Wilfred Eya
The Director-General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), Mr. Osita Okechukwu has said that the ousted national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole is working for the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP). In this interview, the chieftain of the ruling party said that the PDP is likely to win Edo in the September 19 governorship election in the state.
Since the recent crises in Edo State started, and climaxing to the removal of the National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, all manner of conspiracy theories have been flying in the air. One of them is that the North has abandoned the APC so that the PDP which is likely to field a Northern presidential candidate would take over power. What is your view on the permutation?
Are you one of those who think that the whole North is in one dormitory? You think they serve them the same ration in the morning, in the afternoon and night. You even think that when it is time, they ring bell and like in the schools, the headmaster will tell them where they are going and they start running to the place. My brother, the North is not a dormitory. But the thing is that what is holding democracy in the country is that there is a commonality of tendencies. There are people from North and South that are working closer than those who are of the same zone. Even within our APC, there are those Northerners that are closer to some of us than their brothers in terms of thought on how the party will be structured. Some of them believe that the zoning convention must be upheld and that a good candidate from the South East should be supported to put an end to the civil war. So, the North is not in a dormitory my brother.
But from your vantage position, what is really the problem of the APC as a party?
What is happening is that the APC entered into a misadventure. In our party about two years ago, exactly 23 of June 2018, we all had hopes in Oshiomhole; we thought he was a successful labour leader and we even persuaded some people to step down for him. We did not know we were trying to coronate an emperor. It was the emperorship that caused us the last two years. He was thinking that we are all in a dormitory. If he comes out in the morning, he would ring a bell and we would assemble and after we drink ‘palp and akara’, he would give us direction where to go and we start heading there and anybody that fails to head there, as a headmaster will face appropriate punishment. So, that was what happened.
But honestly speaking, do you think the APC will come out from the protracted crises it has found itself?
Why not? We are going to come out strong. The most important thing is that Oshiomhole has gone for good. Nothing is going to bring him back. He is most likely to go to jail in Benin. There is a judicial panel of inquiry that indicted him; it is not Osita Okechukwu. Luckily for me, I do not have the reach. The last time I went to Benin was in 2018 or thereabout. There was a procurement law promulgated in Edo State. The law says that if I want to give you a job, I can do so but I should not pay you more than 25 percent as mobilization and he paid 75 percent. The law takes exception to you trying to moot an idea on why you paid above that threshold. And in the eyes of the law, if not that he is an emperor, in the next two weeks, if you finish the work I can now pay you the job of 75 percent but he did not wait. That is his way because for him, he lives on assumption like most emperors. That alone is enough for a jail term and I do not see the Appeal or Supreme Court that would say that 25 and 75 percent are the same. I have been listening to his people in the talkshow and the most common excuse they gave which though I am not a lawyer but I do not think the law would take it as an evidence, is that Obaseki was a member of the executive council. They say that in Edo, it is the executive council that awards contracts and that the governor has a different threshold. But some other lawyers have told me that in the eyes of the law, that the buck stops at his table. So, how will he get out of it? It is also part of what he is fighting but he did not go the right way. That is what I am saying.
Don’t you think that President Muhammadu Buhari is too indifferent to the crises in APC? Many argue that he care less what happens to the APC since he will be exiting in 2023?
