware and you did nothing. Again, there is this view that whatever happens in Wadata was planned in Rivers and that your leadership is tied to the apron strings of Governor Nyeson Wike who tells you what to do. How do you react to these issues?
First, like the way I answered your friends that asked the question, anything that has to do with our governors and the altercation between the governments of Rivers state and Bayelsa state has made headline news and we don’t want to go into it. I don’t think that is going to help to build a party. Those who want to destroy would want to dig up emotions. So, I believe that enough is enough. What we do behind the scene is not to the knowledge of the press and we are not ready to disclose that because we have our strategies. You may think that is the weakness, but that’s the sign of strength.
The way you think it may not be the way we think and I have been in this party long before Governor Wike became governor. I have been the chairman for River state for eight years, the national organising secretary for four years, the deputy national chairman and acting national champion all that time where did I take the directive from when I was acting chairman. Is it now that I am full chairman that I have to take the directives? That is rumour and blackmail and we are all ready to pay any attention to such.
In politics, normally in Nigeria people gossip and then carry rumours from one place to the other which gets to media executives like you. I don’t know where you are coming from, you can go do your investigative journalism, whether any of the things you have said here is the truth and you also know the truth and the truth will prevail at the end of the day.
A gale of defections has hit Imo state and many of your members are defecting to the APC. Are you not worried about these developments? There was a time we had information that there was going to be right-sizing of the work force. I am aware you set up a committee. Can give us details? Why has the party not taken position on the Elumelu issue?
I don’t know what to answer more than what I said before concerning the House of Reps. We are still in the process, you cannot force us to do what we don’t want to do. In other words, all the processes must be completed. If you were in the last NEC, you were there when we also said that look the BoT committee or panel has submitted their report, Ikimi has also submitted their report and all of these will undergo a process and at the conclusion we will come out with our position. And we don’t want to be carried into sentiment of what happened. Those who were there even members knew what happened. Elumelu himself was there when Chinda was elected. Chinda was not just appointed, he was elected. But whatever happens is bygone; we are looking forward to reconciling, looking forward to make sure that we put this issue behind us. So, it’s not an issue at all. The other one has to do with staff. We will inform you when we are ready with our report. We believe that we need to re-jig, but in doing that, we must have human face making sure that we do the right thing to strengthen our party even at the management level. That’s what we are doing.
The last one on defection, of courses it is a Nigerian syndrome. It is part of the deteriorating situation of governance given by the APC, starving the people and causing insecurity that is what we are experiencing today not only in Imo, but in some other states too. And our position has been properly articulated by the press conference of the national publicity secretary and that’s our position.
There is a view that the PDP under your leadership has been lethargic, it has not really played opposition role effectively. What is your reaction to this?
The PDP is the strongest opposition party in Nigeria. And you know, we don’t behave as if we are in the streets. We have men of high integrity in the leadership of the party. We do our opposition constructively; it must not be out of place and within the laws of our land. We cannot be seen on the street carrying; maybe what is expected is that we become violent, no, no! We are very constructive, we are very strong and if you are in government, you know the feelings. So, it’s not by press conference or issuing of statements, and of course you know what happened last week. The entire country was grounded to a halt, not only in Abuja, but across the states. When occasions demands, we will let the people know. But our plans and our strategies are in place.
We are also aware of the other countries like Ghana, Kenya, even the United States as passed through what we are passing through in opposition and we are doing better. It is those who are government who are behaving like opposition because they are used to been opposition. So, I believe that we will do everything within the laws of our land and we are doing quite a lot, planning, strategic initiatives that are in place. We have the intellectual arm that is the PDI, people are walking silently. You are aware that in the last NEC meeting will also announce that were establishing a committee to review and assess what happened in 2019. All of these are towards putting our party in the right track walking towards 2023 if all the electoral laws would be amended to conform to modern day technology where even people can stay in the confines of their homes to vote and their voted will count; so, all of that are working towards.
Last week we called the National Assembly to quickly take their first front agenda and let them make it a priority, about the electoral laws because all of these issues that are happening in our country today: insecurity bad economy, corruption has to do with those who are in government. So that should be first and foremost thing that the National Assembly in this new year should do. They should amend all our electoral laws bring everybody together so that the people will have the right to vote not like that woman who voted and was burnt alive. So, we will keep this going on and that woman became the symbol of democracy in Nigeria. So, we are on the right track and we want to assure you that we can do it and we can do it better.
