On Wednesday May 29, Nigerians will roll out the drums to celebrate 14 years of uninterrupted democratic rule. In this interview the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh fielded questions from our Assistant Editor, Sunday Pilot, MIKE ODIAKOSE on the journey from 1999 to date, including the burgling of the registration of APC by opposition parties. Excerpts:
By May 29, Nigerians will be marking 14 years of uninterrupted democratic rule. How would you assess the journey so far?
It has been 14 years of challenges. 14 years of successes; 14 years of addressing the rot we inherited from previous administrations; 14 years of trying to salvage, to recover a nation from the damages inflicted by previous administrations. In these 14 years, the party has been able to stabilise democracy. For the first time, we have witnessed transitions from democracy to democracy, from presidents to other presidents and the biggest achievement the party has made is that it has brought democracy to stay. Democracy has come to stay in Nigeria- that is the major achievement. Secondly is that fact that we have improved on the process of elections and democratisation. The biggest achievement in democracy is making sure democratic tenets and principles are imbibed by Nigerians and parties, as it is done in the developed world.
The provision of infrastructures can be done by a dictator or by the military. So, on the issue of democracy, we have improved on the process of elections and the tenets of democracy. Now President Goodluck Jonathan has been able to show that one man, one vote can work in Nigeria. We have better conducted elections in Nigeria. People do not dispute it; people actually go and vote and they accept the result of the election as exemplified in the 2011 election and other governorship elections that we have been able to conduct.
On the issue of infrastructure, as a party we believe that the achievements of Mr. President and the PDP government has been grossly under publicised and undervalued. We are aware of the massive infrastructural development going on in this country. From the briefings we have been taking from the ministers, we are shocked at that developments and achievements of this particular president and his team. For the party, if we go from sector by sector, Nigerians can see the areas that the PDP has improved the living standard of Nigerians. In telecommunications, we have better communication now and the telephone is now available for all Nigerians. Almost all the people in Nigeria have access to a telephone for easy communication. On issue of roads, there have been a massive award of contracts by the states, by the federal, by the local governments and this is getting down to the people.
Infrastructural developments, building of schools, hospitals, all other things are going on. But like I said before, the biggest development we have done is on the issue of democracy, entrenching democratic tenets and principles in the body polity.
Talking about entrenchments of democratic tenets in this country, the opposition just came together to merge and form APC. Is your party worried about this development?
No we are not worried, we welcome them. The merger or coming together of the tortoise cannot produce an elephant. They will still remain as plenty of tortoise s and it is not an elephant. The fact is that these are mushroom parties that have been parading as ethnic voices and religious factions cannot make them a national party. We welcome them. We are just disappointed that they have not lived up to the billings of an opposition party. We expected that by the time they were coming together, that they would move to a different level on issues of how they conduct their activities. We expected that there would be debates on issues. We expected that they would tackle us on our programmes, show why our programmes are not good and show alternatives that are best for Nigerians, but we have been very disappointed that all we get are insults; all we get are propaganda, lies, deceit of Nigerian people.
Our challenge to the opposition is that they should move up to the next level of politics in Nigeria. Let them try and take up issues. If the president or if the party or the government in power provides a particular programme, let the opposition party criticise and show better alternative or other options. Let the opposition prove why they do not believe in the programmes of the PDP-led government. They can’t get up today and criticise the party that we are not dialoguing with the opposition. The president decided to create a committee for amnesty to dialogue with Boko Haram and they said, ‘No, it is not good; you can’t do that.’ They criticised him. He then decided to impose a state of emergency and they say ‘no’ again. What do they want? Have they been able to offer solutions to the challenges of security? What is their option, what are they providing?
Besides the issue of tacit support and endorsement of these religious and acts of insurgency, what else, apart from condoning it? What else have they been able to do? They have never offered any solution, they have never condemned them, and they have never offered any solution on how we can get out of it. They just criticise the president, criticise PDP, criticise the National Assembly and criticise everybody. One day they will question whether we are human beings, the way they are going about it. They question everything. They always criticise everything. Life is not about noise making; life is about making progress. Let the opposition proffer solutions on how we can make progress. We want to make progress and that is it.
Talking about insecurity in the North, don’t you think the handling of this situation may affect the PDP by 2015?
Affecting the PDP is secondary; the most important thing is protecting the life and properties of the citizenry. That is what is paramount to Mr. President. Mr. President is motivated by the interest of the country, by national interest, unity of this country and not the interest of whether PDP will win election or whether it will harm PDP; that is secondary. Let us maintain peace in this country. When there is peace and stability and the unity of Nigeria is no longer threatened, then we can talk about which political party will win. The president believes that it is better we have peace and stability under any party’s rulership, under anybody’s rulership, than we having destruction for us to remain in control; that is what is paramount. We want peace and stability first before we talk of the interest of PDP.
PDP controls almost 80 percent of elected offices and some people believe opposition parties are weak because PDP has infiltrated and planted agents in these parties to weaken them. How do you react to this?
No, no, no. There is no reaction to it. Everybody wants a winning team. PDP is in every hamlet, every village every town, every city, every family. In your family, they have PDP. There is no family in this country without PDP members. PDP is a large party, a mass movement. Our founding fathers are credible. They are decent Nigerians, they are nationalists and they are the best of their generation. Those are the people that formed PDP. So Nigerians want to identify with this party that was formed by these elders and fathers of the nation. Consistently, we have proven that we have the overall interest of the nation at heart in all our activities and in all our actions, and PDP has been able to perform. That is why people are still in PDP.
