Makarfi: PDP Not Bothered by Order of Elections

‎Former Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party’s National Caretaker Committee, Ahmed Makarfi says his party is ready to take on the general election regardless of its sequencing. He spoke with politics correspondents in Lagos. Shola Oyeyipo was there and presents the excerpts:

What is the state of affairs in your party?

Well, not many people gave us a chance before the national convention. Many thought the party was going to scatter from the Eagle Square but that did not happen. But that does not mean there was no fallout of the convention.
After any convention, there must be issues arising from the conduct. So, it is not different that PDP has some minor issues after the convention but it is gladdening that the party remains solid and united.

Before the convention, we anticipated that some issues may arise, that was why we set up the reconciliation committee which moved to work immediately after the convention. The current leadership also set up other two committees which consist of Seriake Dickson committee and the other one led by former principal officers of the National Assembly, to reach out to the aggrieved and to bring them back on board and to integrate them in a bid to provide a united front. To also provide a strong and virile opposition to the All Progressives Congress (APC), which is in power. We have covered a lot of grounds, but that does not mean to say there are still no issues but I am not in a position to know what those outstanding issues were because I am not the national chairman of the party now.
I have left as chairman but I continue to give advice in areas where l am needed and I am also handling issues I can handle on my own, just to bring unity into the party without necessarily having recourse to the current leadership.

The current leadership has been meeting with relevant organs of the party, the governors, National Assembly members, former governors in order to forge the way forward for the party. I am sure the party is set and working so hard to be a virile opposition party.

There is an allegation that PDP governors are over-bearing and that this was partly responsible for the loss the party suffered in 2015 general election. It is also believed that this played out at the December convention.

Well, going back to the 2015 elections, the north expected to have the ticket, to some, that matters. But even at that, our language was not so polite in the campaigns. The language some of our members used in campaigning for 2015 was insulting to a certain part of the country. Also, the party structure was not used for campaigning rather an arrangement for using TAN was used for the presidential campaign. TAN was formulated by some people to impress those in power, it was not something structured, PDP is a structured party down toward and village level. To now abandon that asset and use something superficial, naturally there would be problems because it discouraged some people while some others became nonchalant. I can tell you that some governors were not even aware how the campaigns went and no governor sat in the campaign council. When you blame governors, I can tell you that not even the chairman of the PDP’s Governors Forum was in the presidential campaign council.

These factors contributed to losing elections, not that APC won, but PDP threw away the elections. There could have been difficulties or challenges, but if we had acted differently, there was no way we could have lost the 2015 elections. If we are talking about the states, I can say yes but on the presidential, there was no question of over-bearing influence by any governor especially as I mentioned, no governor was in the presidential campaign council. They were basically expected to be on-lookers until you visit their states to campaign. They made a mistake.
Going forward, the PDP has only 11 governors, so the people are working together with the governors we have and the governors are also showing their support. I have not seen where they are showing overbearing influence on anybody, if they have ideas, they share ideas and we implement it. Right now, you won’t find that in PDP because the situation is completely different, we know that and we are making use of all the assets that we have, whether governors, former governors or former ministers, we respect the view of all who can add value to our party. We are not ignoring all those that are in the position or that has the capacity to help.

Nigerians remain sceptical of PDP’s readiness to take back power. How prepared is the party for 2019?

No serious party will want to remain as an opposition party. The role of any opposition party is to take over power and that is what we set our eyes on right now. I want to thank APC for actually making our job easier and I continue to pray that APC continues to make our job easier as we move closer to elections. I do not pray Nigerians continue to suffer and that is why I believe Nigerians will make the right choice by voting out the party in power.
As to our preparations, all I can say is that we are doing all that is legally and politically doable to achieve our objectives. It would be inappropriate for me to give a hint on what we are doing or what we are planning. It will amount to someone going to a battlefront and publish your war plans, you have as well committed suicide before going for the war. We keep our plans to our chest but be assured we are used to the politicking and we shall leave no stone unturned.

It is believed that your leadership intentionally threw away the entire South-west bloc from achieving their aims of clinching the chairmanship of the PDP?

I want to disagree with you in your assertion about states of the South-west. First, there was no intention of throwing away the South-west or any other bloc from any part of the country. And by the time we went to the convention, there was no political arrangement from the south as to where the chairman of the party should come from. We came in May and a convention was scheduled for August in Port-Harcourt, the PDP met in Port-Harcourt and micro zoned the chairmanship of the party to the South-west before August last year. When we went to Port-Harcourt, because of interference from government, that election could not take place and our tenure was extended for a year. When we are approaching the December convention, the north met and politically discussed among themselves and maintained the micro-zoning. The south met and they could not agree on the micro-zoning.

