Erstwhile Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Prince Chibudom Nwuche, famed as The Tiger in his time in the House between 1999 and 2003, was the Acting Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in the recently dissolved National Working Committee, NWC. Nwuche in this interview reviews the issues that have recently bestirred the polity nay, the PDP and proffers his solutions.Excerpts:
What is your reaction to the factionalisation of your party?
As far as I’m concerned, there is no faction in PDP because Nigerians were witnesses to the very colourful and massively attended convention where every state in Nigeria was represented. So, if a few people felt disgruntled and decided to create an impression of a split by walking out, I think it is not consequential.
In a family as big as ours, if certain persons walk out, even though they may be governors, to me, it doesn’t affect the family because it’s a big family. PDP is a party that has come to stay.
I want to also caution that those who don’t respect the president are showing disdain for Nigerians. You cannot have the president of a country seated in a convention and you walk out. That was a bad behaviour and Nigerians must tell them off.
Disrespect to the president
So, I don’t believe that we have a faction. We have disagreements which the party in its usual manner will solve and people should understand that the PDP has come to stay. So, you must not show disrespect to the president of a country by walking out because by doing so you offend Nigerians who gave him the mandate.
Again, it is also an office that you hope to occupy one day. How will the governors feel if the local government chairmen walked out on them at a ceremony in their states? They will not like it.
You are saying that their walking out of the national convention shows disrespect to the President…?
Not only to the President but Nigerians as a whole. Nigerians have a stake in the Presidency because they voted for the president and if Nigerians want him to be president, it should be respected by everybody, including governors.
So what sanctions should be applied to party members who show such disposition and disrespect?
The party constitution prescribes clear measures. First of all, if you tried to form a faction or to split the party, it is anti-party and the punishment is suspension and expulsion. It is very clear in the constitution. But in this case, our elders have intervened in the crisis and they have agreed that everybody should sheathe their swords. I hope that the agreements will hold and in this instance. We hope that everybody will sit as a family, but we should also learn the lessons that in the future, we should not try to split the party unnecessarily.
What is your reaction to claim by some from the North that the president should not seek another term in office?
There is nothing to talk about there. All I can say is let us think about the country. Let us address more fundamental issues. I don’t think that where power goes to is important. What is important is the quality of governance and what is also important, which we mustn’t forget in this whole stampede is the issue of our structure. Our structure is faulty and must be addressed. It is a hindrance to our progress. That is what we should look at and not the issue of where power goes.
If power goes to the North or comes to the South, there is no guarantee that a southerner will or a northerner will benefit under his own brother’s leadership. There is no guarantee that even the masses from there will fare better. The only guarantee will be if we have the country restructured and governance becomes more meaningful to the masses and our energies are released for production; that is when you can talk about people’s lives becoming better.
Power shift
But to talk about power shift, I think those arguments are simplistic on the surface as to who takes power or gets power. The issue is what will power be used for? What we need now is to talk about our problems. We have been a country for almost a century.
In every index that you choose, we haven’t fared very well. Why is that? Those are the issues that we should talk about. Those are what should occupy the minds of the elite and not the issue of whether power should go to the North.
What is your reading of the crisis in Rivers?
First of all, I would like to talk about the issue of the police sealing the secretariat of the so-called nPDP. I think that they should commend the police because they are doing a marvellous job in protecting lives and property because if the members of the old PDP who are like 50 to 1 in proportion, if not 100 to 1, decide to confront the nPDP in the secretariat, there will be mayhem and lives may be lost in the process. So, what the police have done is to avert a crisis by ensuring that the status quo ordered by the court is maintained.
If you are 24 Governors in a party with other stakeholders that are over 20 million, and you say some of you have left, you can’t appropriate the name of the party and put up a flag. That is anarchy.
Therefore, the police intervention is justifiable and should be commended because what they have done is to prevent a breakdown of law and order because those people who are in the majority can decide to go and confront those people who are with their flag somewhere else. You can imagine what will happen in that situation.
