The lackluster performance of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2015 has thrown up wide ranging issues on the future of the party that has been in power at the centre since Nigeria to democracy in May 29, 1999. In this interview with journalists in Abuja, the national publicity secretary of the party, Chief Olisa Metuh, speaks on factors that accounted for the loss at the polls, activities of some bad eggs and the future of the PDP. JACOB SEGUN-OLATUNJI and LEON USIGBE brings some excerpts:
IN some days now, some of the incumbent governors will be out of office, but Rivers State doesn’t have a Chief Judge to swear in the incoming governor and Governor Rotimi Amaechi, has not set up a transition committee. Are you confident that there will be a handover of power in Rivers on May 29?
The question is for the judiciary to answer, because it is an independent body and they have the rules that govern them. But I will say that it had happened in the past where states that didn’t have transition committees had proper handover. Do remember that even in the case of Abia State, the governor of the State who did two terms of eight years, he was sworn in before May 29; in Lagos immediately he was released; that was before May 29. So, people shouldn’t lay much emphasis on this issue of swearing in. The important thing is that elections have been concluded, somebody won the election and on that day, the judiciary will ensure that he is sworn in properly and take over. The issue of transition committee isn’t a requirement by law or any other authority.
In Rivers, Delta and Akwa-Ibom , the APC is trying to challenge the outcome of the election. Are you saying if the outcome doesn’t favour the PDP, in spite of the window of opportunity provided by law, you would still not challenge the results?
Well, it has been in the news in the last one week that in some states, the APC wants to instigate some write-ups and take certain steps to sway the minds of the tribunal people that the card reader recorded a particular number of people, where certain numbers of votes were recorded. This plan was to influence members of the tribunals and influence the outcome of their sittings. For avoidance of doubt, in most of these states, it is an INEC requirement that Incident Forms should be used. So, it is left for the judiciary to determine, whether Incident Forms were used and whether the laws guiding the operation of INEC was strictly followed. It isn’t for the APC to be writing in the papers and the social media that the laws were breached. They are our competitors and it is morally unlawful for them to try to influence the minds of Nigerians in the manner they are trying to do. Because the idea is being created that in certain polling units, and local councils, INEC recorded 1,000 voters, how come 2,000 people voted? But when I went for governorship, House of Assembly and presidential elections, card reader didn’t recognise my thumb print twice but I was given the Incident Form and I voted. So, why are they making so much noise about PVC and Card Reader? They should allow the judiciary to determine whether due process was followed. For them to do this, they are trying to plant seeds in the minds of the tribunal members and members of the public that something else must have happened. We aren’t trying to make an issue. But, people have recorded tapes of how voting was done in some states in the North. Apart from the fact that under-aged people voted and the way this thing happened, how many people used card readers in those states? Even in some states of the North, like Kano, there was no single void vote. So, they are so brilliant that they know how to handle the card reader that nobody made a mistake. So, please, this is a country and we aren’t waiting to be occupied, we have been told that majority of Nigerians voted for the other party. As democrats, we have accepted it. But even in our laws, we don’t want to feel like fools and they shouldn’t be treating us like conquered people. The language they use on us, the way they are going about it is like conquerors, not people who have come to embark on governance with the rules and tenets of democracy. They are behaving as if they have come to deal with a conquered people and a conquered party. We have sustained democracy for 16 years, they haven’t even taken over and they are telling lies, trying to instigate things to put our democracy in jeopardy. We will continue to defend democracy; we wish them good luck in the four years they are coming. The way they are going about it they are starting on a wrong footing.
The governorship candidate of the APC in Akwa-Ibom, Umana Okon Umana, led a delegation to the president-elect, Muhammadu Buhari. That team had serving senators on the PDP platform, including a member of the Board of Trustees of your party, Don Etiebet. What is your take on the presence of your members at that kind of gathering?
By June, we will know how many members we have. For now, we cannot say who our members are. You know failure is an orphan and because we have failed, the day after they announced the results of the presidential election some people left us. But I don’t think those people you mentioned in Akwa-Ibom worked for the PDP; they actually worked against us. So, it might be that they left the party even before the gubernatorial elections. Perchance they didn’t leave the party before the elections; I don’t think the new PDP that we are building after the handover will accommodate people who made us lose states.
There is no way that people that worked against us, whether they left the party or not, these people worked against our candidates. In any election whatsoever, the House of Assembly, House of Representatives, senatorial or governorship, at any level anybody that worked against any of our candidate, I don’t think should bother to claim membership of the PDP. There is no way you will help to destroy the chances of our candidate and tell us that you are committed to this party. There are people who were denied tickets and they continued to work for the party. We will build our party on those people. But for those who betrayed us, we hope that forever in their political career, people would continue to betray them! We appreciate and respect those who left us, before the election and they told us that, ‘we are leaving you and we are going to work for these people.’ But those who stayed with us, claiming to be members of the PDP but worked against our candidates, they will face betrayal for the rest of their political career.
You claimed that the overall interest of the APC was to destabilise the PDP. Has the APC infiltrated your ranks? For instance, the party chairman in Lagos, Tunji Shelleh, has just been sacked.
Yes, some of our members, whether being instigated by APC or on their own, are in a hurry to distance themselves from our party and its leadership, maybe in currying favour from APC, but at the same time, this is the first time in the history of this democracy. This is a party that has never experienced defeat; it is suffering its first defeat. So, there will be problems and disappointment; you expect us to be in disarray for a while. So, in the last three weeks, people were asking, ‘is it possible that the PDP, the largest party in this country, failed in an election?’ So, it really caused a big upset, so we expect what happened in Lagos but, we are determined to instill discipline among our followership. We will ensure that the party administration goes on and for those that want to continue to engage in discussing our challenges I say to them, we have since left Egypt. We have moved ahead.
