Nwobu: PDP Needs Other Opposition Parties to Defeat APC in 2027

Former Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party in Anambra State, Dr Ndubisi Nwobu, in this interview bares his mind on salient national issues including his advise on the need for the PDP to form alliance with other opposition parties and interest groups as a way to wrestle power from the ruling All Progressives Congress in 2027. David-Chyddy Eleke brings excerpts.

What is your take on the crisis in PDP, is the Acting national chairman, Damagun  working for PDP or APC?

Let me start with the crisis at the national level, yes, the crisis has fester for quite a long time, over who is the national secretary of the party, why the acting national secretary should be in office while the people of North Central are looking for replacement of the former national chairman. All these have polarized the party. Unbridled ambition of individuals without being told is our major problem. As the national secretary, you will be among the signatories to the candidates of the party that will be submitted to Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). You will be among those who will set up a committee to conduct congresses, primaries and rectify the primaries and others.

If there is a proper conscience, you ought not to be a judge in your own case. Senator Sam Anyanwu ought to have recused himself the very day he wanted to contest for the governor of Imo State. He failed to do that and despite assurances and promises to the leadership of the party in South East he made openly in Enugu State at the Governor’s Lodge that he was going to resign. He never did. Infact, he ought not to run for primary without resigning his position as the national secretary of the party. He as the national secretary is part of those who will determine who will be candidate of the party. This was the reason the former Governor of Imo State, Hon. Emeka Ihedioha declined from contesting the governorship election in Imo State. What will the contest be for, contesting against somebody who will be judge in his own case? It is not right to run a race with that situation. It is shameless on the part of Senator Anyawu not to have recused himself long before now.

He is much more unconscionable that he continues to drag the party to mud till this day. On Tuesday, he even surfaced as the National Secretary before National Working Committee, graciously enough the committee stopped him and asked him to step aside, while the Deputy National Secretary took up the position until a time the South East indicates that they have found a replacement.

There are laws but people sideline them for selfish interest and do things out of ordinary. Now, we expect the judiciary to correct the anomaly but it says that the party should handle their matter and affairs. This crisis were not supposed to be in place but because some people want to serve other interest apart from the party, the challenge continues.

Now the Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Mr Nyesom Wike, if he is man enough, he should go and pick membership card of APC. I am convinced that he is being a coward for continuing to say – “I am PDP but I’m supporting Tinubu”. What kind of story or statement is that? You cannot be a party member and supporting a candidate of another party. It simply means you are no longer a member of that party.

These days, people believe that money can buy every thing and he is hoisting himself as member of PDP thereby paying some renegades to be causing trouble in the party. They also believe that judiciary is payable and they can go there and get one order or another.

If what is happening in PDP happened to other political parties they would have been wrecked by now. PDP is able to contend with the crisis because it is a party that has been able to build some level of institutions. It has Board of Trustee (BoT), the Governors’ Forum and a lot of other institutions waging war against people who want to rubbish the party. Yes, there are fundamental challenges in the party, there are crisis within the party. Any person who tells you that there is no crisis in PDP is making a mistake and not honest. However, I am saying that the institutions in the party will enable it overcome those challenges. It is just a matter of little time every thing will be over.

As of the governor defecting from PDP to APC, a political party you joined at your own instinct and you must know there is freedom of association in the constitution. Within the constitution, there is framework that says that if you defect you lose your seat.

Because there are decided cases in the case of executive, they can misbehave. As for me as a political scientist, there is no basis for a governor to defect and retain his seat. When you run for an election, you run on the platform of a political party and you did not run as individual. Event in the result, there is no place where the candidates name is mentioned or written. If you take the mandate of a party and wants to leave for another party, common sense and conscience should tell you to relinguish the office and go to the new party, pick it’s ticket and run for the position.

As of today, we don’t have independent candidate in Nigeria. Conceding and not accepting that the judiciary has ruled that executive can defect without losing their position, but the Supreme Court has decided that legislatures cannot defect without losing their positions unless there is a division in their party. In Rivers State where people formally and openly defected, INEC should have without waiting for Court to declare those seats vacant done so and schedule a date for election.

Let them stand on the tickets of their new parties and run for the election. As of today they are not representing people they claim to represent, they are just representing themselves. Also, those governors that are defecting are defecting for their selfish reasons. Due to the kind of democracy we are running in this country many of our leaders have become so corrupt. You see somebody who becomes a governor and by the time he leaves office he must have  amassed so much wealth for his fifth generation, he might not know how they will exist. The government knew that these people have their stains here and there and if any one proves stubborn, they will come after him with EFCC and once they are around they will say instead of coming after me, let’s slow down.

This ought not be what democracy should be. If Jonathan had played what these APC people are doing, there won’t be APC today. We are having people in power today who are pretentious about democracy in Nigeria. Before now, they have impression that there will be democracy, freedom of speech, true federalism and every thing in place. All their auctions are contrary to all they advocated for in the past.

What arrangements is PDP making to win 2027 general election?

I watched and read the communique of the PDP governors in Ibadan, Oyo State. These are governors I have great respect for but I tend to disagree with them, with all their wealth of knowledge and influence. I am convinced that they are not reading the mood and feelings of the nation right. PDP is a great party with structure across the country, it is not about that.

