Secondus: How We Will Rebuild PDP

Secondus has launched a mission to restore the erstwhile ruling party’s winning ways. He discusses how he plans to achieve that, in this encounter. Vincent Obia writes

Soft-spoken, calm, and confident, Prince Uche Secondus has won a mandate to reform the Peoples Democratic Party and make changes that would lead to a renaissance of its political influence. Secondus, who was elected national chairman of PDP penultimate Saturday in Abuja, first became a symbol of the party’s rebirth after it suffered a crushing defeat at the 2015 general election. As acting national chairman of PDP then, he set up a committee to do a post-mortem on why the party lost the election. The retrospective inquest produced a report with recommendations on how PDP could pick itself up.

Secondus handed over to a caretaker committee soon after receiving the report of the post-mortem committee. Not much about the party has changed.
But now, ahead of another crucial vote in 2019, and as substantive national chairman and one who has kept abreast of the issues that went wrong in the party that led Nigeria between 1999 and 2015, Secondus has launched a mission to rebuild, reposition, and regain PDP’s political leverage.

“When I took over as acting chairman after the election, we set up a committee headed by Ekweremadu to do a post-mortem,” says Secondus, who was in Lagos before the December 9 elective convention as part of his tour of the South-west to meet PDP leaders and delegates. “I think the major factor was that the party at a time jettisoned its zoning principle. It was enshrined in our constitution and that was a major issue. I don’t want to go into details.”
The details now consist of how the party can regain power. And that is exactly what Secondus is promising to pursue as he begins his tenure as national chairman of PDP.

Grassroots Power
Secondus has a three-pronged agenda to rebuild, reposition, and regain power for PDP. And he has set out strategies to achieve that mission.
“Part of it is taking the party directly to the grassroots, the people,” he says. “My experience shows clearly that we started from the grassroots and, gradually, we were disconnected from the source of power, which is the people. How do I want to do this? I will empower and devolve power to the state chapters and then revolve around the electoral wards, which are about 9, 000, and possibly the 120, 000 polling units.”

The former acting national chairman promises, “We will rebuild confidence in the party. One way to do this is to allow the constituencies and the state chapters to decide, because power belongs to the people. Let them decide who their representatives would be. Unlike before when primaries were conducted and things were changed in Abuja, we want to return the party to the people. Let the people make their choice.”
While it held sway at the centre, PDP was widely criticised for sundry impunities, especially as regards the determination of its candidates for election. More often than not, candidates were imposed from Abuja with little regard for the choice of the majority of people in the constituencies. Secondus has promised to change all that.

Reward
Secondus also plans to return PDP to a robust reward system that would help to retain the loyalty of members.
“The second thing is the reward system. It also started and, gradually, it was eroded. The people in Abuja are the ones calling the shots, whereas the people who suffered and actually brought votes are at the grassroots.”
He adds, “After all, what is the purpose of a political party? One is to shape ideology, the other, which is the most important, is to win election. Now those people who could deliver their wards were not taken care of. Only the big men in Abuja were the ones parading and taking decisions on behalf of the people.

“But this time around, we are going to involve the ward officers at the polling unit, ward, and local government levels so that they are part and parcel of the decision making process, and they would be recognised and rewarded for delivering their wards.
“When you strengthen them, and give them confidence, you will see that the party would be repositioned too.”

Membership Drive
Alongside the institution of an efficient reward system, Secondus plans to embark on a massive membership drive to woo former members back to PDP and persuade new people to join.
“In the process of rebuilding confidence at the grassroots, you also would be involved in the massive membership drive and allow them to participate in all electoral decisions as to who would represent them,” he says. “When you do that and a popular person is elected in the constituency, for instance, it becomes an anti-rigging agent, because when a popular person is elected, the people would massively support the person because it is the choice of the people. Also, they would defend their votes.”

