Former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chief Emeka Ihedioha believes that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is getting set to take over power from the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2019. He said the successful conduct of the last national elective convention by the party has shown its preparedness to offer Nigerians a preferred alternative platform. In this interview with WILLY EYA, he spoke on various issues.
Your party, the PDP just had its national elective convention with many thinking that it now has a chance against the All Progressives Congress(APC) in the 2019 general elections. What are your thoughts on the relatively successful convention?
The PDP obviously has woken up from its slumber and we have overcome our difficult times. We have learnt from our mistakes and we are repositioning ourselves, and the party. It showed in the organisation and the outcome of the convention. I tell you, we are getting back so early after we lost the 2015 general elections to the APC. We are getting back to offer Nigerians the preferred alternative. We would rely on the goodwill of Nigerians to prepare ourselves for the 2019 general elections. They know us and we also know them. We have erred but we are better informed now. We would correct our mistakes and we are already correcting them. We would give Nigerians candidates that would stand shoulder over and above those of our opponents in the 2019 general elections. Nigerians are tired of the APC because they have failed to meet their expectations. We are preparing to give them a better government and we are going to do it. We hope and believe that Nigerians would give us another chance as early as the next general election in 2019.
But considering the fact that you are going to face an incumbent in President Muhammadu Buhari, what do you think are the possibilities for your party?
In 2015, under an incumbent president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, the PDP lost the election to the APC. So, if we lost election in 2015 under an incumbent president, there is no reason why we cannot also win election in 2019 as an opposition party. As far as I am concerned, it is Nigerians who matter and the APC has failed to meet the aspirations of Nigerians.
But a major challenge which many feel your party would contend with is how to reconcile those aggrieved with the process and outcome of the just concluded national convention. How is your party going to deal with this class of people particularly those from the South West who felt the party’s chairmanship seat would have been micro-zoned to the region?
If I may ask, what is the grievance all about? You would agree with me that we had a very successful convention. I can say that the last convention was the best we have ever had since 1999 that this present democracy started. The truth is that in any election of this manner, there must be a winner and there must be a loser. Every member of the party is a winner and I expect that now that the convention is over, everybody should come together and support the party to win the 2019 general elections. People are just making a mountain out of a molehill in the media, but I know that our brothers in the South West are not in doubt that they are part and parcel of the PDP. In 1999, the South West produced the President of this country, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo on the platform of the PDP. And since then, there is no doubt that the zone has been part and parcel of the PDP. What all members of the party should be interested in is to ensure that all hands are on deck to usher in a PDP-led administration.
Do you agree with those who argue that the major challenge of your party would be how to select the presidential candidate that would fly its flag?
I do not know who would emerge the presidential candidate of the PDP ahead of 2019, but what I know is that the party has zoned the position to the Northern part of the country. As for who would emerge the PDP presidential candidate, we would wait and watch who that person would be. Those interested in the position would go through the normal process in the party’s primaries. The truth is that our doors are not shut against any of the aspirants who may so wish to contest. Based on the process, the party would then choose the best candidate that would stand shoulder above other opponents.
Coming from the opposition party and looking at the present administration generally, what are your reflections in terms of how far the APC has been able to meet the expectations of the people especially with regard to the promises it made during the 2014/2015 campaigns.
Do I need to tell you that they have not done well? Nigerians know that they have not done well. They have not satisfied the aspirations of Nigerians. The development is good for our party and it is the justification to vote them out in the next general elections.
The governors just recently approved the sum of $1billion from the Excess Crude Account to be used by the Federal Government in the fight against the Boko Haram insurgency in the North East part of the country. As a former member of the House of Representatives, do you think such a decision is justified?
I remember that as then Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, former President Goodluck Jonathan requested for $1billion for a similar kind of situation and the National Assembly considered it huge at that point in time. Now this government has said it has battled and defeated Boko Haram and if you now say you need $1billion to fight Boko Haram, then that gives cause for worry. You understand me. If you have defeated Boko Haram and you are again asking for $1billion, I do not understand it. Take your mind back to the time of President Jonathan and now they are asking for $1billion. Perhaps, if we know how much they have spent in combating Boko Haram, we would exactly know what they want to use the $1billion for. Perhaps Nigerians would begin to ask about our priorities and judicious utilisation of funds, because I believe that we have other significant needs and demands. There is no doubt that Boko Haram is an ill-wind that must be terminated. But the present administration has taken credit for defeating Boko Haram; so I do not know whether the step is just or whether this is anticipated expenditure. I am confused and dumbfounded about the size of the request. But as a legislator, I would wait to see how the National Assembly would handle the matter.
From your vantage position, what is the best way to forge national unity that has literally become elusive in the country? I ask this question looking at the seeming schism among the various ethnic nationalities since this administration came on board.
The PDP administration would offer Nigeria a better administration and entrench the principles of one united nation where every Nigerian would have a sense of belonging, where every Nigerian would feel a sense of equity. I think this administration has given us cause for concern.
|Sun
Comments are closed.