We need to tell ourselves the truth, we need to wrestle power from APC for the greater good of the people. It is not something the party can do alone. There is no point looking at yourself as being at a higher level and we need to come down. PDP needs to be in coalition with other political gladiators to wrestle power from APC. We must do it not for sake of PDP but for the sake of the masses of this country.

If the governors say the PDP will do it alone, I will tell you it is a failure already. PDP needs to spearhead in conjunction with other forces to see that power is taken away from APC. Coalition is the only way out and any person who tells any other thing is not honest.

Why is it difficult for the political party to retrieve their mandate from the defectors?

 The political party and judiciary should be blamed for non retrieval of those mandates. There are cases where parties went to court and won, that is the reason I said that there are decided cases that if you defect you lose your seat. When a case is decided it becomes a law and people should not be allowed to go through the stress again. You know when you go for litigation in this country, you need a lawyer and most time senior advocate of Nigeria, may be because you are going to battle with somebody with so much money. To get a SAN, you need at least N5million for just consultation.

How many of these political parties can afford such amount? Again to follow up the case, then the judiciary that will come up with one technicality or the other to determine the case.

Not withstanding these challenges, the political parties should be able to follow up those cases to conclusions and if they don’t follow them up it will continue to be like that. Today, when people defect to their party they are happy, while when PDP was in power when someone wanted to defect they will be shouting. Today, PDP is at the receiving end. This is the reason I want us to look at the law and not only when it affects or favour us.

Why is it difficult for PDP to discipline Nyesom Wike despite obvious disloyalty?

If you recall very well, when Wike was the governor of Rivers State. He was like the alter ego of the party. He was doing everything showcasing that he was fighting to sustain PDP and in the course of doing that he was able to prop up loyalists, associates in the party leadership hierarchy. Those that emerge as the members of the national working committee (NWC), Wike has greater involvement in their emergence. Starting from the national chairman, the national secretary and others, he had serious influence in their emergence. Up till now, he still sustains them financially. That is the reason it’s difficult for some of them to frontally address the issue in the party.

The good thing now is we are able to deal with the national secretary which is very strategic and we will soon deal with others. The party will hold it National Executive Council (NEC) meeting this May, during the meeting most NWC decisions will be ratified. After the council, there will be a national convention where leadership will emerge and without the previous colouration that held the party hostage. When they emerge they will have the courage to stem those formenting troubles in the party.

The general impression among Nigerians is that the APC is not doing well but with the waves of defecation to the party, it appears that politicians are not feeling the pains of Nigerians, what is  your take?

When you look at the situation in this country, the political class form very little percentage of political activities of this country. The political class may have their views but what determines the political direction of the nation is the people.

If the governors are so powerful, why would they be spending so much for their re-election bids? For example in Delta State where the governor defected with the former governor of the state who was the PDP vice presidential candidate that could not be equated that Delta State has defected to APC. Remember we had a governor who was our vice presidential candidate in 2023 and we lost in that state.

However, PDP feels bad losing that calibre of personalities. In 2027, the people will determine the direction of the election and not the governor who will determine the direction of voting patterns. Many factors will determine the election.

Giving that voting do not count in the country but umpire decision and government in power, is it possible that Nigerians will get it right?

There is no power greater than that of the people. These INEC people you are talking about, are they not Nigerians? Do they not come from home? The pains people are passing through, are they not passing  through the same pains? Infact, what we have in Nigeria today is peace of grace yard, when it burst everybody will run.

Can you honestly say PDP is in the race for November 8, 2025  governorship election in Anambra State especially as its candidate, Hon Jude Ezenwafor has been said not to have the strength for the election, while others believe he may be a placeholder?

Basically, the PDP is fully in the Anambra governorship election taking place this November 2025. It is the political party that sponsors candidates in an election, and as of today, PDP is sponsoring a candidate in this coming election. Nigeria and Ndi Anambra knew that PDP has challenges in the recent time. The challenge is not only here in Anambra State but also at the national level. This is a situation where the party structure is not in place for years. For the past  three or four years, I left office as elected PDP chairman in Anambra State, we have not had elected chairman, until last October 2024. Imagine, an organization without a leadership is bound to face such challenge. With the challenge in the State, there is also challenges at the national level where the leadership of party, the chairman and the secretary are in crisis.

Honestly, this is not the best time for the party. It is in the midst of these challenges and the timing of nomination of candidate that the crisis arose. You will agree with me that people who want to contest elections, seeing leadership crisis will not be interested. This will also affect fielding the best candidates. You should also bear in mind that this is a party that has its root in Anambra State. People like Alex Ekwueme, the former vice president of the county was one of the pioneers of the party in the country. Because of that, the party is loved by Ndi Anambra. There is no home in the state, you don’t have PDP member.

Even those you see in other parties were once PDP members. The present governor of the state once ran for governorship election on the platform of PDP. To that extent, you don’t rule out PDP in the Anambra guber election. We are still looking forward and at the end of the day will be able to put forward those that will be considered best and first eleven. The party is strategizing and working seriously for this election. Before the period of substitution elapses, I can tell you that PDP will come up with a strong candidate. That is what I have to say.