He says, “One other thing I would do differently is to make sure we are not just sitting at Wadatta House. We want to move out, because Wadatta House has a way of weighing down the leadership of the party. The leadership would move out to see the difficulties people face, hear from them. I have done a kind of census and I know what their problems are.”
Secondus believes the issue of waiver, a critical element in the party’s membership drive, would not pose much problem, as the National Executive Committee had addressed it by removing the hitherto stringent conditions.
He says, “Anything that could be a stumbling block to new members would be totally eliminated. People are free to come in, and they have equal right with other members.”

Experience
With his enormous experience in the PDP leadership and politics, generally, Secondus, 62, is, no doubt, profoundly well positioned to do the tricky operation of removing the clogs to the party’s progress. An indigene of Rivers State in the South-south, he is a businessman and a renowned politician. He was Deputy President of the Port Harcourt Chamber of Commerce from 1985 to 1988; Rivers State Youth Leader of the now defunct National Party of Nigeria in 1978; and Rivers State Publicity Secretary of the former National Republican Convention from 1993 to 1998.

Since the inception of the Fourth Republic in 1999, Secondus has served as Rivers State PDP chairman for two consecutive terms and South-south Coordinator for the PDP National Campaign Council, 2007. He was PDP National Organising Secretary until 2012, and was elected Deputy National Chairman of the party on September 1, 2013. He became Acting National Chairman of PDP after the resignation of Alhaji Adamu Muazu in 2015.
As state chairman of PDP, Secondus headed a powerful group in the NEC called G84. He was pioneer chairman of the Governing Board of the National Identity Management Commission.

Now as national chairman of the main opposition party, Secondus says, “I will work to reform the party, while making concerted effort to rebuild its structures at the local, state, and national levels; reposition the image of our party in the minds of Nigerians as the party of choice both at home and in the diaspora, and with time, regain lost ground due to past mishaps.” He promises an inclusive leadership based on the principles of progressive politics; effective leadership characterised by competence, honesty, and promotion of excellence; and national interest.

“I believe that we should leave behind those maladies that plagued us as a party and move forward. We should learn from our past mistakes, which almost destroyed us, and stay true to our party’s principles of progressives and effective politics. To this end, we will restore PDP to its glory, recover lost grounds, repackage, and unveil our illustrious PDP to Nigerians as the winning political party,” Secondus says in his mission statement.

He explains that the “Rebuild” component of his reform agenda for PDP, which is basically internal, entails bringing party members together, closing ranks, accommodating all interests, and identifying and leveraging the party’s key strengths. It also involves a national reorientation of members, a membership expansion drive from the grassroots to the national level and the diaspora, and strengthening party structures.

The “Reposition” element, which is largely external, involves trying to sell PDP anew to Nigerians by repackaging it to take charge of the national political space; making the party appeal to all interests, classes, and age groups; and making a conscious effort to start a new PDP story that would inspire a refreshing national conversation.
The third leg of the reform agenda, “Regain”, Secondus says, involves instituting an effective movement to regain power.

Consultation
Secondus plans to involve all stakeholders in this daunting rebuild. He says he had consulted critical stakeholders in the party before launching out with his campaign for the chairmanship. He has embarked on another round of consultation, this time, to get the people to support his leadership.
He debunks allegations of being sponsored by elements who want to take charge of the party.
“One thing with politicians is that they imagine all sorts of things,” he says. “I consulted Governor Nyesom Wike and 10 other PDP governors, the way I went round consulting other leaders – BoT, former governors, etc. I worked out my strategy.”

He adds, “Wike is my governor. I have to consult my governor; I’m not like other candidates who would not consult their governors. I have consulted him. If I have his support, is that a crime? It is not a crime.”

Secondus also shares his thoughts about the South-west, where his participation in the chairmanship race had elicited misgivings. “There are a lot of offices,” he says. “Apart from the party offices, there is the presidency, vice president, senate president, speaker of House of Representatives. South-west is a very important zone. There is no way all these major positions will elude the South-west. I believe that the party leadership will take care of the various zones so that they are not left out.”

Optimism
Secondus is confident that Nigerians can still count on the PDP umbrella to protect them from the vagaries of the political and economic weather. But he would need the support of PDP members to move his agenda from conception to construction.