George is Back in the Trenches
Personality Focus
South-west leader of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Olabode Ibiyinka George is of the strong view that his people and the zone have been short-changed in the scheme of things and would not standby to watch the North-east zone hold on to the leadership of the party. Segun James writes
If his intent was to draw attention to the plight of the South-west and its people within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), he is certainly making headway. For Chief Olabode Ibiyinka George, the South-west of which he is the leader in PDP has been short-changed within the system, and unless something is done to reverse the trend, something will ultimately certainly give way.
On April 17, arriving directly from London, where he had been for a six-week holiday, George addressed a gathering of his party’s faithful and the press at his Ikoyi residence, Lagos, to lament the alleged betrayal of some persons from the region, whom he claimed had gone to the party’s headquarters to proclaim that the region was not interested in the party’s leadership.
Five days later, the leaders of the region met again to deliberate on the issue that has polarised the party and is threatening the very survival of the party in the region.
Five days later, the leaders of the region met again to deliberate on the issue that has polarised the party and is threatening the very survival of the party in the region.
The crisis rocking the party is happening barely a few days to its national convention scheduled to hold in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital. Without doubt, a few days can make a great difference in politics, hence, the month of May might as well determine if the PDP will continue to be a party to be reckon with or the beginning of the end for the former ruling party.
George lamented that the party is at a moral crossroad and struggling for survival. “We are at a pivotal junction wrestling with what the future holds for us all.” His lamentation followed alleged betrayal of the party in South-west by a group led by Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State and Senator Buruji Kashamu from Ogun State.
While appraising the situation of the party since it lost the national election last year to the All Progressives Congress (APC), George said “Indeed, we are now confronted with a troubled destiny as a party. We are equally confronted with our relevance as opposition party in the great march to deepen the democratic processes of our country.
“The Peoples Democratic Party must now re-evaluate itself. We must reassess our values. We must re-appraise our mission. We must look through our party vision and invariably rebuild our party in the crucial journey towards 2019.”
He noted that those responsible for the decision that the South-west was not interested in the national chairmanship of the party were neophytes in the party and not conversant with the principles upon which the party was set up. He said the one of the pillars on which the party’s acceptance stands was that each of the six geopolitical zones must occupy one of the positions of President, Vice President, Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Secretary to the Federal Government and the party Chairman.
“Our party was founded on the principles of fairness, justice and equity. We represent all the diverse colourations of our great nation. From the vast stretches of the Savannah in the North to the huge coastal waters of the South, we define the richness, the cultural beauty and the limitless aspirations of our people.
“Our party represents the hope, the inclinations and the endless possibilities of all our people regardless of tribe and tongue. That was our foundation. That was the vision of our founding fathers. That was the principle that gave our party the winning ways and the tremendous acceptability of the past.”
He, however, regretted that the party derailed when strange bedfellows, whose greed led to the destructive path took over the leadership of the party.
“We have derailed from the classical beginning. We have detoured foolishly from the redemptive path. We have lost our bearings. We have left the safety of our anchor for the perilous and the unknown shores. We are now adrift, circling in turbulent waters. My brothers and sisters, fellow party men and women, we must discard this new attitude of ruinous greed and desperate avarice. We must abandon the creed of irreverent conspiracy and the recourse to petty malice.
“This disturbing madness will not and cannot prevail again. We must confront new realities. We must jettison the crude, inordinate greed of the recent past. We must eschew the unhealthy and the baseless character assassination in the crazy struggle for power. The eyes of our people are upon us all. We must be strong and resolute. We must rededicate ourselves to the new horizon.”
George, who hinted that there has been a campaign of calumny in some quarters against him over the quest for the national chairmanship of the party, made it clear that at 71 years of age, he has nothing to prove except the good of the party, adding that now that the presidency is no longer in the hand of the party, it needed a new approach to winning the hearts of Nigerians back to the party.
“We must discountenance the desperate campaign of calumny to pull others down because of personal advantages. We must put the interest of our party far above any parochial position. We lost the last general election not because the opposition party at that time was better than us. We lost the election because there was no unity. We lost the election because we harbored some agent provocateurs, whose goals and visions were not about our collective victory but about what they can get for themselves.
“If we want to prevail in future, if we are really serious about the complete overhaul of our great party, we must never again allow such fifth columnists to gain any position of influence and relevance in our party. We must be very critical and prudent in choosing those who should lead us. To rebuild our party, to re-establish ourselves in fresh and determined vigor, we must weed out the decaying roots that can bear no good fruits. We must eliminate through the process of sifting and sorting and discard the poisonous seeds that can endanger the healthy growth of our party. We can never again harbor insidious elements, who would plant one foot in PDP in day time and another foot in APC at night.
