Elder Fred Udeogu, Caretaker Committee Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ebonyi state, a former ally of Governor David Umahi, in this interview with AMARACHUKWU EGWUAAGHA, cautions Umahi on some of his actions after his defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
How can you describe the political situation in Ebonyi state?
The current political situation in Ebonyi state is not an unusual situation but the reactions are unusual. The governor left formerly to APC, he has been a member of APC but non card carrying member of APC since 2017, he left formerly to APC last month,purely with his appointees not with anybody aside his appointees.
How many percentage of Ebonyians are his appointees, I don’t know if there are up to point one or what. When he left he taught it will be so easy for him to be in APC and be managing PDP in his own political interests. Then the leadership of PDP said no from the national level and dissolved the state executives which he hand picked and instituted. You know Nigerian politics how it is played and every one of us knows the kind of politics he plays in Ebonyi state.
When they were dissolved down to the ward level they constituted a caretaker committee to manage the affairs of the party, I was made the caretaker chairman of the committee. Along the line, the former chairman said he was not living office that he will be there by force we said no things are not done that way, everybody knows that you were put there by the governor and they say he who plays the piper dictates the tune, the Governor has left, most of you have left and you held a meeting where he directed you to be there that he will be funding you to be running the place so that you will not have a problem, then the national executive and national working committee of the party said no things are not done that way, nobody has the monopoly of wisdom to belong to two political parties at thesame time.
Since you have left PDP allow us run the party that is were we are. We have not at any point attacked the government even the person of the Governor but they have been attacking us and we have been defending them. They went to court we said no we challenged the matter in court, actually I’m not talking on the issues that is in the court because it’s already in the court, but the point still remains that we are PDP and no member of PDP left the party rather members of APC are joining us.
Because they said that they don’t want to be in thesame party with the Governor most of them are living APC. A lot of them have left and we have meet with some them and you will be surprised at what will happen in the party very soon. None of the founders and elders of PDP left the party they are with us.
Do you or any member of your party feel threatened in any way by the happenings in the state?
Almost everyone of us has been receiving threat but it is part of the oil and salt of politics, nobody has the monopoly of being violent, but we maintain that we don’t want to paint Ebonyi red, Ebonyi is our state, we have no other state. Even if the agitation in the country for other state, those of us from this part of the world do not wish for any other state.This type of situation comes once in a while but I’m not deterred in anyway, we all know ourselves. I will keep on emphasizing that we all know ourselves, everybody has to be very careful.
How do you plan to reposition the party in the state again?
What we are doing now is to hold our party together and organize the party to give the party face of a political party because the PDP we had few years ago is not the PDP that installed the governor, it was run like a child’s play, there was no PDP in Ebonyi state. PDP went into oblivion but now, we are trying to reorganize it in the state, Ebonyi is PDP and PDP is Ebonyi. One of the greatest mistake the governor made was to defect to APC.
From your statement, you said there was no PDP throughout the Umahi tenure, can you throw more light on that?
Yea, they were just occupying the secretariat but there was nothing there, you cannot compare the PDP of Dave’s time and the PDP of Elechi’s time nor that of Egwu’s time, there is wide wall of difference.
Are you saying that PDP will take over the state come 2023, what are your plans to make this happen?
If we tell you our plans it means we are not good strategists, the important thing is that you will see the moves. Now they are still throwing organigram on us and we are responding, we are telling the world that what they are saying is not true, they themselves know that they are telling the world lies even as it stands now had a program in ICC, something they have never done because they are in a different party.
What can you say about the recent development where the governor and some notable members of your party are in exchange of words, especially the allegation that the former SGF, Pius Anyim, the Ebonyi caucus of National Assembly are sponsoring IPOB members to attack the state?
When somebody starts shouting and you know him for that shouting and striking, what do you think of that person, who is an IPOB member in PDP, is it His Excellency Ayim Pius Anyim? Is it Senator Sam Egwu, Obinna Ogba, Mike Nnachi or who is an IPOB member or the other National Assembly members that are IPOB members? People find it difficult to face realities.
