It was speculated that Prof Jerry Gana had intention to emerge the PDP presidential candidate? That was speculated by people who have defeatist behaviour.
People who see Prof Gana as a threat are the ones using that blackmail and they are still using it today.
But are they not mindful of the fact that he has contested for president before? Have they forgotten? Moreover, doesn’t he have the right to vie for presidency? Do I not have the right to vie for presidency?
Those vying for presidency do they have higher right than anyone of us? What was the role of the former chairman of the National Caretaker Committee, Sen Ahmed Makarfi in all of this? He had presidential ambition.
So he ought not to have presided over the convention.
In a civilized society where a presiding officer of a party has clearly shown ambition to run for presidency of a country, under sense of responsibility and morality, he ought to have stepped down.
But he conducted the convention and overheated the process of its transparency.
Did you move a motion for his resignation and not conduct the convention? I have done that in writing, through the media.
The PDP survived this whole period of crisis simply because we opened a space, otherwise, Goodluck Jonathan wouldn’t have been president being a member from the minority.
Thesense of justice, fairness, equity and oneness of Nigeria that provided that platform for Jonathan to go for president is what the party was all about.
Parties are not built and centred on individuals or else it will collapse.
So the collapse of the party was as a result of the presidential aspirants who partook in the process and misled the party.
But in this situation, I can tell you that they are not competent to be politicians or presidential candidates.
If one individual will mislead you and tell you that you can be candidate then you are not qualified to be president.
So why did you choose the SDP? Simple.
In 1999, when the country was stranded, a group of few people came together and decided to dare the consequences of the military regime and they started a movement that led to the formation of a political party.
That party was formed and it rescued Nigeria.
Three political parties, PDP, AD and APP (later ANPP) were formed.
Nigeria was provided with options.
Because the PDP had better programmes that accommodated all shades of opinions, the PDP was accepted.
Today, we have similar circumstances.
The APC is in dilemma and the PDP is down on its knees.
So there is need for a platform that can rescue the country once again.
And simply because we don’t want to be accused of being over ambitious or looking for money, we decided not to go to the APC.
We decided to look for a platform that will be acceptable to all Nigerians.
We didn’t say we will go and register our own party.
We have all it takes to register a political party.
But we decided to put the nation and the people first.
So we looked at all the political parties, read through their manifestos and programmes.
We also looked at their history, credibility and experience.
Luckily enough, the SDP was still in existence.
Unfortunately, the NRC has gone under.
But in the course of our research, it is on record that no registered party in the history of Nigeria got massive votes from all Nigerians irrespective of tribe or religion, like the SDP.
We also saw that the party produced a President and Vice President from the same religion which is unique in the history of Nigeria.
Nigerians didn’t look at the religious and ethnic dichotomy, or parochial and sectional issues, when it voted for the party.
The party had built capacity, polices and programmes that were accepted by all diversities.
Everybody felt a sense of belonging in that party.
And we asked ourselves some very salient questions, like can we rig this party? Can we remodel it? Can we discuss with the leadership of the party? Were the former managers of the party willing to accept this need to r-ejig the party? To all these questions the answer was yes.
So we went into open consultations.
The discussions were wonderful.
I must thank Chief Olu Falae.
He is one of the few rare nationalists that we can fi nd today, somebody that is willing to step down and leave his position in the interest of the party.
We have never found him resistant at all.
The entire structures of the SDP were willing to step down for experienced and competent people to come into the party and move it forward.
It is very rare to find them in any political party.
So we must thank them for putting the country first.
They could have said no after seeing the powerful people that are coming into the party and insisted on continuing to run the party.
But they conceded to superior issues.
You hardly fi nd this.
So, I thank Olu Falae and his team for providing leadership and that sense of nationalism.
It seems Prof Jerry Gana had abinitio started working towards formation of the SDP, especially during the crisis period in PDP? I was a member of the committee.
So I have firsthand knowledge of all that happened.
The talks were not just about the SDP alone.
There was the Labour Party, PRP and so many others.
What we were doing at that time was to look at how we can strengthen the PDP because we were not in power.
So we needed other parties, either to fuse or form an alliance with the PDP.
In 1999, the PDP partnered with some parties, including the AD.
It is normal in a democratic dispensation.
So went to Ibadan to meet the SDP, we also went to Kaduna to meet with Alhaji Balarabe Musa and his party.
We went round the country, maybe people were not knowledgeable about this.
And they were ready to fuse into the PDP.
A Memoramdum of Understanding was signed.
And we said in case we lost at the Supreme Court, we will not leave the party under Sheriff .
We will all move into the SDP based on the criteria I told you earlier.
That was agreed.
Had it been we lost at the Supreme Court, the next day we would have addressed a world press conference and declared that we are joining the SDP.
Governors and former ministers were briefed about this.
So the committee was strategic and the interparty affair was what we did.
I was a member of the strategy committee.
If you say Jerry Gana was part of the formation of the SDP was he not part of the formation of the PDP? It shows he is a resource person and a material to be desired.
Why were others not part of it?
Is it everybody that can be part of something where they cannot contribute? Can you give what you don’t have? Some people are saying the SDP is a CAN agenda, and I wonder what kind of sick mentality is that.
I am a Fulani man, my father and mother are Fulani.
I am a born Muslim and I am not daft to be diverted into something that is not reasonable to me.
So these are cheap blackmail by people who are feeling defeated already.
And I am telling you that Nigerians will come to terms with this very soon.
We will engage them in terms of marketing who we are, we will counter their propaganda, point for point and they should know that we have more against them than they have against us.
We are ready to go to the field.
Are you expecting some governors to move into your party? What options do they have?
How many are you expecting? Just wait, you will see.
I am not here to declassify who we are.
Just be patient.
What are the roles of former presidents Obasanjo and Babangida in all this? People have mentioned, former Presidents Obasanjo and Babangida.
Let me give you a clear picture of what happened.
Immediately the convention went the way it did, we started consultations.
We have been going round the country consulting people.
We consulted virtually all those that matter on the situation of the party and the country.
We needed something urgent to rescue the system.
We did more than sufficient consultations.
At the last lap of our consultations, Obasanjo came up with his letter.
We didn’t know its origin or what convinced him to come up with that letter.
Thereafter, President Babangida came up with his own letter You can see that ideas are fusing and the space is being narrowed because, once it is in the interest of the country everybody will key in.
I have no doubt in my mind that anybody who sees the way APC is messing up the country, showing acts of nepotism and incompetence in managing the affairs of this country; as well as the lack of remorse, continued imposition and acts of arrogance displayed by the PDP, will know that there is a need for another system to rescue the country.
We serve as an intervention body that will rescue the people from PDP and APC.
I am delight to tell you that indeed the traffic into our party is heavy.
Aren’t you bothered by the timing? I believe you want to get presidency but the election is barely months always? If you are a student of the PDP, we never have time on everything we do.
Everything about the PDP was a crash programme.
Three months after the PDP was registered, we went into election in 1999.
So what are you talking about time? We have almost eight to nine months before the 2019 general election.
Any serious party can get its acts together within five months, not to talk of us that are veterans in the field.
It’s doesn’t take anything.
It simply requires for us to get our act together and put our men at the strategic trenches that matter.
We are working in tandem with INEC’s programmes.
We are not going outside the INEC timetable.
We will key into it.
The PDP and APC have since keyed into the program.
So nothing is new.
