We must have solid opposition to put govt on its toes – Bode George

INDEPENDENT

Chief Bode George is the former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). In this interview speaks about the recent Supreme Court judgment on the 2023 presidential election, crisis in the PDP, among other topical issues. JOY ANIGBOGU brings the excerpts:

Now that the 2023 general election is over, where and what is the future of the PDP considering the leadership crisis in the party?

The only thing that can sustain our country is telling the truth to power, Mahatma Gandhi of India made a comment that I would like to predicate, he said freedom is not worth having if that freedom does not make room for mistakes. So, it is human, we are not perfect to make mistakes and when it happens like this that we get an uppercut in the battle for Nigeria, yes, the most sensible thing to do is to go back and do an in-depth analysis of what we did wrong and what we did right. And then clean the table and reposition the party for the future. We should not sweep anything under the carpet because it is a foolish way. We must set up a committee that will go all over the country, state by state to find out their experiences, what happened, finances, the political aspect, how we conduct the primaries in each state, who did what and who did otherwise. What I’m saying is that the party must call a meeting and we must set up a committee of very knowledgeable, loyal, dedicated, committed leaders to visit every state in the federation for their impute, experiences, where they did well we will know, where they didn’t do well we will also know. So, they can bring the report and we will discuss it because that is the essence of being in an organisation that is politically biased. I think we will benefit a lot if we do that but to just come up to say Iyorchia Ayu is not there and this one wants to be acting chairman, to me, it won’t be long before the ship of state will go down. We have to be very careful and we have to be honest with ourselves so that we can prepare for another four years ahead of us. And those people with their personal ambitions should keep their ambitions in their pockets for now. Thank God we were shot at but the Iroko tree is still standing because our taproot is still solid. So, we will bounce back and we will revisit and correct the mistakes of the past. Thank God some of us who were managers from the beginning of the party are still alive and still strong enough, whatever meeting they call we will be there. This is my personal observation and personal opinion because having spent 10 years working at the national secretariat, to me, the mistakes could have been corrected before the election but nobody listened. Everybody thought he had the solution and then we have now gotten to the battle, you have seen what it is. Yes, I agree with the comments made but I disagree with the judgment of the Supreme Court when I read them, in two major areas. The definition Justice Okoro gave on the status of Abuja because the statement is that you must have the majority of the votes and you must score 25 per cent of the votes in two-thirds of 36 states of the federation, which means 24 states and Abuja. Abuja is not a state. Maybe we may need to ask the English people to translate that statement for us. In addition to the 24 states, you must have 25 per cent in Abuja but you see the way he twisted it. The pages of history will take charge of all that. The other one that was very shocking was the issue of data transmission, why did President Muhammadu Buhari spend so much money buying new equipment so that we could be like a civilised nation? And of course, Professor Yakubu was quick to tell us that there was a glitch on D-Day and the late hour. What kind of system is that? That is the mess Yakubu made this country go through and he needs to go back to his inner chamber and ask God for forgiveness. Okay, results have been declared, of course, there will be winners and there will be losers, it is now governance time, where are we as a nation? For our party, what we’ll do is suggest to the managers for them to set up a high-powered committee of elders, youths and women to go out and find out where we didn’t do well and make recommendations on how we can proceed. If we are not careful, this ship of state will go down like the All Nigerian Peoples Party *ANPP) because PDP is a very solid Iroko tree well planted, well nurtured and yes, occasionally we have setbacks because it is normal in every organisation but let the elders and leaders of the party be the elders in the room when we discuss moving forward.