Former chairman, National Reconciliation Committee of the PDP,
Senator Ahmed Makarfi, in this interview makes a post-mortem assessment of the
recently held national convention of the party; and throws light on his
speculated 2019 presidential ambition. He spoke with MUYIWA
OYINLOLA.
Would you say the last convention of your party was a success or
a failure considering the fact one of the chairmanship aspirants stormed out of
the convention ground in protest and another has instituted a case in court
challenging its outcome?
Well, I’m not aware of who stormed out of the venue.
It was Prof Tunde Adeniran?
I didn’t see him storm out of the venue. In any election,
there’ll be a winner and there’ll be losers. Only one person can win. And we
expected that some people would feel hurt because they lost. And that was why
we constituted the first convention reconciliation committee and it has been
very active, and among others, they visited Prof Adeniran himself. I watched it
live when they visited him. And he made positive remarks. I’ve not had the
chance to speak with him to know whether he stormed out of the venue.
Yesterday of course, I saw in the news one of the aspirants
alleging exclusion. Not that there were things done basically wrong. And from
one of the news I read, his grievance was that one of his names was misspelt. I
don’t know how. I saw it and I saw where his name was clearly written. I don’t
know in which of the polling booths his name was misspelt. He said one of the
names, not the entire names, was misspelt. And we know that voters even
sometimes write just one name, if they have three names; you may be Dr. A B C,
voters would just write Dr. A, Dr. B, or Dr. C, because the level of literacy
of voters differs. Still, the votes are counted as long there is a name that
corresponds with the person standing for election. As long as you can know the
intent of the voter, such votes are usually counted for the person intended by
the voter.
So, to be honest I don’t know at which polling booth this
happened because four polling booths were used. He didn’t say that Prof was not
there. He didn’t say the second name was not there. The last name was what he
said was misspelt. I didn’t see anything like that where I voted.
And in any case, anybody can type or print out any kind of paper
like that if somebody wants to start an issue where it doesn’t exist. I was not
in charge of the election because the committee was there but I know that based
on report, nobody was excluded. All the candidates were announced to the
delegates at the venue for each of the offices and INEC was given the names of
all these people standing for election. Those who withdrew at the venue, their
letters of withdrawal were read.
As a matter of fact, at the venue also, a document signed by
Ladoja on behalf of all the aspirants from Southwest was circulated by him that
all the aspirants from Southwest had withdrawn for Adeniran. If that confused
voters not to vote for Professor, I wouldn’t know. Maybe that was why he got
zero. Maybe his people from Southwest that were going round saying they had
only one candidate might have made people not to waste their votes and rather
cast their votes for Adeniran instead of splitting their votes between the
professor and Adeniran. I don’t know what really happened.
Let me make it categorically clear that nobody was excluded. And
before the commencement of the election, the electoral sub-committee went round
with the agents of all the candidates polling unit by polling unit to observe;
if any abnormality was seen, why was it not raised by their agents. So, to me,
all these are afterthoughts. And of course, we have this rumour from some
people in APC that they would not allow us to have peace. So, we would not be
surprised that something like that is happening but like I said, the
reconciliation committee is there and we urge him to think twice and take the
path of honour, it’s better for him, and not the path of litigation. Experience
has shown that all those who had taken the path of litigation against the party
have not succeeded. Not only have they not succeeded, it has diminished their
political fortunes. And especially at this point, people will draw all kinds of
interpretations as to why he’s embarking on such an action. It is unfortunate
but as a PDP member, all I can do is to draw his attention to take the path of
honour and reconciliation rather than take the path of litigation.
Having said all of these, as far we’re concerned, the convention
was a huge success.
Prior to the convention, there were allegations that you were
working for the emergence of Uche Secondus, who eventually emerged chairman.
What role did you play in his emergence?
Secondus never visited me to seek for favours but most of them
visited me at one point or the other. I don’t have to tell you what we
discussed. What I promised them was a level playing field. You take a look at
the result and analyse it, if people are alleging that governors bulldozed
their way for Secondus; the total delegates from the states controlled by the
governors was just about 1,000. Secondus got 2,000 votes. So, he got as much votes
from states without our governors, almost equal, like 50-50. Where is the
bulldozing? Where is the imposition here?
And some people are now saying that this shows PDP is now a
regional party. Look, the entire votes in South-south and South-east are not up
to 1,000. So, when you say regional, which of the regions? The entire
South-south and South-east don’t have delegates that are up to 1,000. So, you
cannot even call it regional. The other votes came from the North, some of
course came from South-west. So, how does this result imply that it is a
regional party? But of course, we know that some people try to make nonsense of
the success recorded. So far as I’m concerned, I just stuck to the rules and
created a level playing field.
Some people say oh, chairman did not micro-zone. Why should I
micro-zone? The caretaker committee then never micro-zoned anything to
anywhere. We didn’t do it in the North. If we didn’t do it in the North, we
should never be expected to go and do it in the South. We stuck to what the
convention decided upon and what the NEC decided upon and everything else was
open. And that made some people to feel may be we should have moved in a
particular direction but if we had moved in a particular direction that would
have been to favour them and the other people could have accused us that we
took a measure unilaterally in order to favour some other candidates.
So, we did nothing wrong. We just stuck to the decision of the
convention, by the decision of the NEC and left the whole race wide open.
What Chief Bode George, alleged was that what the Port Harcourt
convention agreed upon was that the national chairman should come from the
South-west. How do you react to this?
No, the convention in Port Harcourt decided that presidency,
North; chairmanship, South. Now, before the May convention, the North met and
micro-zoned their positions. The South met in Port Harcourt and micro-zoned
their positions. Now, when we went for that convention, our tenure was extended
because of interference of security agents, they didn’t allow proper election
to take place.