I want us to face, play politics of facts and realities in Ebonyi state, not people cajoling, claiming that they are playing politics. Why I don’t blame them is that they have not actually played politics before now. We taught some people how to defeat their opponents but we did not teach them how they will be defeated, when the time comes, we are praying for God to give us life, when we get to 2023, it is a bridge, we will surely cross it.
How does the party combat attack on its members just like the incident that took place at Oriuzo where a supposed member of the party was killed?
We don’t want to take it up as PDP matter, we learnt the security agencies have taken over that, when they come out with the investigation, we will know what to do. We are playing politics of reality, we don’t want to join people who throw bangers and they are expecting others to report it and take it for a battle. We cannot say we have the capacity but we trust the law, Nigerian security agencies are there to protect everybody not APC members alone.
One of the reasons the governor gave for leaving the party was that PDP refused to zone presidential ticket to Southeast, that they are being too rigid with the zoning formula, what do you have to say about that ?
Who is more rigid than Dave, this is the only leader I know that is not flexible in any form, even if he had that in mind, his approach was wrong, PDP is a party, we cannot get something from a party through applying undue force, it’s just a way of applying his own type of force.
Has he being assured of APC zoning the presidential position to southeast, is he sure of that, is he even sure of being a member of that party till 2022 when they will reorganize the party and take over the executives from him? The day he declared for APC the media was there, did you see the old APC members there? They were not there because they were not welcoming him, the owners of the party are still there, as far as I’m concerned he is not yet a thorough APC man, he is going there to face a battle maybe he is interested in fighting wars.
For us, we believe that when it is God’s time, he will touch the organisers of political parties the country to zone the presidential seat to southeast, and we know PDP will do it. We are just one state in southeast when it is time the party will meet in the zonal levels to talk to the leadership if the party in the federal level over the issues of zoning. But for now apart from presidency, southeast has never lost anything in PDP.
During Obasanjo’s time , for the first time in history after the civil war, we had the minister of Defence, we had Senate President, we had several other major positions. Then during Yar’adua’s time we had several other appointments, during Jonathan’s time, we had the SGF, deputy Senate President and so many other major positions and other people we not complaining. Because one person wants to occupy one position then he feels that everybody must have to bow so that he tramples on all of them to get what he wants, it is not done that way.
How can somebody who says he is sincere be qouated as saying that “I am not God it is only God that doesn’t change from whatever he said” and he is going to be a leader, you people know that he says something he can not keep, there is none of us that has not had a kind of committal statement from the governor and he never kept any of it, you think you will continue to deceive people o daily basis. I will remain in PDP and will reclaim the state for PDP by God’s grace.
Is the governor’s defection to APC affecting the party?
Ofcourse being a governor of a state that was elected by a party then you leave the party to join another party the party will feel bad, because if he had known he would have contested to be governor in APC if though he was strong. He made us sell our goods to the wrong hands, so we wish him the best but we must be allowed to run our party and take over our state.
Do you have any advice for the governor?
My advice to him is to trade with caution, politics of Nigeria is deeper than one individual, that he is governor today he will not be governor tomorrow, most of the people he stepped on will still be there, nothing proves that he will continue to be at the head and be detecting for them, it doesn’t work out that way, we are here waiting, we are still friends but the friendship is under suspension for now until after political offices because he doesn’t want the relationship any longer.
All the individuals who contributed in one way or the other to install him as the governor he has problems with everyone of them 100%, I’m just advising him to thread with caution that is not the best attitude of somebody who wants to lead, the caution I mean is that he will meet these people tomorrow as long as we are alive so I wish him the best like I have always said.
What if he decides to come back to PDP tomorrow?
We are open, we are very liberal, we are true democrats, we will receive him. This is the house that made him, the house that gave him identity, and he must come back.
I believe so because when he hits the barrage of disappointment he will be forced to withdraw because the people he is meeting there are very strange to him, here we are used to his style but we are saying we are not moving with him because we made him, he can not be dragging us along the street.
