Tony Osauzo, Benin
Senator Domingo Obende, who represented Edo North at the last senate on the platform of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and who is now a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has said both the ‘Third Force’ and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) pose no threat to APC’s chances of winning again in 2019.
There seems to be a lot of problems in your party and the country is approaching the 2019 elections, do you think it will survive it?
Maybe you are not aware, I am a product of polygamy. In my father’s compound, you will see my mother’s side with one problem; another mother’s side come with another attack. I was watching my father; he will not say anything then by the time he speaks that will be final. You can liken APC to a polygamous family. People came from different areas and we are now together as one. Obviously, you cannot expect that we will be speaking in harmony all the time, even the teeth and tongue do have issues. So as far as I am concerned, the leadership of APC has the capacity to resolve all those issues before elections.
Take Edo State for example, every time there is going to be an election, there is always this fear that people will die. But that day not one gun will be shot and the election will come and go. So I still believe that APC under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari and our National Leader, Asiwaju Tinubu, who of course is the one trying to resolve the issues, we will all come together and sort things out. And I can tell you to take this cheque book to the bank; APC is going to win again in 2019.
You were in the senate before, with this cold war between APC dominated National Assembly and the executive; does it not portend danger for your party?
Like what the Bible says, if the foundation is destroyed what can the righteous do; there is nothing the righteous can do. The first problem came from electing the officers of the National Assembly and the party has not been able to completely put it to rest and that was what we have been suffering today. Also in the National Assembly, there are couple of lawmakers eyeing one position or the other, so the more the cracks, the better for these set of people. Again, if you check, you will find out that in any democracy the people that suffer are the lawmakers, this is so because the executive is permanently there, the judiciary is there and even if there is a coup the only people they flush out are the lawmakers whereas these other institutions remain. The National Assembly in her own characteristics is working hard to be recognised and which way will you be recognised, other than by insisting that whatever that is constitutionally right must be done. And of course the executive will be rubbing shoulders with them thinking that they want to do their job. But for now, I think they are working in good direction, the important thing is for government to move on. You heard what the president said lately that the feud between the National Assembly and the executive is slowing down government and I think that the leadership of the National Assembly is aware of this and it is going to address it soonest. For me, it is expected in politics, but it is important that it is resolved fast.
With crisis like this, will you still say APC will win in 2019?
If you go round the 24 states that the APC is controlling, governorship wise, they are all doing well. And if they are doing well, obviously the followers of such governors will ensure that the election in that place is won for the principal. And when that is done, it is victory for the party. When you even take 24 from 36, only 12 is remaining. And if we lose in 12 states we still have won our election. No one can tell me today that APC will lose the election, no way. One man one vote, APC will win.
Are you sure you can still win in Imo State too?
The problem they are having there is perceived imposition but people should wait for primaries, after the primaries if you know that somebody has been imposed, everybody will see it because our primaries are always broadcast live. Nobody will come and tell me ‘oh, because this man spent so much money that was why he won.’ What is politics, politics is all about money, you have to spend your money to get relevance. If you don’t have money no matter your level of intelligence it might be difficult for you to climb up the ladder, so for such people, they wait for appointment. But the moment it is an elective position you must display all the qualities you have, the capacity to be able to deliver because if you cannot deliver in your primaries how are you going to deliver in the main election?
You are a very close friend of former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar who joined the PDP, why did you not leave with him?
Yes, Alhaji Atiku is a personal friend. You know there is a difference between a political mentor and a political leader and between a political follower and a political leader. I do not fall in any of these categories. He is my friend and if he is in our party, and he is doing anything in our party, because he is my friend I will be behind him, but when he leaves the party without my consultation I will be a fool to follow him. So I wish him well anywhere he has gone to but God knows that I have him in my prayers, having him in my prayers not because he has left and I want him to win there. I want God to keep him in safely so that he will be able to benefit the life that he has suffered for and built, so that he can see his great grand children. As far as I am concerned, if he remains in any other party, he remains my friend and brother but when he comes back to our party we will work together.
But as it seems, more people are threatening to defect to the PDP?
If I am living in a luxury house and we have problem there and fighting every day, I rather be resolving my problem there than to go and move out of that luxury home to a ghetto where I may not be relevant. As far as I am concerned, APC is a party to beat any time any day. And all our leaders are aware of this; I know that in their wisdom, they rather remain in the party, fight their way onto success than move out. You cannot leave your former house, come and build another home then the home is just getting relaxed and you move out again. Come on, for how long will you continue to be a roaming Ambassador? So I don’t think people will leave, everything will be resolved and we will all come together in one peace.
What is your take on the spate of attacks allegedly by herdsmen?
For me, I think we should first of all establish one fundamental issue, are these people really Fulani herdsmen? The Fulani people that I know that are in Akoko Edo, they have a jack knife and a small stick, that’s what they use. I have not seen them in all the years I have grown up in the village carry AK 47. And even as we speak the ones that we know that live with us in Akoko Edo, don’t have such guns. So I think the security agencies must expand their scope of investigation and it is only when they do that they will be able to understand whether these people are really Fulani herdsmen. They could be off-shoot of Boko Haram or any group that wants to create mayhem in this country so that Nigeria will be very ungovernable. For me, if this is not looked at, and we are just looking at it and calling Fulani herdsmen, we will be missing the point and we need to just come to the realisation that a Fulani man never went for training to handle rifle. I think the security people need to do their job. The president is just one man sitting there, getting report from different angles. And when these reports get to him he will be able to take the rightful decision. So the issue of herdsmen will not be a problem to us in the 2019 election, these people were there during PDP, they were even worst. I watched one video when Boko Haram took over a whole area and there were jubilation, at least such a thing is no longer in existence now and I believe that the period of inconveniences will soon be over and we will come to our land of convenience.
Why do you think PDP boycotted the Edo council poll?
I left PDP February 14, 2010, that was eight years ago. So in eight years, they probably must have diminished in their operational reasoning for election or they probably would have improved. So they are two ways to their decision. PDP goes the convenient way, I think with the slogan of Governor ‘Wake and See (Obaseki)’, and it appears to be a challenge to them. Don’t forget that they are just coming out from one crisis and going into another crisis presupposes that they have to do primaries and in the course of doing primaries they will lose more members to APC. So I just believe that the PDP does not want to participate in this election so that it will not look as if they are defeated. They want the easy way out to say ‘ah we did not participate in the election otherwise we would have won. But they know that they have no council to win for now. If you are a good boxer, you don’t mind who your opponent is, you first of all fight the fight before you go to court. Why can’t they fight the fight first before they go to court like our members did in Delta State?
APC leaders say Obaseki is working but no stomach infrastructure, don’t you think this will have a negative effect in 2019?
When there is poverty in the land, the stomach infrastructure becomes impossible because you want to first of all appease the land before you now know that even the people working in the land have stomach. That is what we should understand. For now, Governor Obaseki is doing very well. And that is why he is called Governor ‘Wake and See.’ So I just believe that we should be patient with him, he has just done one year and I believe before the conclusion of the second year he will do more. Stomach infrastructure will come but we have to give him time.