Daramola: Wike Needs to Seek Caution Over Move to Destroy PDP

Former Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party in Lagos State, Chief Tunde Daramola, in this interview with Segun James, advises Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers state against destroying the Peoples Democratic Party that brought him to national limelight

Politics has started in earnest and the most interesting politics is happening right here in Lagos. And until recently the PDP has not really been a force in Lagos, but right now some people believe that there might be changes. As a former secretary to the party in the state, and a national ex-officio member, what is your take on the political situation in Lagos?

Well, I am not the spokesperson for PDP at the Lagos level, nor at the national. But as a stakeholder I can consider myself an elder and a leader of the party. Because I have been in the party for over 20 years. Like I was saying, I am not a spokesperson for Jandor either and I have not had the opportunity to meet Jandor. I have heard about his political progress, his mobilization ability, which is commendable, and for him to have won the ticket at the primary is commendable also.

There is the needs for a lot of hands to be on deck to defeat the APC in Lagos. APC is more entrenched in Lagos than anywhere. You will ask me why I said so? Because the structure within the APC is a monster structure. What do I mean about monster? There are people in the transportation union paid up to the level of the conductor to work for APC. And we cannot but say we need modern PDP. We need the people of Lagos to rescue the party from the shackle hold of Bola Tinubu. Because the successive governors after Tinubu have all been, what I will call rubber stamp governors.

So, right now, a few days ago, the governor of River State came to Lagos. He is of the PDP and he endorsed the Lagos State Governor, a situation that has really affected the chances of PDP in Lagos. What is your take on this?

I do not think it has affected the chances of PDP whatsoever. Governor Wike is an individual and he has only one vote. one vote. He cannot even control the vote of his family. If Wike votes one way, chances are that his children or his wife may vote another way. Thank goodness that the INEC has promised to use the BVAS, which is the biometric identification method to identify voters to ensure that votes are counted. And also the electronic transmission of votes from polling units. My appeal is to INEC. The way Wike is behaving, he is behaving as if he founded PDP. He doesn’t know how PDP was founded. Wike had a leader when Wike was, I don’t want to call him Boy, Boy, for Peter Odili, who was the first governor of this democratic dispensation. If Governor Peter Odili who is a medical doctor, a reasonable person, if he did not break the house that he built, who is Wike? People have joined PDP and left, the party did not break. If you remember, in 2007, I think, when President Obasanjo’s tenure was coming to an end, Peter Odili was the leading candidate to become the president of Nigeria. In order to assuage the feelings of the north, they wanted a Northerner. That was why they brought in YarAdua. Bringing in YarAdua, Odili will still have won at an open convention, because I was a delegate at that convention. Odili was appealed to, to take the vice president, but people who thought Odili will have been too powerful for them to maneuver, did a magomago, and Odili’s chances to become the presidential candidate, nlor the vice presidential candidate was shattered. But Odili did not break the house. If he had broken the house, people like Wike will never be governor of PDP. Because it was after governor Odilithat  RotimiAmaechi became governor and Wike was his Chief of Staff. So my dear brother, as I said, thank goodness there are BVAS and there is going to be electronic transmission of votes from the polling units. The mago, mago of the coalition center is gone for good. Why would Wike come to Lagos and endorse an opposition party? If that had been done by a chairman of a ward or a local government, they will have cut off the head and charged him with anti-party activities. What he has done is anti-party, and if he thinks a statement matters, it doesn’t matter to the people of Lagos, number one. Number two, the followers who are aligned with his thought before are going to one by one distance themself from his approach of breaking the house that were built by his leaders. And he cannot do that because I am sure PDP leaders would not allow him to do that.

But don’t you think he has a grievance that is supposed to be addressed especially his grievance against the composition of the party right now and his grievance against the chairman of the party?

