By Femi Adeoti
Former education minister, Professor Tunde Adeniran in this interview said that the ineptitude of the APC-led administration has made the task of PDP’s return in 2019, very easy. This is just as he explains why he wants to lead the PDP.
Why are you running?
The party was formed from the aggregation of individual efforts and collective sacrifices of our founding fathers that courageously stood up to challenge the tyranny of the repressive government of the day. The initiative of a mega national party that PDP was envisioned to be, and still is, was in response to the prevailing national crisis that pervaded the country in the later part of the 1990s when our people were subjected to the most horrifying, draconian and vicious dictatorship in our history.
The PDP was to help engender democracy in our country to restore human rights, give Nigerians a voice and their dignity back; and to build an open society that is anchored on social justice and shared prosperity across the nation.
The foregoing were the reasons why the party was formed. After the 1999 electoral victory at the polls, the party was enthroned as the nation’s ruling party and it went on to provide leadership and political direction for the country in the immediate post military era for good sixteen years.
What do we have today? We have a party that held sway for good sixteen years so easily tossed off the seat of power and now operating from the unfamiliar terrain of opposition due to the terrible mistakes of its past for which it was punished in 2015. Nigerians are wiser now, given their unpleasant experience under the APC leadership that has shown very clearly that it lacks the capacity to provide leadership that could unite the country and grow the economy to make life better for Nigerians.
For me, therefore, as one who had the privilege of participating in the formation of the party and the resolutions that defined its principles, mission philosophy and ideology, I have a huge burden in my heart to get the party returned to its original vision and lead the party to government to change the gross mis-governance of this administration in the larger interest of the nation.
What are you bringing on board?
The imperatives of the times are quite clear for the PDP. We need to bring to the fore, a number of issues that are germane to the rebuilding process of the party.
The task of attaining rebranding and repositioning of the party into a wholesome and well-run political organization is one that must be committed into the hands of a conscientious and transformative leader who has the genuineness of motive and intentions; whose mind is well garnished with the noble ideals of democracy and sufficiently cultivated to water those ideals into flourishing; the right experience and exposure; right mindset and orientation about power and people management; the noble values of transparency and probity in leadership and governance; the power of leading by personal example on matters of integrity and ethics; the capacity to galvanize and rally people around positive causes; deep understanding of the dynamics of power and politics, and the sense of justice and fairness to all.
Historically, your party is known for going for either new comers into party or someone with questionable background. What has changed?
The times and perspectives have changed in the PDP. It is a new order. The party has just survived a near death experience through divine providence. We have a diligent and patriotic leadership under Senator Ahmed Makarfi that is conscious of its historical responsibility and a very watchful and conscious party membership. We are now more conscious of the inherent dangers in such experimentation as installing an alien National Chairman or someone with questionable records. Public perception is fundamental in our effort to get the party back on track. Image, is said to be everything.
Are you sure the party members will be comfortable with your type?
Time was when just anyone could be arranged to emerge as the chairman of the party. The truth of the matter is that the spirit of the time in the party is most favourable to the emergence of my type. The members across all the organs of the party and the nation’s political blocks are the ones who are actually rooting across for me to emerge as the chairman for what they see as the ‘need for my type’ to come and do the right things and do things right for the party to experience a new lease of life and be put on a strong footing once again.
Don’t you think Fayose’s Presidential aspiration will affect yours, since you are from the same State?
I have no problem with Fayose’s ambition. He is very much entitled to aspire for any post in the polity. He is one politician that knows what he wants and how to achieve it. But this particular one, I don’t know how it can work. What he has done is an expression of his fundamental rights. But what I have issue with is his display of lack of respect for the party of which he happens to be a leader, being the chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum. One would have expected that he knows better than what he has demonstrated so far in the matter.