Each convention is distinct, you don’t transfer one to the
other. Now, that cancelled every arrangement that were done prelude to
anticipated convention in May. Now, when we came for this convention, the North
met on their own; they didn’t even invite me, as chairman. They didn’t even
consult me. They met and reaffirmed their earlier zoning to geo-political
zones. The South was unable to meet but at the tail end of the day, they met
but they could not agree on chairmanship. So, they left chairmanship open to
South-south and South-west, that the two parties should go and resolve. That if
they don’t resolve, they should both go for election. Was that a matter for the
National Caretaker Committee? It was a purely a matter for leadership from the
North and from the South. And the failure of the leadership in the South to
meet and resolve amicably, we should not be held at fault for that. That’s
exactly what happened.
It was alleged that you said the South-west shot itself on the
foot with the kind of campaign it ran. Can you please elaborate?
I didn’t say South-west per se. I said they allowed some
elements. I was referring to Senator Buruji. You’re a journalist. You know the
number of pages of newspapers he’s been taking, lambasting everybody,
castigating everybody. Somebody with low integrity, to seize the momentum and
be like spokesperson. People will think twice.
This is because people are trying to run away from certain kind
of characters and we cautioned them. When they came to submit forms, I
personally told them, the media was there, I said this is creating negativity
that can end up affecting you. It has the potential to turn off people. They
said they would caution him but did they caution him? If they did, it didn’t
work. But he went on doing it. If we foresaw an issue which is affecting
people’s campaign and draw their attention, that’s all we could do. But he kept
on at it; print and electronic. And mind you, Buruji is associated with all the
litigations associated with Sheriff. So, if you allow such an individual, going
back to where the party came from, for God’s sake, wouldn’t you think that is
enough to turn off a lot of voters?
On the issue of PDP turning to a regional party, I think what
the South westerners are saying is that their zone is being excluded in
positions in the party. For instance, in 2011, the speakership position that
was zoned to them was occupied all through by Aminu Tambuwal (Northwest). In
the current equation too, the chairman is South-south, deputy Senate president
(Southeast), deputy chief whip in the Senate and Reps (Southeast). There is
nothing for South-west. What do you say on this?
Look at the North-west, North-east, North-central also, what do
we have? The strength of the PDP at the moment still rests in South-south and
South-east. We have to build upon that. We’re not saying they should take
everything. But the North-east, the North-west, the North-central also complain
about the same thing but that’s not the issue. Accommodation is best achieved
when you form government.
Of course, no part of this country should be dispensed with.
South-west, North-central, North-west, every part of the country. PDP is
conscious of this and PDP is conscious of the kind of indiscipline that occur
when there are rebellions.
But again, part of the lesson is consultation. That you don’t
treat people like boys; that you’re going to whip them. But with early
discussion and consultation, that kind of issue will not arise. These are all
parts of the lessons that we have learnt over the years, why certain things
work, why certain thinks do not work. But South-west must be given its
due, looking at the larger picture, like every other part of this country, it
must be given its own due. I totally agree with that and I subscribe to that.
The speculation out there is that South-west would probably get
the vice presidency slot. How feasible is that?
In politics, you can’t rule out speculation. I’m not in position
to say anything on that but you know that vice president or running mate is
more or less the decision of the candidate. Of course, he would consult. You
don’t even know who the candidate would be. You don’t even know whom he would
consult. So, anything not taken is available. That’s all I can say. You cannot
say it belongs to this part of the country or that part.
Do you think the ripple effects of the convention can be sorted
out soon so it won’t jeopardize the party’s fortune in 2019?
We’re working on it. We will not tell people how we are working
on it but we are working on it day and night. But mind you, our convention has
come and gone, APC is yet to hold its own and it must. Do you know how their
own will turn out? We have done what APC has failed to do. For fear of ripple
effects, they’re afraid to hold convention. We don’t fear ripple effects, we
held convention and as democrats, we immediately ignited the mechanism for
reconciliation.
Do you think Secodus can lead the party to victory in 2019 and
what advice do you have for him?
It’s a collective effort. I believe all of us working together
and supporting those elected can lead the party to victory. It’s not going to
be a personal project of anybody.
Few days ago I saw an article in a national newspaper urging you
to contest for presidency and that you would make a good president. Could this
be your handiwork or that of your foot soldiers preparing the ground for you to
declare your ambition?
I’ve not mandated anybody to do anything for me in respect of
that matter but of course, for long I’ve been aware of all kinds of groups
talking about that and there’s still time.
It’s a matter that one needs to consult widely about to see
whether it is something that somebody can effectively do or not. It’s not how
you start the race that you will finish it. And I’ll allow this consultation to
go on. It will enable one know what exactly to do and when.
Some of the protagonists of micro-zoning are of the view that if
you had allowed for micro-zoning, the permutation for 2019 won’t favour you
because presidency would go to North-east, and you’re from North-west. How do
you react to this?
First of all, presidency has never been micro-zoned. National
chairmanship since President Obasanjo became president has always been
micro-zoned. The moment the president chooses the national chairman he wants,
that’s micro-zoning, and every other zone follows suit. That’s what used to
happen. The difference here now is that we don’t have a president, so
everything is wide open. But what has been happening before is that the
president would say, ‘I’m the president; I’m the leader of the party. I want
Mr. so so as national chairman; that person must come from a particular zone.
So, it has been micro-zoned. And the party would say ‘fine.’
Now we’re not in power, we don’t have president. So, there is no
one individual to decide on who he wants as national chairman. So, people
should know the difference. The situation has changed, so the realities are not
the same.
LEADERSHIP
Feel Free To Comments Here...
No comments:
Post a Comment