Chief Olabode George led the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to its first major incursion into the South-West during the 2003 general election in his capacity as deputy national chairman. For the 2015 polls, he tells KUNLE ODEREMI, in this interview, why the PDP is set to reclaim the zone, analyses the All Progressives Congress (APC), politics of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the governorship race in Lagos, the Independent National Electoral Commisssion (INEC), among other issues. Excerpts:
Is there anything you still think we need to do, if we are to get things right, as the election for the office of president comes up on Saturday?
You know that the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, has been telling everybody that he is ready for the elections and he is saying, if you don’t have a Permanent Voter Card (PVC) you cannot vote. I am worried. Lagos State has about 5.9 million registered voters. Only about 3.89 eligible people have collected their PVCs. So, the remaining two million, where are their PVCs? And he says, if you are registered and you don’t have a PVC, you cannot vote. Is he trying to disenfranchise Nigerians? I am also in the bracket of whom you will call the old men. So, what is going on with him? He is assuring us that all is well. Like what and how? Now, if you see all the data, all the percentages of the collections of PVCs, isn’t it worrisome?
How do you mean?
If you are the same professor teaching various classes and you taught some 100 per cent syllabus, you taught some 60 per cent, some 40 per cent, some 30 per cent and they are all going to write the same examination, because he is a professor, let him think in that line, if he is not mathematically minded. Is it fair? Is it right? So, what happens to those people who are registered and interested in coming to vote and their names will be on the register but they have no PVCs. He should have done these things four or five years before now so that everybody would have been keyed in. You educate the people; there would be a lot of information in local languages so that people are used to the system. You don’t bring experimentation on the day, on something you haven’t done before, on a very crucial election like the one we are running now.
Then, what is the way forward?
I don’t know, as we have been shouting it and he doesn’t listen. He is the Emperor of INEC. The other day he was having a Town Hall Meeting and a female journalist asked him a very pertinent question. He just brushed it aside. Jega doesn’t own Nigeria. We must know that the fallout the election will determine the future of the country. We are all praying and working to make sure that the election is trouble-free. But, if he does not provide a level-playing field, then he is the one going to conflagrate Nigeria and the country will never leave him, because the future generations will read him. I knew when Nigeria had one Dr Esua as the chairman of the electoral chief. I remember we had a retired Justice Ovie Whiskey; we‘ve had Professor Humphrey Nwosu, and late Justice Ephraim Akpata, and so on. What would Jega be remembered for? He is a young man and the younger generations are looking forward to a nation that is equitably stabilised, and not a wobbling platform.
I have asked severally if at the polling unit that if Smart Card Reader does not work, what do we do? He said those affected should come back the following day. What a joke! Come back the following day for what? I saw an old politician who must be in his 80s, making the same observations that I am making. I am not saying drive away Jega. Let him come out and answer all the questions. Let the government of the people and the parties call him to come and talk to us. We know the percentage we have collected. What happened to the remaining?
But, INEC officials have assured that all the issues have been taken care of, and that the card readers would work?
I don’t know what is in their mind. I am an engineer and the pertinent question is, if it does not what would do we do? You go to a shop and buy new equipment? You get to your house and discovered that it does not work, there is always a contingency plan; you take it back quickly and they give you another one. They do not tell you to come back and test another one. No! So, Nigerians will be so agitated that you will hardly be able to control them and their emotions because everybody is interested in these elections. Yes, representatives of the international community will be there. But, can they cover the whole country? Lagos alone has about 9,000 locations. When you enter Alimosho Area, which is the largest local government in Lagos State, how many areas can the international observers cover? They will move around in a few places. If they really want to know, they should go to where the real people live; people, who have suffered under the pressure of the Lagos State government. In Alimosho, there is no good road network, nothing! They will come around big cities, drive them on tarred roads, let them enter Alimosho, go to Akowonjo.
Are you saying 16 years of civilian administration has not paid off at all for the residents of Lagos?
They have done so much for themselves and their families, as well as their cronies. Now even in Ikoyi, some roads are in a sorry condition. If you find any road that is being constructed, it is because Bola Tinubu or Babatunde Fashola is believed to have a big property on that road. That’s mindlessness, that’s not governance. That’s self conceitedness and selfishness. And that was not why we voted them into office. People are now asking the simple question Ioften raise are you better of today than what you were 16 years ago? We have been on a bridge that has led to nowhere.
The governorship candidate of your party in Lagos State, Mr Jimi Agbaje, contested for the same position under a different platform but could not win. Why do you think he could get it this time, more so that that ruling party has become an expanded platform?