“What is now at stake is not about party in-fighting and the desperate tussle for position. What is important now is genuine service and commitment. We must all rededicate ourselves to work as a solid, formidable team. We must first devote ourselves to the path of hard work and absolute selflessness. We must be resolute about sacrifice and the sincerity of purpose. We must be determined about quality leadership and the pursuit of excellence. Our resolve now is not about personal pursuit. Our focus should be predicated on the summative good and the glory of our party.
“We must now move away from the dubious recourse to personal agenda. This party is greater than all of us. The unity of this nation is more treasurable than the narrow self-seeking individual advantages. The goal and the vision of our party should be about the greater glory of our nation.We must work and speak as a united body. We must deliberately seek out the best and the brightest among us to occupy positions of leadership.
“We must immediately discard personal biases and narrow prejudices in our search for credible leadership. We must never again mortgage the collective destiny of our party because of immediate material gains or because of petty animosity against individuals. We are entering a very crucial and critical phase in the remolding and the restructuring process of our great party. There cannot be any mistakes or missteps. We must be truthful, sincere and genuine with ourselves and with our conscience. We must be honorable and fair in our deliberations as we move forward.
“We cannot build a new leadership on the platform of discord and disunity. We cannot erect a firm and formidable structure on the rickety planks of jealousy and envy. This is why we must restore discipline and restore a strong adherence to constitutional purity. Indeed, indiscipline has contributed a great deal to our recent defeat. When some people become too over-bloated with inordinate ambition, when some people think that every position should come to them, they will have no respect for the rules and regulations.
“They will invariably trample upon orderliness and the due process. Specifically, we must never again tolerate and over-indulge those who insist on bringing down the roof because they lost fair and square in party primaries. Civilised men and women must acknowledge defeat and move on with their lives.
“The very few disgruntled characters, who will threaten hell and brimstone because things don’t go their way are the greatest enemies of our democratic process. It is remarkable to note that those who were beating their chests and making the greatest noise about their relevance and viability are now keeping a safe distance from the shores of our land! What an irony!
“Our National Chairman Senator Ali Modu Sheriff has a very significant role to play in this crucial transitional process as we move towards our Congresses and the National Convention. His task is very daunting and challenging. I wish him God’s guidance as he maneuvers carefully in re-establishing a solid foundation for our party.
“I implore him to be faithful to his words and his promise in the processes of giving our party a new strong and firm foundation. I want to believe the chairman is an honorable man. He must honour his word to handover to an elected chairman at the National Convention on May 21st this year. This is the only way that he will be on the positive side of history.
“Under the able and wise chairmanship of Senator Walid Jibrin, the BoT has risen to its constitutional role of the conscience of our party with exemplary grace and nobility of character. It is true that the BoT is indeed the last vanguard of our defence line. The BoT is the sacred anchor of our constitution. It is the custodian of our values and ideals. It is our reliable and responsible bulwark in the moment of crisis and trials.
“The BoT has been very consistent. It has been firm and purposeful in its insistent that our party must follow the due process and abide with the dictates of our constitution. Indeed, the BoT has played an exemplary role so far in the restoration of sanity and civilised standards to our party.
“The BoT has been very consistent. It has been firm and purposeful in its insistent that our party must follow the due process and abide with the dictates of our constitution. Indeed, the BoT has played an exemplary role so far in the restoration of sanity and civilised standards to our party.
“Our governors have been equally resolute, relentless and ultimately tireless in their dedication and commitment to bring back our party to its winning ways. The PDP Governors’ Forum under the leadership of Governor Olusegun Mimiko continues to demonstrate a strong vision and statesmanship quality in its mature intervention in the affairs of our party.
“Some of our former ministers and the majority of our lawmakers have also been very resolute and sincere in their relentless crusade for fairness and equity especially as it relates to the zoning of the party offices. This is indeed a very delicate issue. The zoning must be predicated on justice and equitable balance to ensure the continuity and the democratic pedigree of our party.
“At this crucial juncture, we need credible, responsive, experienced, resourceful, creative and mature men and women at every level of our party leadership. This is not the time for mere praise singers and time-servers. This is not the time for untested, untried and inexperienced neophytes.
“We need good, qualitative people to rise up to lead our party towards victory in 2019. We need people of integrity and formidable status. We need leaders with strong, unimpeachable character and with massive networking that can stand up with awesome presence and tame our major opponents.