IN some days now, some of the incumbent governors will be out of office, but Rivers State doesn’t have a Chief Judge to swear in the incoming governor and Governor Rotimi Amaechi, has not set up a transition committee. Are you confident that there will be a handover of power in Rivers on May 29?
The question is for the judiciary to answer, because it is an independent body and they have the rules that govern them. But I will say that it had happened in the past where states that didn’t have transition committees had proper handover. Do remember that even in the case of Abia State, the governor of the State who did two terms of eight years, he was sworn in before May 29; in Lagos immediately he was released; that was before May 29. So, people shouldn’t lay much emphasis on this issue of swearing in. The important thing is that elections have been concluded, somebody won the election and on that day, the judiciary will ensure that he is sworn in properly and take over. The issue of transition committee isn’t a requirement by law or any other authority.
In Rivers, Delta and Akwa-Ibom , the APC is trying to challenge the outcome of the election. Are you saying if the outcome doesn’t favour the PDP, in spite of the window of opportunity provided by law, you would still not challenge the results?
Well, it has been in the news in the last one week that in some states, the APC wants to instigate some write-ups and take certain steps to sway the minds of the tribunal people that the card reader recorded a particular number of people, where certain numbers of votes were recorded. This plan was to influence members of the tribunals and influence the outcome of their sittings. For avoidance of doubt, in most of these states, it is an INEC requirement that Incident Forms should be used. So, it is left for the judiciary to determine, whether Incident Forms were used and whether the laws guiding the operation of INEC was strictly followed. It isn’t for the APC to be writing in the papers and the social media that the laws were breached. They are our competitors and it is morally unlawful for them to try to influence the minds of Nigerians in the manner they are trying to do. Because the idea is being created that in certain polling units, and local councils, INEC recorded 1,000 voters, how come 2,000 people voted? But when I went for governorship, House of Assembly and presidential elections, card reader didn’t recognise my thumb print twice but I was given the Incident Form and I voted. So, why are they making so much noise about PVC and Card Reader? They should allow the judiciary to determine whether due process was followed. For them to do this, they are trying to plant seeds in the minds of the tribunal members and members of the public that something else must have happened. We aren’t trying to make an issue. But, people have recorded tapes of how voting was done in some states in the North. Apart from the fact that under-aged people voted and the way this thing happened, how many people used card readers in those states? Even in some states of the North, like Kano, there was no single void vote. So, they are so brilliant that they know how to handle the card reader that nobody made a mistake. So, please, this is a country and we aren’t waiting to be occupied, we have been told that majority of Nigerians voted for the other party. As democrats, we have accepted it. But even in our laws, we don’t want to feel like fools and they shouldn’t be treating us like conquered people. The language they use on us, the way they are going about it is like conquerors, not people who have come to embark on governance with the rules and tenets of democracy. They are behaving as if they have come to deal with a conquered people and a conquered party. We have sustained democracy for 16 years, they haven’t even taken over and they are telling lies, trying to instigate things to put our democracy in jeopardy. We will continue to defend democracy; we wish them good luck in the four years they are coming. The way they are going about it they are starting on a wrong footing.
The governorship candidate of the APC in Akwa-Ibom, Umana Okon Umana, led a delegation to the president-elect, Muhammadu Buhari. That team had serving senators on the PDP platform, including a member of the Board of Trustees of your party, Don Etiebet. What is your take on the presence of your members at that kind of gathering?
By June, we will know how many members we have. For now, we cannot say who our members are. You know failure is an orphan and because we have failed, the day after they announced the results of the presidential election some people left us. But I don’t think those people you mentioned in Akwa-Ibom worked for the PDP; they actually worked against us. So, it might be that they left the party even before the gubernatorial elections. Perchance they didn’t leave the party before the elections; I don’t think the new PDP that we are building after the handover will accommodate people who made us lose states.
There is no way that people that worked against us, whether they left the party or not, these people worked against our candidates. In any election whatsoever, the House of Assembly, House of Representatives, senatorial or governorship, at any level anybody that worked against any of our candidate, I don’t think should bother to claim membership of the PDP. There is no way you will help to destroy the chances of our candidate and tell us that you are committed to this party. There are people who were denied tickets and they continued to work for the party. We will build our party on those people. But for those who betrayed us, we hope that forever in their political career, people would continue to betray them! We appreciate and respect those who left us, before the election and they told us that, ‘we are leaving you and we are going to work for these people.’ But those who stayed with us, claiming to be members of the PDP but worked against our candidates, they will face betrayal for the rest of their political career.
You claimed that the overall interest of the APC was to destabilise the PDP. Has the APC infiltrated your ranks? For instance, the party chairman in Lagos, Tunji Shelleh, has just been sacked.
Yes, some of our members, whether being instigated by APC or on their own, are in a hurry to distance themselves from our party and its leadership, maybe in currying favour from APC, but at the same time, this is the first time in the history of this democracy. This is a party that has never experienced defeat; it is suffering its first defeat. So, there will be problems and disappointment; you expect us to be in disarray for a while. So, in the last three weeks, people were asking, ‘is it possible that the PDP, the largest party in this country, failed in an election?’ So, it really caused a big upset, so we expect what happened in Lagos but, we are determined to instill discipline among our followership. We will ensure that the party administration goes on and for those that want to continue to engage in discussing our challenges I say to them, we have since left Egypt. We have moved ahead.
Hmmm..both parries are in for war big-time....am waiting to see how PDP will bounce back ...
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