Popular Nigerian politician, ABC Nwosu (Alphonsus Bosah Chukwurah Nwosu) has bared his mind on the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) amid its leadership crisis.
He said: “What is happening in the party started even early in 1998 with my winning of the governorship ticket in Anambra and it was cancelled by the appeal panel. When the party started deviating from its founding principles, then the problem started; you remember that the first set of governorship candidates that is us, ran the primaries and campaigned in all the local governments but our tickets were taken away from us.”
“Some of us went on appeal. So, if you take the case of Anambra State, you would see the warning given by the men who ran the election. Gen. A.B. Mamman, with Sen. Dagash and Dr. Debu Igwe. They said if the party was going to go that way, it would be a pity. But it has gone that way. It has followed impunity, rather than the rules as set by the party.”
“And so, that is what has happened to the party and continues to happen to the party. And again, that the party shall run on a rotational basis, North and South for presidency. Then, Umaru Yar’Adua died, a Northerner did not complete his tenure, the Vice-President (Goodluck Jonathan), completed the tenure. But that Vice-President insisted on having a tenure of his own and they bent over to give him tenure but he wanted to do two tenures, and then that was when the open rebellion took place in PDP. At the end of it, the President was dropped (he lost election), and the APC (All Progressives Congress) came up. If PDP had brought a Northern candidate, according to its rules, it would not have lost the election.”
“Again, PDP said that the party would be funded by members through membership etc. At that time, PDP members were up to six million people, and assuming that each member was to pay N1,000 or N2,000, you were going to get N12 billion. So governors and money bags took over, especially governors. So political parties became forum for governors within that party.”
“These were what were debated, and I am bold to claim and I dare anyone to say that I was not at the meetings in Prof. Jerry Gana’s house where PDP was formed and that I was not present the night that the Secretary-General was chosen. So I think that what has happened to PDP was that it started going not by the rules it set for itself, but by the face of man, the supermen who became legitimizers.”
“So, once you start doing that and getting funds from them, he who pays the piper dictates the tune. If the PDP wants to come back, it must put the rules right, rotation right, funding must be got right too. And then the people must have faith in it.”
“Well, I’m very happy for the present crisis because I have faith that it will recover. Why do I say so? Because it’s good that APC has shown us what the alternative is. Where the old woman cries at night and the child dies at midnight and is legitimized in the morning by the people who should uphold it.”
“This is an Igbo proverb, which translated means that …If you look at what happened (in the National Assembly), you have both House of Representatives and the Senate sitting, the members themselves, I don’t know how they determined those that constituted two thirds majority, that’s not the kind of democracy I know. The Constitution is clear.”
“I was once a political adviser to the president before becoming minister, and I recall that the president (Bola Tinubu) took President (Olusegun) Obasanjo to court over non democratic tendencies. Nigerians can judge now how far we have gone along the road. Almost every day, the old woman cries at night now and in the morning, the child dies, the frequency is too much. So if PDP didn’t give way, we would not have known that it could ever become like that.”
“We would never know that a democratic government could also suspend a democratic government. Very often, I hear people say sub-national level, there’s no nonsense, I repeat, no nonsense like that in a federation. Federation is central government, it is not national government, is central government and coordinate governments of federating units. There is no nonsense called local government. Local governments are completely under coordinate governments.”
“Now you hear everybody talking of sub-national government, our founding fathers gave the powers the central government had. I keep asking people, Tafawa Balewa was number three in NPC (Northern People’s Congress). The leader of NPC was Sir Ahmadu Bello. Why wasn’t he Prime Minister of Nigeria? The way we are running government now – national government and sub-national government. It is so amusing; it is as if you now have a federal government and sub-national governments, and therefore federal government has superintending powers over states. There is no nonsense like that. We better look again at the federation and decide what exactly we are running. So (Nnamdi) Azikiwe was not under Tafawa Balewa, (Obafemi) Awolowo was not under Tafawa Balewa.”
“These were the three at independence, not to talk of Sir Ahmadu Bello, so we better look at it. I was actively involved in one of the various constitutional conferences, and I was a member of the other. We were quite clear that what we are running now is not a federal government, and that’s why you are seeing people saying, ‘let us return to true federalism, let us go back to fiscal federalism.’”
“In this present situation where we kept power coming to the centre from 28 to 68 now should be reviewed. That’s why there is a do-or-die struggle for the centre.”
“First, I’m not in the PDP anymore. My resignation was made very clear. I said I had resigned as a matter of principle and conscience. I was quite clear. So I’m not playing partisan politics again. On the Anambra State election, let it be free and fair. Let the people choose who they want to be their governor. That is the simplest I can take because of what happened to me.”
“If the people want somebody, leave them to have that person. They know why. You ask me who I think or what I think. The most stable time we’ve had in Anambra has been under Peter Obi and I think what has helped a lot under Peter Obi was his humility.”
“Whether real or contrived, it doesn’t matter. People don’t want human beings who will come to them and before you’ve told them the problem at their backyard, they know it much better than you do. People like to tell you their problem and you gently ease them into the solution. I think that is human nature.”
– Source: Vanguardngr