“And as a responsible and constructive opposition party, we need those who will guide our party with solid intellectual footing and balanced integrity. We need those who will lead us with sharp, engaging level of articulation without subjecting our party and the critical issue of the state to the gutter level. We need people who will raise the standard of discourse and enlightened debate.
“Yes, opposition does not translate into abusive and irresponsible discourse. Irreverent gutter debates do not win votes nor mobilize people into the party. We must win the hearts and the minds of our people through superior arguments and through superior vision. We must work hard with strong convictions and believable appeal. We must begin that critical task now. Ours is a rescue mission. We dare not fail again. We must commit all available resources into the great mission ahead.
“The time is short. The road is rough and long. But the duty must be done. This is the time we need the voice of reason and not the noise of anger. This is the time we need the symbol of hope and unity. This is the time we must discard the portrait of deceit and blatant opportunism.
“This is the time we need a symbol of conscience. This is the time we need a symbol of redemption and renewal. This is the time we need a good and valuable leadership that can stay the course that can take the heat. This mission must start now. This duty must begin at once without hesitation. This is the only way our party can be strong and viable. This is the only way our democracy can endure.”
Following this, the leadership of the geopolitical zone at the end of an extraordinary Summit held in Lagos corroborated the position of the leader in a communiqué which reiterated the position of George.
The leaders, who gathered at the summit included former Governor Gbenga Daniel, former Deputy Governor Erelu Obada, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, Senator Bode Olajumoke, Senator Femi Kila, Prof. Taoreed Adedoja, former House of Representatives Leader, Hon. Mulikat Akande-Adeola; Oloye Jumoke Akinjide; Dr. Doyin Okupe and Hon. Tajudeen Agoro, among others.
According to them, they made the demand based on the fact that the zone was adequately prepared for the coveted seat. In a 14-point communiqué which they issued at the end of the parley and read by Olateru Olagbegi, they declared that the South-west zone was equally well qualified to lead the party, saying “That the Yoruba people have played a very significant role in the advancement and growth of our party and our nation and that the PDP founding principle was based on equity and balance.”
The South-west also resolved that the Yoruba people are being elbowed out of the power equation by the individual ambitions of some persons within the party and that the Yoruba people are being treated with contempt and irrelevance, a situation they claimed the Yoruba people would no longer tolerate nor accept the role of subservient player in the PDP.
“Those who renounced the position of the national chairmanship of our party do not speak for the Yoruba people and that the South-west PDP insists on claiming the position of the National Chairman, based on equity and fairness. That the South-west is adequately prepared and well qualified to lead our great party, given our rich antecedents of history, knowledge and culture.
“That the Yoruba people will fight this good cause with determination, with fairness of purpose and with the formidable pursuit of the truth, and being a democratic and liberal people, the Yoruba are however open to further consultations and negotiations to sort out issues at the appropriate forum, given our rich antecedents of history, knowledge and culture,” even as they resolved that a powerful delegation of the Yoruba people should be mustered to demand for the position of the chairman of the PDP.
This was just as a former Minister of Sports, Prof. Adedoja, unveiled his intention to the gathering to contest the party’s chairmanship whether or not the post was zoned to the South-west, contending that he had a lot to offer to move the party forward, aside having a right to such position.
The PDP leaders, while saying the Yoruba people would no longer tolerate ill-treatment, called on the Yoruba people to now stand firm and reassert themselves as they must not allow anybody to treat them as orphans within the PDP. They again renounced the Senator Kashamu-led group, which said the South-west was not interested in the national chairmanship of the PDP, saying “Those who renounced the position of the national chairmanship of our party do not speak for the Yoruba people.”
Former Senior Special Adviser to the President on Publicity, Dr. Okupe, in his submission, equally canvassed that it was time that a Yoruba occupied the chairmanship post of the PDP, recalling that the race had never produced a candidate for the exalted post. He described such development as unacceptable and that it must not be allowed to continue giving the contributions of Yoruba to the PDP.
Akinjide, who was shocked at the news that some group went to Abuja to say that the South-west was not interested in PDP chairmanship post, noted that the zone had never sold its birthright.
“The first president produced by the PDP was from South-west, if PDP is anything today, it was because of the foundation laid by the zone. The message here is that we the South-west will never sell our birthright. I stand by what has been said here. I stand to talk as real Yoruba that we in the South-west will take the chairmanship of PDP. We would give the chairman the PDP needed at this time of challenge and tribulations and we would not fail PDP,” the former minister said.
Adedoja, who insisted on contesting the chairmanship position, said the meeting called by Chief George was about rights, justice and equity that the party was built upon by its founding fathers.He said it was in the interest of Nigerians that the chairmanship of PDP should come to the South, particularly to South-west.