My aspiration is certainly not in conflict of any kind with what his desires are. The party has resolved to be guided by discipline and respect for zoning arrangements that have been outlined as guidelines for party elective offices. The Supreme Court verdict also alluded to the fact that the constitution of the Party and resolutions of the National Convention are supreme to the positions taken by any individual. It has also been clearly stated and further affirmed by the various declarations that have come from the southern and northern political blocks in the party resolving to reaffirm their support for the earlier decisions of all organs of the Party, especially with regard to the unanimous decision to zone the 2019 presidential ticket of the party to the north and the national chairman to the south which justice, equity, fairness and mutual understanding micro-zone to the south -west where I come from . That settles the matter.
What is your reaction to the reported endorsement of Otunba Gbenga Daniel by General Ibrahim Babangida, given your closeness to the former Military President?
I could have said that those of us very close to the General know ourselves and stop at that but I know you would pester me further with more questions. You see, since the lively and evocative interaction we had at the Nigerian Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) in Jos in 1980 when I was there to deliver a lecture to the pioneer set, the way I was stung by the wit of the General who has never disappointed as a captivating engaging personality left me in no doubt that he would always be a rallying figure. At this stage, people should understand that as a most personable and generous former president and a national leader, he is naturally one of the few set of opinion shapers that would be consulted for anyone who aspires to an important office such as the national chairman. And for the avoidance of doubt, General Babangida is not just one of the most influential leaders alive in Nigeria today but he is an irrepressible force.
I therefore have no problem with any aspirant visiting the Minna Hilltop and making it a huge media affair. That is a function of individual style and approach. For me, I do not unnecessarily push into the public space, my consultations on this project. That is my own style. I believe in a quiet but very effective approach in securing the strategic buy-in of the people that matter in anything I do and this is not any different. But, be assured that everyone who should be consulted on the matter of this project I have done and still doing while the outcomes have been greatly encouraging.
How will the party handle the decision of the South -South to also run for the chairmanship position?
The issue is more about sense of equity and fairness. The South West is the only zone that has not had the opportunity of producing someone to serve as National Chairman, not even in acting capacity as the South-South had even when we had an incumbent President from the same zone.
My brother, Prince Uche Secondus acted as National Chairman in 2014 even as we had President Goodluck Jonathan from the same South-South. It is therefore fair and right that the post should be conceded to the South-West. It is good and instructive that other zones and even some people from the South-South are conscientious and concurring with our line of argument.
Won’t the expression of interest by South-South cause another friction within the party?
My answer to that is no! The South-West will certainly produce the next National Chairman and that, by the grace of God, will not in any way create any round of rancour.
This is because over 90percent of leaders of the Party across all zones are on the same page with the South-West in this argument. They have repeatedly reiterated the need to promote inclusion and give every zone a sense of belonging.
The micro-zoning of the post of National Chairman had actually been done prior to the 2016 aborted Port-Harcourt convention. You are also aware that the PDP stakeholders from the South-West met recently in Ibadan to speak in one voice on the issue and came up with a position paper that strongly emphasized the need for the party to stand by the subsisting resolution. That meeting had most of the key leaders in the South-West PDP in attendance.
One can only appeal to our brothers in the South-South to allow the position of the Party to stand on this matter in the larger interest of all of us.
Is there the possibility of the PDP returning to power in 2019?
There is no doubt about the capacity of the PDP to reclaim the presidency in the next election. The task has been made easier by the ineptitude and insensitivity to serious national issues that the APC administration has shown, including in the very vital area of the nation’s economy.
The prevailing opinion among Nigerians today, including those who strongly worked for the emergence of this administration, is that there is more corruption in the corridors of power in just the two years of APC far above what the country had in 16 years of the PDP. I am not supporting corruption of any kind, but the verdict of the people is that this government has given official immunity to corrupt officials of government than any administration ever.
The hunger and tension across the country is enough campaign issue for us. The country is negatively polarized on ethnic and religious lines. These are dangerous fault lines. Nigerians are tired and are desirous of changing this unpleasant change! There is definitely going to be no hiding place for the APC in 2019.