The National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, in this interview with ADELEKE ADESANYA, says for President Muhammadu Buhari to have declared his rerun bid a year before the presidential election shows that he is too desperate for another tenure in office. Besides, he says some corrupt PDP members have found refuge in the ruling All Progressives Congress and are now being shielded from prosecution. Excerpts:
President Muhammadu Buhari has declared his intention to run for a second term in office. What do you think might have led to this?
APC is always conscious of PDP at any time. Recently, we were in Dutse, Jigawa State, with millions of people that came out to receive us and declare their support for their traditional party. Even in the President’s State, Katsina, a mammoth crowd came out to receive PDP and declared their readiness to have us back as the ruling party; and I think that was what drove the President to make a sudden declaration of him contesting again in 2019. The President is very desperate about the second term.
What do you mean by the President being desperate for a second term?
If you look at the history of modern politics since 1999 till date, President Muhammadu Buhari is the first incumbent President that will declare the second term interest a year ahead of the election, and that is enough for people to know that he is too desperate to re-contest.
Do you see any implication of his early declaration?
Yes, of course. In Nigeria, what we discover is that, once politicking starts, every apparatus of government takes the backseat. So what President Buhari’s declaration means is that, from this moment, until elections are held in February 2019, governance will take the backseat; whereas, you were elected to work and serve the people; all, within the four-year tenure. For President Muhammadu Buhari’s first three years, there is absolutely nothing to show for the years.
But people have argued that the PDP laid the foundation of poor performance for the Buhari government…
Let me tell you; when President Buhari contested in the 2015 election, he promised the citizenry one major thing which was ‘change’. By this, to my own understanding, he meant that he was coming to make a difference from the system that we had before. But the question now is that, has he made any difference since then till now? Have we seen any significant change? The answer is that we have not! And what we are saying now is that, must he take us back through the same process of promising to come and change the system? So, Nigerians as we speak today, have seen it all in President Muhammadu Buhari and if you remember that, when the President went to Jos, he told Nigerians that he was trying his best. So if a man had told you that he was trying his best and the best he could do for us is what we are experiencing today, is that not enough for you to decipher that Nigerians are already preparing to try another party?
PDP, too, was faced with issues in 2014, before the presidential election was conducted. How would you compare this with Buhari’s situation?
The environments are different. In the circumstances during the Goodluck Jonathan administration, you will recall that the issue of zoning was a problem. Some people believed that Jonathan needed not to contest an election because it was zoned to the North naturally, and in the end, we were able to settle it. But the circumstances are different today. Nigeria is too large. As a very big country, there is no president that has contested without discussing with stakeholders. You don’t just take a walk to a place and declare that ‘I am running for second term’ without consultation with your stakeholders. It doesn’t work that way. So, in PDP, all the presidential candidates we have will always seek consultations with stakeholders of the party. It doesn’t work the Buhari way. How can a president just walk into his party men and say, ‘I am contesting for the second term?’ That means he is desperate.
Does that mean your party didn’t face any challenge before the last general elections?
If you look at what happened at the 2014 election, particularly as it concerned PDP, you will recall that the major issue the party had to contend with before the final decision of Goodluck Jonathan running, was the issue of zoning. So what I want to correct is the wrong impression some people have, that for over two years, we were in a quagmire, and our inability to take decisions affected us. I was just trying to explain to you that what led to that was the issue of zoning. Once the decision was reached at the party level by the stakeholders that former President Goodluck should be allowed to contest, that was the party’s decision. What I am saying is that, you cannot compare that environment with the current environment where a president is expected to liaise with stakeholders of his party. But he just walked into the National Executive Committee meeting of his party and said ‘I am running for second term’. Where on earth is that done? Anyway, that is there personal issue, and that is why we said, it is their internal headache, it doesn’t affect PDP as a party.
Some people have said the PDP is disturbed about the President’s declaration for second term. Is this true?
We are not bothered about APC or what the members do to themselves. We are concerned about Nigerians; we are concerned about this nation. If President Muhammadu Buhari insists that the way to go is to impose on his party and control the party, he can as well say that nobody must contest against him at the primary election. Let me give you what I call ‘Alele’ mythology. This is a talisman a farmer places on his farmland when he is not there, so that anybody who comes there to steal is dealt with. The object used for that thing is capable of holding anybody that comes to the farm down and giving him work to do until the owner of the farm comes. In this regard, if you look at President Buhari’s declaration, it is similar to the Alele mythology. The man was going abroad, and he looked around that some people might have launched interest in contesting, so he quickly declared to silence them. Likewise, others that might have given support to other candidates are also tied down with him, once they know he is going to contest. For us in PDP, the Buhari declaration is nothing.
Are you saying Mr. President’s declaration should not be taken seriously?
Do you think any Nigerian who has followed the governance of this regime will take his presidential interest for a second term seriously? For us in PDP, we believe that the President is not listening to the beat that is being played by Nigerians.
I heard that some of their stalwarts said his declaration would make a change. But I told them that the only thing that would change when he becomes the APC presidential candidate is the processes, which will allow PDP to partner with majority of Nigerians to look at the spirants on our platform and secure the best who understands this nation, who knows the nuances of our country, who has seen where this government has taken us to so far, has the capacity, economic strategy, the knowledge of unity, understands the cohesive nature of this country, and is prepared to run. That is what will make a change.
As people are not happy with the state of things in the country, they are not equally happy with the PDP, especially when they look back at the 16 years your party was in power, which some say pushed the country into the current mess. What is your take on this?
Honestly, we agreed that PDP did its best in those 16 years. I listened to Festus Keyamo on a media show and I saw his struggle to resell APC to Nigerians. The truth of the matter is that, PDP as a party is far better than APC. In 1999, Obasanjo was the president from our party, he put in his best, and he had his achievements, contrary to what Keyamo said to Nigerians. And I know that since then, every president that came out of PDP did his best. For instance, in the six years of Jonathan, he was able to establish 12 universities across the federation. He built roads among which is the Lokoja-Abuja road. I can go on and on to name them. But today, majority of Nigerians believe that the situation in which they found themselves is worse and terrible, when compared to the PDP’s time. And there is no form of fictitious analysis by the APC people that can change the truth. The hunger, suffering and others that Nigerians are going through today were not what they had under the PDP regime.
But some people believe that the PDP led the country into economic recession before they left and now, APC is clearing the mess. What is your view on this?
We don’t make excuses for our party. I would like to state that PDP established every institution created to fight corruption in Nigeria today. I would also like to tell you that under PDP administrations, members of our party accused of corruption were arrested and arraigned until we left office in 2015; they had their cases in court. But in this APC regime, what do we have? Everybody that PDP alleged of corruption has crossed over to APC and they are enjoying the presidential cover from the Villa.
I would also like to add that, before Jonathan’s administration left, for instance in the North-East, we introduced presidential initiatives for the North-East and raised about N60bn, up to the time we were voted out. APC took control and it was part of that money that the former SGF claimed that he had spent on grass-cutting exercise.