On the RiversState crisis, I think the crisis is internal and it has to do with the stakeholders of the PDP in the state who felt aggrieved at the manner of governance and lack of communication by those who are in power.
Primary fuel for the crisis
That is the primary fuel for this crisis. Whatever else that happened can be an addition to it but that is the primary cause of the problem in RiversState. No matter how popular a governor is, he cannot be in every local government at a time.
There are stakeholders who worked for him to become governor of the state and it is only a matter of honour that when you get to a position, you should consult those who worked for you to get there. That is the idea of politics. They all have followers who anticipate that they should have an input in governance. But where only one man governs a state by himself after you have secured a joint victory, it’s a recipe for the kind of issues they have in the state.
Do you not think it is one of the major causes of the crisis in the PDP?
It is major in the media. It is not major in my state. I’m from RiversState and people are going about their businesses.
‘PDP should restore party discipline’
Author: Suleiman M. Bisalla. The Nation, Oct. 3, 2013
Former House of Representatives Deputy Speaker Hon. Chibudom Nwuche spoke with reporters in Lagos on the crises rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the perceived 2015 ambition of President Goodluck Jonathan.
The Baraje faction of the PDP has declared tha President
Goodluck Jonathan would be gunning for the third term, if he seeks re-election in 2015. How do you react to this?
As far as I’m concerned, there is no faction in the PDP because Nigerians were witnesses to the colourful and well attended convention, where every state in Nigeria was represented. It was covered live on television and we had a free and transparent primaries that began from 10 a.m to almost midnight. Before we dispersed, we elected officials in a free and fair manner before the INEC and other observers. So, if a few people felt disgruntled and decided to create and impression of a split by walking out, I think it is not consequential. In a family as big as ours, if certain persons walk out, even though they may be governors to me, it doesn’t affect the family because it’s a big family. PDP is a party that has come to stay.
I want to also caution that those who don’t respect the President are showing disdain for Nigerians. You cannot have the President of a country seated in a convention and you walk out. That was a bad behaviour and Nigerians must tell them off.
So, I don’t believe that we have a faction. We have disagreements, which the party, in its usual manner will solve and people should understand that the PDP has come to stay. That is why those that are aggrieved do not want to leave the party and they want to carry the same name again, if possible. I think that the problems we have are surmountable. They are problems within a family and they will be solved. People should understand that they mustn’t take extreme positions because ultimately, we will sit together as family and solve the problems. So, you must not show disrespect to the president of a country by walking out because you offend Nigerians, who gave him the mandate by doing so. Again, it is also an office that you hope to occupy one day. How will the governors feel if the local government chairmen walked out on them at a ceremony in their States? They will not like it.
On the argument of a third term, the President I know and which most Nigerians will admit, has been President for only one term and he is going to do a second term in 2015 by the grace of God, if Nigerians give him the support. If he declares for the Presidency and wins the votes, he will do a second term, not third term.
The argument is that, if he wins the 2015 elections, he will be sworn in the third time, having been sworn in as Acting President and as a President?
When he was sworn in the first time as a President, he was sworn in to complete somebody’s tenure. Are you saying that he should do only six years as President of a country and not eight years? He should do eight years. The first time he was sworn in as President, he was finishing the tenure of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua (may his soul rest in peace),who passed on unfortunately. It wasn’t his doing that Yar’Adua died. What should he have done? He had to complete the joint mandate that they had and that was another man’s tenure that he was completing. His own tenure began in 2011.
You are saying that walking out of the national convention shows disrespect to the President?
Not only to the President, but Nigerians as a whole. Nigerians have a stake in the Presidency because they voted for the President and, if Nigerians want him to be President, it should be respected by everybody, including governors.
So, what do you think should be the appropriate punishment for any party member ,who shows such a disposition and disrespect?
The party constitution prescribes clear measures. First of all, if you form a faction or to split the party, it is anti-party and the punishment is suspension and expulsion. It is very clear in the constitution. But in this case, our elders have intervened in the crisis and they have agreed that everybody should sheath their swords. I hope that the agreements will hold and in this instance, we cannot really apply the constitution. We hope that everybody will sit as a family, but we should also learn the lessons that, in the future, we should not try to split the party unnecessarily.