Speaking for myself as a stakeholder, it was Wike that put his resources behind UcheSecondus to make him chairman. Secondus is from the south, Secondus is from the south-south. Secondus is from Rivers where Wike is from. For whatever reason, if you remember, 2019 it was rumoured that Wike wanted to be vice president to Tambuwal . So he put resources behind Secondus to be chairman and he put resources behind Tambuwal to emerge as presidential candidate. But Wike is not God. The plans failed, Wike is not God and one man cannot claim to be God. God choose his leaders. Leadership is bestowed and you can emerge from people. But if you are behaving as a sour loser, what should people like Peter Odili, a Medical Doctor, what should he have done? He is the one that brought them up. RotimiAmaechi, NyesomWike. What should Peter Odili do? But life continues, Odili remains a statesman and Wike is still a young man. At least I am older than him. Wike is 61 year old. There is still time.

Let’s talk about Lagos briefly. Chief Bode George was behind Jandor in the beginning when he was brought to the PDP. But from all indication now things don’t seem to work out between them. Why is this so?

You know, I came back only two weeks ago. I have not even seen Chief Bode George, You understand me? So that question will have to be thrown to Chief Bode George, who is a leader of the party at the national and in the state. That question needs to be thrown at him. Or at best at Jandor too. But I read something recently where Jandor said there is nothing between them, that he still has the support of Bode George. But I have not seen him, I haven’t even met the person of Jandor. I only read about him. I have not interacted with him politically or socially.

At the national level, five governors led by Wike are against what they term  injustice that is happening within the PDP. And those five governors are very important and crucial to the possible emergence of PDP to win the election. What is your take?

When you say five governors, I am certain those governors are interested in who succeeds them at their state level and that person is not coming from APC. See, that is a certainty. That person is coming from PDP, including Rivers.

Even Wike’s nominee has a PDP ticket, not APC ticket. That is one. Number two, you have to be careful with the issue of Ayu. From what I had gathered, Wike was part of those who supported Ayu to become chairman. Because PDP has this unwritten arraignment where when the president is from the south, the chairman is from the north. When the chairman is from the south, the presidency is, but there is a lacuna. Ayu just became Chairman. The committee of governors that were supposed to zone the presidency threw the ticket open to anybody. I am not a member and for whatever reason they knew how, why they threw it open to anybody to contest. I don’t want to use the word fortunately. I will not use unfortunate, but fortunately for Atiku, he emerged. But Ayu has been the chairman before the presidential primary. Ayu has a four year tenure constitutionally. If you force him out, he can take you to court and he will win. So, what do you do in the interim? You allow it to be. When Atiku becomes the president, Atiku can now talk to the chairman, because Atiku becomes the leader of the party at that moment. And bring the chairmanship to the south. I understand Ayu have said that much, even though people say, what he said was if the candidate emerges. Candidate has not become a president. It is when the president, once we can win. We are talking of February. The election is February, after the election, when Atiku emerges; it’s easy for Ayu to resign. Because there are other ways to compensate him.

With the situation now, what are the chances of PDP winning with the crisis on ground?

Maybe I did not make myself clear. The five governors, you said, Makinde is running under PDP. Ortom PDP, there is somebody in the East PDP. Wike is not running again, but his nominee is running under PDP. Is it possible for them to say vote PDP Governor, don’t vote PDP? Like I said, those governors too have one vote. Yes, they have patronages and they have political capital to draw from. But then, there is this saying, you can tell me what to do, when I get there I can do something else.

The Southeast is traditionally believed to be PDP stronghold, but in recent time, and now that Peter Obi and his Labour Party has emerged as a third force in the political system, don’t you think his emergence will affect the chances of PDP?

