Former acting National Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Charles Remi Akitoye, has said that based on the indices on ground, his party would win the 2019 presidential election.
In an interview with VINCENT KALU, the former Lagos State commissioner for Agriculture, noted that with Chief Bode George emerging as the national chairman of the party, the PDP would take back its lost glory.
What has been the state of the PDP after its 2015 presidential defeat?
The state of our party in the country today is something one has to look critically into. Maybe the party didn’t prepare to lose in 2015, and thereafter, as we were trying to count our loses, we ran into series of court cases that for almost 15 months, nobody could decide the fate of PDP until the Supreme Court judgment, which was a landmark.
After the apex court judgment, Ahmed Makarfi, well educated, very sensible, and very upright started rebuilding and repositioning the party so it can take over from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
But there are challenges within and outside the party.
The PDP is still the best opposition in the country. Democracy is about government and opposition.
The challenges are what we are trying to surmount – human errors, human interests and others are what the party is trying to resolve.
The party is doing its best, and when you look at when the Supreme Court judgment was delivered, just about two or three months ago, you can’t imagine the achievements of the caretaker committee headed by Makarfi, that is stabilising the structure nationally and at local levels to reenergise the party.
So, it is a matter of goodwill and tidings for the party, but a lot of works still need to be done, especially to ensure discipline, expunge the principle of imposition, and enshrine fairness and fair play at all times; then PDP will surely come back to its former strength.
What are the chances of PDP winning the presidential election in 2019?
The party will re-invigourate and re-strengthen itself and at the end of the day as I said, without imposition and unbridled indiscipline, the party will in 2019, go out to fight a big fight and its chances are very bright of winning the election.
The indices and other factors are pointing to the fact that a lot of situations will put the PDP in 2019 ahead of all other parties, including the APC.
You mentioned enthronement of equity, fair play for the party to come back to its lost glory, but few months to come, the PDP will have its national convention to elect its national chairman and other officers. Which zone do you think should produce the national chairman for there to be fairness?
At the national caucus meeting of the party, it has been categorically established that the presidency in 2019 goes to the North, therefore the chairmanship to the South, that is, South-south, Southeast and Southwest.
At that meeting, it was agreed that the chairmanship seat should be zoned to the South West. The reason was because when you look at South-south, it has produced the party chairman, as well as the party leader in the past. The Southeast had also occupied the officeof the party chairman in the past.
South West had never produced the chairman, and so fairness judges the fact that it should go to the South west.
I can remember a statement by one of the leaders at that caucus meeting that if we truly want the party to remain one, the chairmanship seat should be in the Southwest.
If the chairmanship is retained in the Southwest, how do you people bring out the best in the person to lead you to the battlefield?
At a meeting of elders of the entire Southwest states in Akure, Ondo State capital, it was considered and approved that Chief Bode George should be the candidate for the zone.
Governor Ayo Fayoshe of Ekiti and former Ondo State governor, Olusegun Mimiko were the co-chairmen at this declaration, where everybody affirmed that Chief George would be the chairman elected by the caucus of the South West.
However, there are other people who said they wanted to contest, especially, Prof Adeniran; some are also mentioning Chief Raymond Dokpesi, who said that the chairmanship was zoned to the South, not South West particularly.
When you look at these people, the only person who has the pedigree, experience, boldness and the wherewithal to lead the party to the promised land is Bode, among those who have indicated their interest in that office.
None of them can deny that he had never benefited from Bode in terms of appointment, in terms of helping them to become ministers, in terms of helping them to prosper their businesses.
Anytime, there were intrigues in any area, be it political or social, or economic, from experience I have cultivated in politics, there are one or two contenders at any given time, but there are lots of pretenders.
A friend told me that he bought a form to become a senator in order to boost his CV, that whenever he goes to American Embassy, they will say, he is a former senatorial aspirant or candidate and that brings respect for him.
So, some people pretend by collecting the application form for governorship so that they could be listed as former governorship aspirant or candidate. I don’t know where Nigerians got that mentality from.
At any given time, both those we knew wanted to run for the chairmanship and those yet to come forward, Bode George remains the best. He has been a military man, professionally when you look at his CV, he has experiences in politics.
George was one of the men that helped former President Olusegun Obasanjo to achieve so much for this country when he was ruling.
Tell me which of the governors in the past that didn’t pass through George to achieve what they achieved. Maybe the younger ones may not know his impact, but he has gone out to reach out to the youths, and they are ready for him.
He is the best candidate to take the party to the promised land in 2019.
You have stated the sterling qualities of George, why is it that he has not been able to make impact in Lagos election. The state was AD, AC, ACN and now APC, his party is yet to register its presence in the state?
That is because Lagos is a potpourri of Nigerian citizens. Tell me which native or community is not present in Lagos. It is a mini Nigeria. In the past, we worked together to be able to give good frontal fight, but some of us go behind to become disobedient and self-centred. I don’t want to mention names, but I’m very sure that Nigerians know those I’m talking about.
They not only dined with the hares, they go behind to hunt with wolfs.
The other factor, like a former governor told me is that the local government election is a bonus for the governor in power, that if he doesn’t write the result, he is stupid.
A sitting governor told me not to waste my time in local government election in Lagos. Local government elections are bonuses for the sitting governor because the governor of that state will elect the judge, the lawyer and prosecutor for the election.
Lagos generates more money that more than 20 states put together, by the time you as an opposition want to fight such a party,you must be asking money from the angels and from God because elections are monetarily based in this country. He who has the highest money probably buys the highest votes. Those with the lesser money will go to the tribunals. These are the three factors that have not helped us win elections in Lagos State. Without mentioning names, a particular party has cornered the state. If elections were to be conducted by INEC, it would be different.
When you say George has not shown his clout in Lagos, you should remember that at the last general elections, we had eight House of Representatives seats, even in Lagos State House of Assembly, we had two or three. If election is free and fair in the state, PDP will win.
In 2019, if we gather our efforts together and stand as a front in unity, chances are that the table will change in Lagos and at the centre. There are many groups in the state- the Arewa, the Igbo and even the Lagosians, where the PDP will spend N10; the ruling party will pump in thousands to scatter these groups.
It is not George alone, it is these three or four factors that have not allowed our party to win. At that last local government election, PDP won in some local governments, but government magic and magnanimity made it a bonus for the governor, as the results were changed.
It is not Bode, he may be the leader. He has been fighting that we win Lagos. Remember Obanikoro’s son won in Ahmed Tinubu’s local government, as chairman, look at the way it went.
There was an election where the returning officer announced in the television and radio that PDP won, but it went the other way. So, when they say local government election is a bonus to sitting governors, I quite believe.