By Chinelo Obogo
Leo Ogor is the minority leader in the House of Representatives and a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He was present at the recently held Sun Man of the Year Awards, where he spoke on the crisis in his party, why the country is in recession and other issues.
What does the Appeal Court judgment which gave victory to the Ali ModuSheriff faction portends for the PDP?
I believe in the judiciary even though the outcome of the case is unfortunate, because we have been denied some level of justice. The PDP’s national convention took place, and I as the minority leader was part of the decision that was taken. You need to look at the constitution of our party to appreciate what a convention is and I know that we would not allow this matter to lie low. We are heading straight to the Supreme Court where we know that we would definitely get justice. I strongly believe that we were denied justice at the Court of Appeal because there was another dissenting voice in that judgment. This is a fight that we must fight till the end, because clearly, it is a fight between light and darkness.
Would you say that bringing Sheriff into the party was a mistake?
It was a major disaster. We fell into the hands of the All Progressives Congress (APC) because they are using Sheriff as an instrument of destruction, but we want to let them know that we would use Sheriff to bury them as a political party.
One of your Senators has advised that the best thing to do was to work with Sheriff so that the party could have its convention. What is your take?
We would never ever work with Sheriff. He is an instrument of destruction and under no circumstance will he lead the party because nobody will succumb to his leadership.
In an event the Supreme Court judgment does not favour the Makarfi-led faction, what would be the next line of action for the PDP?
We would then take our final decision, but we will never work with Sheriff.
Does it not worry the PDP that the longer the crisis in the party, the more members it loses to the APC? Just recently, six out of the eight PDP lawmakers in the Lagos State House of Assembly defected to the APC, citing the leadership crisis in the party as their reason.
Does this not worry you?
Those are men that cannot stand the heat. When the going gets tough, only the tough gets going, that is why you can see men like Governor Nyesom Wike being honoured by the Sun newspapers for his outstanding achievements because he is someone that can stand firm both in good and bad times. Nothing good comes easy; we would continue to fight this fight until we realise our objectives. Those who think that they can destroy the PDP would end up destroying themselves. We gave them the opportunity to understand what democracy is all about. How can a man from nowhere who has no business with our political party and whom I consider a mistake come and rule over us? No right thinking PDP member would ever work with Sheriff.
Would you honestly say that PDP has conducted itself as an alternative party that Nigerians should look up to in 2019?
I admit that we have had our challenges and we have made very serious mistakes, but one beautiful thing about us is that we are prepared not to make further mistakes. We see the likes of Sheriff as a mistake that was made and it behooves on us as members of the party to correct this mistake. He is not part of us; he is a product of the APC. We know his antecedents. He comes in as a mole to destroy and there is no way we will work with him.
But if as you say, you know his antecedents, why did the party makehim its acting chairman?
It is a very long story, but we have admitted that we made a very huge mistake. I remember when Sheriff was coming to beg to be the chairman of the party. He was begging as if he was a baby, but today, he has the audacity to say that we were the ones begging him to be chairman.
This was a man who came to my house and was begging to be chairman, and now he is saying we were the ones who were begging him. There is no way that we would allow him to use our platform to achieve its objectives.
Why is the PDP silent over the country’s economic situation?
We have told Nigerians several times that it is because of the lack of policies of this government, which is why we have found ourselves in the situation we are today. They take issues on a day to day approach and they lack the basic economic knowledge of what governance is all about, that is what has plunged us into recession. They will come up with a policy today and the next day, they will change it. They do not even know how to plan because a man that cannot plan has automatically planned to fail. Like I said, the taste of the pudding is in the eating. Those that tested PDP are also testing APC, and by 2019, Nigerians will make up their minds on the better party to chose.
They have no idea of how to even manage the economy. We have told them what to do but they would not listen, so we have left them to wallow in their ignorance. They have tried to copy some of Jonathan’s policies, but it is not working because they lack originality. They lack the managerial ability, capacity that the PDP had that ensured the economy did not go into recession. All they keep telling us are lies upon lies. Without good polices, the naira would keep depreciating against the dollar. There must be clear cut policies.
This government said people should no longer pay money into their domiciliary account which was a major source of recourses for the country. As soon as it was shut down, the naira started depreciating. Many sectors are now suffering because of some of these polices. That policy alone almost killed the economy.
There are speculations that one of the South-South governors would soon defect to the APC. How true?
He will be going alone if he dares do it. He will be so amazed that he will be on his own. Let any governor dare go to APC and see if he can win elections in the South- South. He will not because he will fail woefully. If he is going, then he will be going for his own selfish interest, but if it has to do with the collective will of the people, no governor would dare it.
How can you say for a fact that APC can’t win elections in the South-South when it won elections in Edo state?
For elections to be credible, one of the characteristics is that it must be free and fair, so we keep learning from this government, so when the hour comes, we would do everything possible to defend our votes. When President Buhari will be contesting in Katsina, he would not be in Delta with us. Everybody will protect his votes state by state and then we would see if they would win us or not. Now they are adopting the approach of concentrating in one region, but when we have elections, we are going to beat them. It is going to be an individual affair and it would not be business as usual.
The APC is making inroad into the South-East and there are reports that road constructions and infrastructural developments are going on there, don’t think that may make them change their minds, in favour of the APC?
Those are media inroads; we know who owns the land. They may have some votes in some zones, but in the South -South, I assure you that they cannot win any state without rigging. They are begging the South- East governors to defect to APC. Why would you be begging people to defect to your party? APC is a party of strange bedfellows, and as far as I am concerned, it is as good as dead that is why they are doing everything to destroy the PDP, but they will not succeed. I want every PDP member not to be intimidated.
They should stand firm because in 2019, we are certain that we would defeat the APC. It has been two years since the last election; what can they point to as an achievement?
What they have been showing are the projects carried out by former President Goodluck Jonathan. What have they done? Is it just about fighting corruption? There must be life after fightingcorruption.
The number of PDP members in the National Assembly is gradually reducing because some of them are defecting to the APC. Does this worry you?
Who told you? We have only two rep members and they are begging to come back because they know that we would remove them at the courts, but we told them to remain where they are.
But doesn’t the constitution make provision for members of a political party to defect when it is in crisis?
As soon as we conclude this matter in the court, those who defected are as good as gone.