Some people are wondering, if Peter Obi is not a destabilizing agent. Because like you rightly said the Southeast is the bastion of PDP, you can call it our enclave. But let me talk a little about what I will call the obedient factor. This is my view and I think I am old enough politically to talk about this. You cannot build something on nothing. The Labour Party has a very long way to go in terms of winning hearts and minds. This is not limited to the millennials who are very social media savvy. They have in the Labour Party a lot of younger people who rightly are advocating a new dimension for the country. But most of Obi’s supporters are in the metropolis and outside the shores of Nigeria. You can trace the existence of parties like PDP and APC to such parties as the NPC, which was a major player in the north. The NCNC dominant in the eastern region, and the Action Group, a major party in the Western region. With other fringe political parties fighting for independence. These original parties have metamorphosed, realigned with different names, forming NPN, UPN, PRP, NPP and GNPP. They were also forced by the military administration of General Babangida to become NRC and SDP. Also don’t forget right after that came Abacha who created the CNC, DPN, NCPN, NNCP and GDM. So these major political parties were transformed in one way or the other, until they even became PDP again and APC. The demographic of Nigeria, according to the United Nations, have people below the ages of 14 years and below as 42.5%. Ages 15 to 24 are 20%, age 25 to 54, 30% . Majority of Obi supporters are between ages 25 to 54. They are very important and they have money to spend. But this does not take away the fact that they are influential, but they lack something which is structure, lack of political structure. It is easy pre 2023 up to 2019 where governors and president can influence votes at the collation center, were they manipulate figures. But if INEC is to be believed, the BVAS and the electronic transmission of votes from polling units will negate coalition centers. Once I have a result from polling booths, a media correspondent can gather and determine and project who is winning without the effect of collation center. Now the Democratic Party and Republican Party are the dominant parties in the United States in spite of the fact that there are 420 registered political parties in the United States of America. When billionaire, Ross Perot, ran for presidency in 1992, he was originally from the Republican party. But when he ran as an independent candidate, he couldn’t win. The point I am making is, Peter may not win, but it’s going to affect the fortune of major political parties. Perot took away votes from Republican Party causing the loss of the presidency by H. W. Bush, unable to get a second, whereby Bill Clinton won. So PDP must be weary of Obi’s presence particularly in the Southeast. I am not going to limit it to Southwest, where you have equal settlement, it matters. because tribal sentiment may come to play even though what Nigeria needs, to the best of my knowledge is a transitional leader, devoid of tribe, sex or religion, somebody that can transit. And to get a transitional leader, you need somebody who may be the frontline political leaders. The frontline political leaders, presidential candidates have all been part of those who bastardize this country, including Peter Obi. Peter Obi brought in Willie Obiano who drove him out of town, and Obiano now said, look Mr. Soludo is the person that can improve the fortune of nndiAnambra. Why did Peter Obi refused Professor Soludo from becoming governor? That’s a question he has to answer.

I know you are of the PDP and you support your candidate who is Atiku, but then as a player in the national polity, what do you think is the way forward giving the precarious political situation in the country right now?

It is rather unfortunate the country is failed or has failed. This present APC administration has bastardized this country and it has brought it to a comatose level. Like I said, Nigeria needs to devolve power. They should allow states, to control their resources and compete. And not only compete, where they are not willing to compete and collaborate. It is done in the US, The Triborough Bridge was built by New York, but it serves New York and New Jersey states. When you are coming from New Jersey, you don’t pay toll, when you are going to New Jersey you pay toll. Such arrangement where local government can control their resources and develop their communities. Such institution like education, health, Commerce should be left with the states and local government, state police. The business of the federal government should have been immigration, customs and excise, military for defense of the entire nation, and foreign affairs. Every other thing should be left to the local government. I don’t know whether you remember at least as far back as some 40 years back, local government were fixing roads. They were constructing roads, constructing drainages, building healthcare, facilities. All these have stopped. The states now pocket local government’s resources and allocations.

So what I meant by transitional leader is a leader who is willing to restructure, and Atiku has said, I am not his spokesman, but Atiku has said he is willing to restructure. One thing you should note is the APC Leader, Bola Tinubu, has not for once criticize all the failings of the Buhari administration. Is it because you want power by all means? Amotekun in the Southwest, Lagos is not part of it. Restructure, Buhari said he never promised restructuring.