This is also one of the paradoxes of the public space. When former President Olusegun Obasanjo was using gun butts to push out chairmen, we were also putting our hands on our head and there was outrage. When he pushed out Solomon Lar, we all shouted. When he pushed out Senator Barnabas Gemade, we all shouted. When he pushed out Audu Ogbeh, we all cried out. But President Buhari now said I am a democrat convert; do it according to the rule of law and we are now pushing him to do it the Obasanjo way. The whole thing is a paradox. When the Appeal court gave Oshiomhole reprieve, we were thinking that he would come back to his senses. If you remember, Oshiomhole said he had learnt his lessons. After running from one door to the other and in the evening the Appeal court now ordered for a stay of execution, he made a statement that he had come back to his senses and that he had learnt his lessons. But one month after, he came back as an emperor again. He set up the screening committee and told them that you are the High court and the one that will appeal your case is the Appeal court and he(Oshiomhole) is the Supreme court. Did that show him as somebody who learnt a lesson? Luckily, the Appeal court in its own wisdom said the stay of execution cannot remain indefinitely and affirmed his suspension. Is it not a window for us to reorganize? Before you can do any major re-organisation, there must be some collateral damage. Oshiomhole has done a collateral damage to our party, one of which is that we might lose Edo State. I do not know how we can win Edo now. The Obaseki people would be happy because President Buhari would not send the police to go and kill anybody. Buhari would tell the IG of Police to go and do free and fair election. You know that was what happened in Saraki’s matter. When the National Assembly was locked up, and after they discussed with the then IG Arase, one common sense told the man to call the Commander in-Chief before he continued locking the door and when he called him, the man told him, how can you lock the door against members and Senators? If you do not want those non-Senators and House of Reps, I am okay with that but not with the members of the National Assembly. He told him that you cannot lock away the people who own the place. That was how Saraki and his colleagues entered their offices. Some people started blaming him again; why didn’t you lock up the place. So, every issue is like a coin; it has two sides. Some of us who are his supporters, we would have been happy if he was using the hammer since; he would have knocked off Oshiomhole since. It is a long time he came to know that Oshiomhole was collecting bribe but he said let the law take its course.
As a major stakeholder in Igboland, do you think we are ready to seize the opportunity if the presidential seat is conceded to us?
Which group was organized before they became president? Were the Hausa in the same dormitory when Shehu Shagari became president?
But remember the nomination of Peter Obi as vice presidential candidate of PDP in the last general elections?
Did that stop the voters? Don’t forget that 80 per cent of the Nigerian voters are not in any of the political parties. So, in the voters register curve, the party has a very tiny membership. When Olusegun Obasanjo was elected president, were the Yoruba united with him? The Yoruba were more divided than the Igbo; they were against Obasanjo. They did not vote for him even in his ward.
But in that scenario, the battle was between only Obasanjo and Olu Falae unlike in the case of the Igbo where many are likely to come out?
It can be done now if the parties want it. If the APC and the PDP leadership decide to go South East or decide to give an Igbo even if it is Igbo Delta or Rivers, just to make sure that after late Gen Aguiyi Ironsi that Igbo should preside over the country, it would be done. That is what we should be canvassing, the Obasanjo/Falae model between the APC and PDP. I have been hearing such being canvassed by some people. I heard a group that told Atiku that he should know that there is a zoning convention subsisting. Nobody has united before they are given. Don’t allow anybody to tell you that kind of trash.
Do you think that stakeholders in the East have reached out enough to other zonal power blocs in the country?
You do not need to reach out. It is the leadership of both parties that should decide that. We have people who are qualified with any parameter of measurement. Don’t listen to the idea that Igbo are not organised. Do you know that Ango Abdullahi and Buhari come from the same place? Do you think that Balarabe Musa is Yoruba? In Kaduna, Balarabe’s house is close to Buhari’s house. Junaid Mohammed, Abubakar Umar and all those who hold the same tendencies, are they not Northerners?
Some argue that while the PDP is getting stronger, the APC is going the opposite direction like what is happening in Edo now; do you agree?
It was answered by Uche Secondus, the national chairman of the PDP recently. He said Oshiomhole is the campaign manager of the PDP and that he is doing it free; pro bono. But I told them that my worry is whether it is pro bono. Secondus got it right. Oshiomhole is like the PDP campaign manager. You know when you are narcisstic, you talk about yourself and not of any other thing or person. Oshiohmole in his stupidity thought he could do the Ambode model in Edo. How is it possible? You do not have the reach in terms of support in your state; you are not even in charge of your ward.