Shortly after the peace meeting in Abuja, the aggrieved PDP members visited the National Assembly. Was that not suggestive that dialogue has collapsed?
I think that the dialogue, as I said, is still on and it has been adjourned till the October 7. We shall keep appealing to people that they should realise the value of the platform they currently are in. Most people, who are in politics, their victories, be it landslide in their states, be it by majority vote, owe it to the party they are in. The PDP is a driving force. The PDP is the vehicle they are in. They will be surprised that, if they were to leave the party and go somewhere else, they will be walking alone. For instance, in my state, if anybody leaves the party to another party, he will go alone because our people are for the PDP. They don’t care about any new PDP because they know the PDP that we all know, of which Goodluck Jonathan is the national leader. That is what they know about.
They don’t know about any new PDP. So, anybody who leaves the party and goes elsewhere, you can’t just take Nigerians to any other place. They are used to a particular culture and a particular party. So, if anybody decides to leave the party and go to another party, he may not be able to command the kind of crowd he believes he will command. He will be walking alone and I think they should have a rethink.
In politics, what devalues a politician is constant movement. I am a founding member of the PDP since 1998 and I have been in the party since then till now. The party hasn’t been fair to me in many instances, but I’m still in the party. In England, if you are in a particular party like the Labour Party, you will stay there for live. Sometimes, you may run for eight years and at other times, you lose. So, people must learn to focus on the ideology within the party. You shouldn’t see a party as a vehicle only for getting benefits and once you are not favoured, you leave the party for another party. It doesn’t show consistency. That is why I advocate that politicians must have a the party interest so that desperation of going from place to place will not be there.
As one of the organisers, what were the noticeable ills that dot the convention?
No convention can be perfect because perfection belongs only to God, just as no elections are perfect. Yes, there were minor complaints in very few states, but I don’t think they were adequate to affect the overall outcome. I will say that, if out of 10 you score 9, then, you’ve passed. You did very well and Nigerians have to see this fact. The convention went very well according to international standards. Nigerians saw it clearly on the TV and those who were there live saw it as well. So, to talk about it being cancelled, you can’t do that. You cannot have something that you scored over 90 percent and you say it has failed.
The seven governors have said that the President entered into an agreement with them not to re-contest in 2015. As a party leader, are you privy to such agreement?
I have no idea at all of any agreement. Agreements that are made between party stakeholders may not have been made with other stakeholders. Agreements that are made secretly but nobody can verify such agreement and I think people should disregard all such talks.
You cannot bind people behind their backs. The President holds a mandate for all the people and I’m not sure the agreement they talk about exists. They haven’t shown us the agreements. Even, if they were to show us such agreements, they will not be valid because I’m a lawyer. So, I think those things are mere sentimental distractions. If the President wants to run for a second term, they should allow him to contest and defeat him, if they can at the polls. Of course, that is, if the President wishes to contest. So far, he hasn’t said he wants to contest, but they mustn’t abridge his rights with a purported agreement, even before he declares. Those who say he signed an agreement with them, do they own the country? How come he had an agreement with them? What is their own stake? Do they have more stake than myself in Nigeria? What is their own locus that prompted an agreement with them? Is it because they own the country or what? Nigeria is owned in common by all of us. Nobody has a right to force another person to have an agreement with him over a property that we all own together. It’s our country and we are governed by the constitution. Whatever is not allowed there, we shall leave it. What is allowed, we contest it.
Do you think that the President should re-contest? First of all, he has a constitutional right to contest and I believe that he has done very well and his records are there for anybody to see. He deserves to re-contest if he so wishes and if he does, I’m sure that he will get the support of Nigerians.
But what I must urge at this time is that we should not focus attention too much on the second term ambition of Mr. President for 2015. We have close to a year and six months to go and he can still do a lot by trying to address the major problems that confront the country like insecurity, provision of infrastructure, educational backwardness, medical health, infant mortality etcetera