For the opposition, we do not know what they are doing, but we know that some people that run elections in PDP and when they don’t get the ticket, they run to other parties and they call themselves ‘opposition’. Oppositions are grown out of PDP. 90 percent of the people who could not get appointments or get elected under PDP and could not get our party flag are the ones in opposition. Who is in the opposition that has not been in PDP? I want you to name them. Right from the formation of the PDP, they were with us when we were forming PDP. It was when they felt it could not accommodate them, when they felt they could not struggle for their own right amongst the national leaders that they decided to have a sectional party. Tomorrow, maybe if they are guaranteed they will win an election, if they are guaranteed or if they think there is possibility of PDP appointing or nominating them as candidates, they will rush back. But no, we can’t do that. We don’t appoint candidates like other parties. We go through primaries, very serious primaries that are more hotly contested than elections, before we can bring our candidates and that is why our elected officers always show the difference from the opposition. That is also why when you are elected in PDP, we put you through a lot of tests. You must live above board.
PDP is quick to expose any corrupt activities of our leaders, whether appointed or elected. We are very quick to expose it in national interest. We take the interest of the nation far above that of promoting our party. If you are elected on the platform of PDP and you do not stay above board, we will make sure that you are brought to book and let the law take its course. Other parties condone corrupt activities of their leaders. They do not have any example of any leader or any member of their party that they have ever exposed or brought to the fore for corruption.
Closely related to this is question you just answered is this insinuation that PDP has a hand in the non-registration of APC, by sponsoring another pseudo-synonym.
That issue has been over flogged because if they say that we are blocking them from registering APC, they can register QED. But I understand that the people that registered APC are negotiating with them and they are going to settle with them. I understand that they paid it off. I don’t have any problem with that. From what I understand, they have been able to negotiate. It is their negligence, their inefficiency, their incompetence to handle the registration of a simple political party cannot be ascribed to PDP; we are not their functionaries. They were completely incompetence in handling the matter. So, now a particular group of persons who applied first and they are in contention, it is for them to go and negotiate with them. We have no business with them. I understand that they negotiated with them and I can tell you that we don’t have any problem with that. They are free to answer APC; they are free to answer QED. In fact, if they like they can answer PHD, we are waiting for them in 2015 election.
The founders of PDP had a vision of establishing a very strong party and that was why they set up the PDI (People’s Democratic Institute). But it look like your party is under-utilising that institute.
I can inform you that the party is in the process of appointing a new Director General for PDI. The national chairman has a vision on what he intends the PDI to be and how he wants to get them active. Let me assure you that from the end of the third quarter, you will see a brand new, revitalised PDI in operations in Nigeria. They are going to be active in promoting party interests and party positions on all matters, especially in organising seminars and making sure that our people are more knowledgeable on party affairs and organisation of the party.
Taking a cue from what you said on corruption, Nigerians are worried that in spite of the fight against corruption, it keeps rising every day. What is the party doing to stem the rise?
Past administrations entrenched corruption in Nigeria. Under the past administrations, the teachers became corrupt, doctors became corrupt, the mechanic became corrupt, drivers became corrupt, gatemen became corrupt, corruption even entered the church and corruption is everywhere. But the party has taken deliberate policies and process to ensure that we always bring out the issue of corruption. When we start talking about and exposing corrupt people, it will start coming down. In the history of this country, corruption has never been in the front burner as to how PDP has made it to be. It is the People’s Democratic Party that has brought out corruption as an evil that is capable of destroying the growth of Nigeria as a nation. Nigerians should actually understand that why we discuss corruption now is because the party, as a deliberate policy, has been bringing out anti- corruption programmes. For the first time, PDP has ensured we set up EFCC; we ensured that we set up the ICPC; we ensure that there is due process even in the award of contracts; we ensured that the police are equipped to fight corruption and we have not condoned any act of corruption by any officer at any level by this party. That is what we have done to ensure that corruption is brought down. Today we are now debating corruption everywhere in this country. People are talking about corruption and how we can bring it down. We are bringing it down. When you want to do something now, they tell you that you are politically exposed. Nobody used to say that you are militarily exposed. The fact that you read about people in the newspapers does not mean they have acquired a lot, no. We are ensuring due process on all aspects.
Does an average Nigerian have anything to celebrate democracy at 14?
We have a lot to celebrate for democracy. First of all, freedom. The ability to be very free. Rule of law is working in this country. The liberty to associate with any group that you want, the freedom to select your leaders. These are democratic principles that Thomas Jefferson taught us. They are things that even Americans celebrate- liberty and freedom and the question of choice. In Nigeria, we have it today. Then in terms of infrastructure, Nigerians now know that they have a president that is very committed to the development of this country. It is not easy to do the much that we have been able to do in the past two years, even with the attendant detraction of sectarian violence in sections of this country. The well planted issue of violence to ensure the government is distracted from its objectives and yet the ministers are working, ministries are working, development is going on is a major achievement. The president, although very humble, should be praised for his massive commitment and his focus on development amidst all these attempts to distract him.
Your message to Nigerians on democracy day
We have only one party today, only one national party, only one party that takes care of national interest, only one party that fights for the unity of this country, only one party that can provide for you and protect you and only one party where you do not need a godfather, where you do not need to know anybody to climb to the highest level, to get appointed, to get elected- that is the PDP. It is the party that belongs to the people. It is the party that gives power to the people. Let Nigerians have faith; let then keep on supporting the party. We will continue impress the people and we will continue to work for the success of the nation.