There are two issues in your question. Let me take the first one. There is a kind of divine intervention in Jimi’s case. I didn’t realise that he even ran in any election at that time because I was the director general of the PDP campaign organisation. I didn’t realise what was going on in Lagos then. So, the spontaneity of people; the love they have for him; the belief in this young man is unimaginable. They must have listened to his concept. Go to the market, go to the motor parks, go to the intelligentsia; everywhere, the common demand is ‘give us this man.’ They must have listened to his campaign, to his observations, to his presentations, and have concluded in their minds that ‘enough of this deceit from Jagaban’ because people have their eyes open, because the greatest insult on the mindset of the people is him carrying a 35-year-old ‘girl’ who should still be at the talking table to be the Iya Oloja general of Lagos; his own daughter. So, he has lost it. When I was growing up, these old women started from the little cradle, doing buying and selling. They knew the network, they built the system; they can close their eyes and tell you the number of stalls and traders in a market. Here is somebody that has never been into buying and selling as the Iya Oloja General. What an insult. You think the people are dumb? They are watching.
That notwithstanding, Lagos is regarded as the major base, or if you like, the backbone of the APC; so, it might be a hard nut for the PDP to crack at the polls?
Backbone? You see, I’m a soldier. Once you define the centre of operation of your enemy, the battle becomes very simple. Bola Tinubu is the tap root figuratively speaking; he is the tap root of the APC tree. We have seen how he has deployed the resources in Lagos to oil the APC machinery. The things we have put out against him are not new. I think God has listened to our prayer and nothing lasts forever but the grace of God. His time is up. You remember the French Revolution, where they took Louis XVI. The people just declared, ‘enough of this kingdom rubbish!’ The peasants moved straight into the palace; the same with the Revolution in Russia; the same with the one against Chairman Mao.
The people have said they can no longer bear the pressure of that man in Lagos. You are an individual; you are not God, which is what is coming from the people. And any wuruwuru from the INEC, we will revisit it in a manner that will shock him. But, we are pleading with the people to please, ‘hold your fire; hold your fire! We will have a peaceful revolution through the ballot paper; through your voter cards.’ Now, Jega is not giving them those cards. Very logically, if A is equal to B, and B is equal to C, it means in conclusion that A is equal to C. It is the legitimate right of the vote and they want to change, you are trying to deny them, you disenfranchise them! The outcome? It is Jega o! We pleaded with our people; we asked them to collect their PVCs.
Perhaps, the PDP didn’t have this kind of tough opposition since 1999 when civil rule was restored in Nigeria.
Tough in terms of opposition! Ok, you know, most of the strong hands in the APC today came from the PDP because of one disagreement or the other. The APC itself is a congregation of ACN, CPC, ANPP and partly APGA. To me, they are yet to be tested. Yoruba have a way of calling it (congregation), Egbe Olote . I do not know how I can translate that into oyinbo because if we do it, we will lose the flavour. Egbe olote; alabosi because these are strange bed fellows, who are gallivanting around that they can manage the resources of Nigerians on behalf of the people. How? And then, they manipulated themselves and brought General Buhari, APC candidate. He is in the midst of hawks and vultures and he himself said he is going to jail the corrupt. I said look around you, this is not a military takeover; you are dealing with people who are deep-rooted in corruption. So, how does he want to do it? How does he want to run the government? Is Nigeria ready for experimentation? They are yet to be tested.
When we started the democratic proces in 1999, they brought the concept of zoning, zone by zone and the rotation concept. That has been approved now at the Confab because that is what has kept Nigeria together for the last 16 years. Take your time; it will soon be in zone, because this country was hurriedly put together by the British. They did not consider the tenets of democracy. How can we work together? It was as a result of economic returns for them that they merged the then two protectorates. The size of the country is quite formidable. If you look at it from the swampy forest of the savannah region, the country is massive. There is no area that does not have something to add onto the central purse. That’s the beauty of Nigeria. But then, politically and in terms governing, how do we work as a nation? It is only through genuine federalism, everybody to his own corner but we will have a central system to take care of foreign affairs, police, military and national laws. This is what people have been asking for over the years and we are saying thank God we have reached the stage. Let them execute it. They didn’t take part in the Confab and yet they said they are ready. That is why I said they are alabosi.
Some pundits have tipped the APC winning the election; that it is no longer a 50:50 chance for the PDP?
I see, you know they are spin doctors. They are liars. You have forgotten whom they are! They can tell you that no, your name is not actually what you know it to be; that your name is Tunji. The Pirate Radio Station they are monitoring, what is their intention? I have it on authority that they are trying to fight if the PDP wins. That reminds of when we won the election in Ondo State years back, they told the people, ‘What are you waiting for? You should go out on the street and fight.’ They slapped a commissioner.’ But the people asked them, ‘did you do anything for the people?’ The South-West is among the most sophisticated zone in terms of politics. You can see that their leader does not wear Baba Awolowo’s cap any more. They don’t use the round glasses again because they are not sincere. The real Bola has been unmasked. When he came, he deceived the old men that he was the real fighter, that he is NADECO. Truth will always prevail. You can’t deceive the people all the time.
