By Sunday Ani
Elder–Statesman, Chief Dan Ulasi was chairman of the National Republican Convention, NRC, in Anambra State in 1993 and also chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in 2003.
In this interview monitored on AIT, the elder statesman reviews the 2023 presidential election and why Ndigbo should support the Atiku/Okowa ticket.
What is your view of the Labour Party(LP) candidate, Peter Obi’s presidency?
Peter Obi is a young man that I love so much. I don’t think that politically, that anybody has done for him what I did. I was chairman of the PDP and declared on national television that he was the one who won the 2003 election and not Chris Ngige. Obasanjo and the then national chairman called me and demanded what I did? By the time I explained to them what I did, I didn’t know who Peter Obi was. A few days later, he came to my house with the now late Chief Jacob Nwokolo, a prominent Anambarian from Abgagana.
Peter was handed over APGA by the late Chief Ojukwu and the concept of that was for him to organise the rest of Ndigbo that it appears impossible for us to get something out of this country. Let us look inwards and develop ourselves.
Peter’s presidency, achievable as it is and because I know him personally, is what I want him to prove because what he is doing now is what he should have done a year ago. I mean consultations. We have five governors and they all have candidates for the various positions in the election coming up next year.
Peter is running for the presidency and he has candidates for all those positions and people are asking us, this Obidient, where do we stop this Obidient; is it on Peter or the candidates following him down the line. This is where he now has problems in the South East. Because if he had done consultations with his colleagues, they would have sat down to ask, ‘Peter, what is the achievability of what you want to do.
Because of my interest in him, I had to go to the North. I asked them, what is the prospect of my brother becoming president? And they laughed at me, asking, “Is it the one you people are doing on internet?” what did you people do in Osun State? The candidate lost and only won his polling booth.
Assuming he gets most of the votes in the South East, where will the other votes come to give him the 25 percent in 24 states.
How does this affect the ambition of the PDP candidate?
The South East has been a PDP stronghold all through. Peter was the leader of the PDP in Anambra State. People have taken risks for him. The least we expected was for him to call us to a meeting; you don’t need to offer lunch and say for so.. and so…
When Atiku was declaring, Peter Obi attended. Not only did he attend, he took up the microphone and said that Atiku was the greatest person to unite Nigeria. He gave four adjectives supporting Atiku. And people started asking me, does he want to become vice-presidential candidate again?
The danger for us is that if our people vote for him that it is equivalent to voting for Tinubu because to touch a core part of the PDP which is the South East and they vote for Peter, there is no way that vote will lead us to victory and it is an advantage to Tinubu to win. I don’t see the hard points of APC where he is going to touch. First election has happened in Osun and they failed woefully. The votes he will get in Lagos will be core Igbo votes, maybe 25 per cent.
If we defend Peter, where will it lead us to? We will be removed more from the government. We will not be part of the system. But in PDP, not only is Atiku positive for us, he is marrying an Igbo woman who has four or five children for him. We have an Igbo adage, Ogo onye bu chi, your in-law is your god.
He has a vice-presidential candidate, brilliant medical doctor, former senator, core Igbo boy. My people say instead of your cow running away from you, this is the tail, cut and hold and know that at least you have part of the cow.