Before every convention, you meet, discuss and also take certain decisions. The unity that existed from the South before the August convention disappeared before the December convention. When they met, they could not agree. Then they met again and agree don all other positions except two positions which are the chairmanship and the deputy chairmanship. And they left that decision among themselves and even the South-east excused themselves from it but the South-south and the South-West could not agree.

And when they could not agree, the South-west and South-south decided that the convention should decide who becomes the chairman and deputy chairman. Failure of a certain part to sit down and agree should not be seen as the rest of the country heaping something on somebody. Nobody directed the north to meet and maintain what they have done, I did not ask them, it was not in my position to do that and nobody stops the south from agreeing on certain terms. Failure to agree was what made the race open and politics is an issue of negotiation. So they came to the convention divided, campaigning against each other and in politics when you are campaigning against each other and you want the rest to give you power, it becomes more difficult. So really, it was a local failure because the other part of the country has its agreement intact. But I think they did not see a reason to unify before they decided that the convention should determine who emerges.

It was at the venue of the convention when the election was about to start, some of them started going round to say they now have a consensus candidate while some others started going round disclaiming such agreement. So, in such confusion, who do you blame? You cannot blame anybody. Be that as it may, no part of this country should be taken for granted.

Except you don’t understand the politics of Nigeria, that is why you won’t expect to win elections on the convention ground. Before you get to the convention ground, all the alliances have been formed and you will know whether you will win or lose before getting to the convention ground.
You may not have the leadership of the party, you may end up having what is even more than the leadership of the party. As chairman of the party, you have limited powers even when your party is in government, can you tell me how powerful the chairman of APC, Oyegun is today? I think where people should look up to is the executive because that is where policy is formulated and executed and that is where the interest of people you represent can be implemented. That is my personal opinion.

Apart from the Dickson committee, I know there is another committee being led by Dr. Nwodo with Dr. Bello Haliru and David Mark. They are complementing what others are doing just to ensure peace and accommodation in the party. When you mention that the party is absent in the South-west, I disagree with that. For me, you have to go gradually to achieve peace, anything you rush into especially where there is a sharp division, you are bound to fail. So the party is very conscious of these problems and we are doing all we can to harmonize. I can tell you that you will know our strength as a party when the elections come. Nigerians should stop looking at the big picture of ceremonial things, those things don’t win elections. You don’t go by the crowd to win elections. In 2015, which crowd we did not have as a party? Did PDP not lose elections? So, don’t be carried away by the crowd that attends a rally.

What is your take on the re-ordering of elections?

The position of the law is clear on this. It is not what is passed but what is signed that becomes law. If the president signs it, it becomes law. We passed the same law during my time at the Senate and then a court said it was unconstitutional and that it was INEC that has the power to do that. If that is the case, so be it. But for me, I think my take is, PDP should prepare to win no matter how elections are ordered. To think that elections should be ordered this way or that way, it is a lazy way of approaching elections. Whichever way it is ordered, we should campaign and work. I believe strongly that anyhow the elections come, PDP can win. So we should concentrate on main issues and not through any short-cut.

APC has suddenly embraced restructuring after it had initially rejected it. Many believe the party changed its mind to woo voters. What is the position of your party on restructuring?

I addressed a world press conference when this matter came up. I said that APC is now like a chameleon changing colours. All I can say is that, right from the beginning, we in PDP are for restructuring. Besides that, the governor of Kaduna State and the chairman of the committee by the APC said on Channels Television that restructuring was not important.

The following day, I featured and said all the conferences that were initiated for the processes were done by the PDP because it was during Obasanjo and Jonathan some of the conferences were done and some of the recommendations bother on the issue of restructuring. I also said restructuring means different thing to different people, the starting point is to narrow down the understanding and proceed from the stage by stage because there are things you can do immediately, some on a short-term and some on a long term. Several of these issues being raised today are because of happening within the country right now and we have to be sensitive about it. I believe running away from this issue of restructuring is like running away from reality. For a party to say because it wants to win elections, therefore it has changed its position, that is the height of deception and it is for Nigerians to take them for who they are; people who will do anything just to remain in power not because they mean it.

Quote
You don’t go by the crowd to win elections. In 2015, which crowd we did not have as a party. Did PDP not lose the elections? So, don’t be carried away by the crowd that attends a rally

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