PDP Crisis: If We’re Divided, We can’t Fight Ills of APC Govt –Bode George
Says ‘we’ve listened to Fubara, we need to hear from Wike’
By People’s Voice Nigeria | News
A former Vice Chairman, South West of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Olabode George, has said that the party will find it difficult to fight the ills in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) if it continues to be divided.
George, who was a guest on Arise Television’s The Morning Show on Friday, which was monitored by Saturday Telegraph, also stated that the recently constituted disciplinary committee of the party would not achieve much, while giving reasons for rejecting to serve as a member of the Committee.
He said: “I have been here (in the party) since 1999, the founding fathers handed over the party to us.
“I was the first elected National Vice Chairman, South West of the PDP in the first convention, which was held in December 1999.
“I made an observation that I could not serve under Chief Tom Ikimi. When did he even join the party? They said because they know that I have the experience they want me to be there.
“I am almost at the 8th floor of life, why would I be running to Abuja and wasting my time, I said I could not serve under him.
BODE GEORGE
“We know within ourselves the various groupings that are dividing the party. That is why they should sit down and resolve the issues.
“The chairman of the committee and the secretary are from the same group. I am just going there, sitting down and looking somehow.
“We need to do a fundamental review of what went wrong during the last elections, come up with solutions, and reunite everybody.
“A divided house will always remain a defeated house. Where are our voices as an opposition party against the nuisances and nuances going on in this country by the people in government under the APC? We are just fighting ourselves.
“When you get out of the box you would be able to see the complete evil bedeviling the box.”
George, a member of the BoT of the party, revealed that he went abroad and met some Nigerians, who he said discussed their observations about the party.
Speaking further, the former military governor of the old Ondo State stated that on coming back to Nigeria, he read a report on the internet that the governor of Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara, was leaving the party, and that he then called him on the telephone to know the reason.
“I asked him if it was true that he was leaving the party, he said that though there were issues, he was not leaving the party.
“I called the Chairman of the BoT and told him that we could not allow all these to continue. He accepted and he set up a committee and we met with the governor.
“He told us his own part of the story; it is now about former governor Nyesom Wike.
“There are two major groups in Rivers State; and one is Siminalayi Fubara Group, he has his own grouse and we have just met with him.
“Definitely the BoT would meet with Wike. Once they get back to Abuja, they will seek an appointment with him and we will listen to the two sides and then we will resolve the issue.
“We have the disciplinary and reconciliation committees in the party. In many states too like we have in Lagos State, there are reconciliation committees.
“We are getting closer to another election. The party should resolve its issues.
“The founding fathers handed over to us and the dos and don’ts have been with us. You cannot just ask me to serve under anybody.
“I want us to be the elders in the room. Where will the Committees lead you?
“The responsibility of the BoT is that we hold the ownership of the party in trust and that is why we don’t do elections on the Board,” he stated.
While saying that the party is going in various directions somehow, he said that they should resolve the issues before talking about A, B or C.
According to him, there is no organisation in the world where there would be no disagreement, but added that they must be bold enough to tell the truth and resolve the crisis.
The PDP, he said, is an Iroko, a political tree in the country, adding that a former Chairman of the party, Iyorchia Ayu, should have left the office long before he did.
“The emergence of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as the presidential candidate of the PDP in the 2022 completely dis-organised the norms in the party.
“I would always praise the late Dr Alex Ekwueme; he was the convener of the G14, and G18.
“He invited the people who were from different political zones such as the late Chief Bola Ige, Jim Nwobodo, and Solomon Lar.
“The major thing in the First Republic was that the majority had their way and their say, and minorities were mere onlookers and that led to the conflagration that almost destroyed the country.
“It was agreed that every eight years, all the positions in the South would go to the North and all the positions in the North would go to the South.
“That was the major thing that sustained the party for so long.
“The moment we interfered with the process to please Atiku Abubakar, which was the beginning of the problem, we are just wasting time.
“They came up with the disciplinary committee to discipline who? I was a member of the Committee that reviewed the issues around the presidential candidate,” he added.
George explained that something led to the disagreement and that until they settle that, the party would continue to whistle in the dark.
He stated that the arrangement was that the president would come from the North, vice president would be from the South, Senate President from the North, Speaker of the House of Representatives from the South, SFG from the North, and Chairman of the party would come from the South.
“So, the Chairman of the party and the president of the country can never come from the same zone. It has to be North South.
“They then said that they only discussed the party positions and not elective positions and that there should be a committee of one elder par state for a solution.
“I represented Lagos State and I brought out the Constitution of the party that states that there should be zoning of major positions in the party every eight years.
“Since the then president Muhammadu Buhari came from the North, we said that the presidential candidate of the party should not be from the North again.
“But they said that there was a mistake somewhere.
“It was agreed that if the presidential candidate is from the North, and the chairman is from the North, then he would resign and the chairman of the party would come from the South.
“But they reneged on that. Ayu insisted that he would not resign after all the agreements.
“Those are the major issues that led to the division and I am not their age group that would be following them.
“They divided the party into two and that was what the founding fathers stated must be avoided.
“Rather than sitting down and going back to the norm of the party, we are just scratching the top.
“It is still the coming together that we are trying to do now. If Ayu had left immediately Atiku Abubakar emerged there wouldn’t have been any problem,” he said.
George said that there was no way he could go about campaigning for any presidential candidate when the procedure had been disrupted.
He said: “That is why I am saying that rather than covering up the mess that we had after the election, it should be cleared.
“I said let us look at all these things so that they would not happen again. We are looking at it as if we are covering it, let us discuss it.
“We need to carry our people along. Let us adjust that never again would that happen and we would rotate the positions.
“When people are asking us what we have for them in the South West, what do we say?
“My point as a life member of the BoT was that I learned that the governor of Rivers State wanted to leave the party I called and asked him if it was true and he said it was not true and he told me some things.
“We have listened to his side. When we left Port Harcourt, we told the Chairman and the Secretary to arrange a meeting with Wike.
“As elders, if you see any issue that could be disastrous, you must wade into it. That was how the BoT waded into it.
“I said that we must not wash our dirty linen in public.”