What advantage do you think the president still has beyond the factor of incumbency, in view of the integrity of the APC candidate which is the opposition flaunts as part of its selling points before prospective voters?
Show me your friend and I will tell you who you are. He sits down in their private jets and campaigns around. When he comes to Lagos, he is always in a bullet proof car. Each time I see Bola beside Buhari, I develop a goose pimple. This is an arrant nonsense. Buhari should be in the PDP not in the APC. Yes, because our party is not owned by an individual. At his age, he should be one of the older members in the Board of Trustees of our party because that is the only political party from inception that has the emblem, of the country. Yes, we have disagreements, which is normal in a growing organisation and those who jump ship and went down there, where are they today? Look at Audu Ogheh, the national chairman of the PDP, the largest political party in Africa, since he jumped to the other side, he has disappeared like a submarine. You hardly hear of him. I was shell shocked when I heard that Engineer Barnabas Gemade heading to the APC. A rolling stone gathers no moss. They just went into oblivion. It was like a flash in the pan. PDP foundation members; you left the house you have built and went into the APC to be a tenant! How can you have a voice there? There will always be disagreement, but let it be robust. Let it be genuine and you stay within and solve it.
Look at Baba Ota (former President Olusegun Obasanjo), I was shocked. He was sitting with his ward chairman tearing Baba’s PDP membership card! What is it? Have you ever heard anywhere in the civilised world, where a former head of the government of a political party would head in a wrong direction to another political party?
But, Obasanjo partly justified the action on his intention to remain an elder statesman, so that the country could benefit more from wise counsel?
Yes, it is good for Baba Obasanjo to say he is neutral. But we can see where his body language and those who are surrounding him, cutting cake with him and celebrating his birthday. Who is a fool? Bola was there on his right flank, eulogising Baba. Bola Tinubu? Baba, of course, is an elder statesman, having ruled this country. But have you ever heard where you would be seated and you said your ward chairman should come to your house and take your membership card, and in front of camera? What will history tell about Baba? I know him. To me, that was an abomination.
Is his romance with the APC you talked about not likely add value to the electoral fortunes of the party, given Obasanjo’s pedigree?
I wish him the best of lucky. You know this is a party that came together hurriedly. I said I’m still looking for the appropriate word to describe them. Egbe Alabosi ni won. Hypocites! They quickly came together. What is their aim? They want to get to the Presidential Villa. But what are your antecedents? You don’t jump from being born today and becoming a prime minister overnight. That is their track record. For us to believe in them, some of them have been governors in their state take the record of their performance in those states. Can you trusty them? On Jonathan, no government before him has been able to do: convocation of the national conference. I was a member as I was nominated to represent my party.
The decisions of the Confab, we believe, will prepare a solid foundation for the next 100 years of the country. As long as you are a Nigerian, no matter how minute is your corner; you can aspire to be the head. The issue of marginalisation is over. The report of the confab, without distorting anything in it. There are three sections: those that are purely administrative. That is gone now. Those that are purely legislative and the last one is constitutional and those who will be elected would act appropriately. I was happy to be part of history as on the last day of the Confab, you heard the voices of ethnic groups in the country, holding their hands together and singing. What other things are we looking for? These people didn’t take part. Jonathan in terms of infrastructure has done well and in all sectors, he did very well.
What about the second part of the question that has to do with Jonathan’s reelection bid?
Jonathan is now like a Lagos man because the Yoruba people will decide who goes back to the Villa. He has gone round the South-West. He will give us our dues. Let us give him the support because he has traversed the South-West more than any other zone requesting, ‘please, help me.’ If we do that, we would have permanently connected with the South-South people politically. He has not hounded anybody with any anti-graft agency or all these kind of madness. He has not harassed anybody. And he has said it not one, not twice that he would not shed the blood of Nigerian because of his ambition; he said he would rather go home. So, his meekness is not a weakness at all. It is the respect for human person. Yiyo ekun tojo ko, but because of the fear of God, he will not because he oppose him, he would move decisively against you. No. he would rather discuss with you in a robust discussion as an intellectual, trying to convince you. So, what is four years in the life of a nation? Four years in not a century. 2019 is around the corner. Let the South-South complete their term. It is logical, it is sensible, it is reassuring and would provide the needed stability that we want for our country.
Oga Buhari should quietly fade into midnight. He has said he has no apologies to the people for what he did before as Nigeria’s head of state. That is frightening. It means a leopard cannot change its skin. It means he still believes that what he did was humane and was sensible to have jailed those who did not commit any crime. Then, what head of state or president do you want to be? What will it take him to have gone to their families and apologise for his action? Has he shown any sign of remorse?
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