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Bearing on the current crisis rocking the boat of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Hope Uzodinma representing Imo West in the National Assembly as and also a member of Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has recently commented on the leadership crisis in the party. An interview with New Telegraph has the excerpts below:
What exactly is the contention of the festering crisis in the PDP?
I am sure you have an idea of what the contentious issues are. We were due for a National Convention in Port-Harcourt but just before then, there was a court order restraining the party from holding elections for the office of National Chairman, Secretary and Auditor.
A Lagos Federal High Court gave the order and said these positions were not vacant. As a law abiding party, we had to obey the court order. The National Working Committee of our party met and agreed and consequently announced the postponement of the convention pending the vacation of the court order.
However, contrary to the party’s constitution, some people went ahead to announced a Caretaker Committee to manage the party pending a new convention. Some of us think that this is wrong because caretaker committee at the national level is not provided for in the constitution of the party.
Besides, if the court said there is no vacancy in the office of chairman, then it is only logical that the person there should continue until the court matter is disposed off. That is how I see it.Will it then be right to say you are supporting the Sheriff faction of the party? This is beyond faction or no faction.
It is even beyond Sheriff being chairman or not. I am a law abiding citizen and a democrat. I am supporting the position of the law, which is that the office of chairman is not vacant for now until otherwise vacated by a court of competent jurisdiction that should be the position of PDP as a party.
There is no faction in PDP, As a member of BoT of my party, National caucus and NEC, I owe it as a duty to respect judicial pronouncements on my party. I am also a lawmaker so I should respect the law. So it is not a question of supporting Mr. ‘A’ or Mr. ‘B’ but a question of the law. Simply put, I view this whole episode from the standpoint of the law.
Many believe you are backing Sheriff out of anger over what happened at the Port Harcourt convention. Is that true?
Let’s get certain things clear here. I have told you I am supporting the position of the law, not anybody. However, yes, certain things happened at the Port Harcourt Convention that were indecent and not acceptable to me.
For instance I discovered that the Convention Planning Committee changed the congress results of eight local government areas in Orlu Senatorial District, which I represent in the National Assembly. This was after the National Executive Committee (NEC) of our party had approved the same results.
I confronted Governor Nyesom Wike, who was the Chairman of the Party Convention Committee on the matter and he did not deny it. It is not right that after NEC has approved congress results, a convention committee will change it. The convention committee has no such powers.
As a politician, you don’t expect me to clap for a development that affects me adversely. I saw it as a ploy to hurt me politically and I didn’t like it at all. So, yes, I was not happy with that but that has nothing to do with my position on the misunderstanding in PDP. As I said, my position was informed by the position of the law and nothing more.
Would you then say the PDP governors are the problem of the party?
That may not be far from the truth. Remember it was the PDP governors that brought Ali Modu Sheriff in the first place to make him chairman. The BoT of the party was not comfortable with that so also some stakeholders. But the governors insisted and eventually convinced the other organs of the party.
Sheriff now came on board and sold himself to the stakeholders and we saw that he has capacity, so when the chairmanship was zoned to the North-East, they unanimously endorsed him as their candidate for ratification by the national convention. There was no other candidate from his zone.
He was the consensus candidate of the North-East where the chairmanship was zoned to. Incredibly, the same governors, who brought and endorsed Sheriff in the first place, now decided to kick against his chairmanship.
So, I don’t know what really happened or when the marriage between the governors and Sheriff crashed or what the problem is, but whichever way you look at it, it will not be out of place for anybody to say that the governors are a problem in the party.
As things stand now in your party, do you think PDP can still make an impact in the 2019 elections?
2019 is still very far. As you know, three months is enough time for anything to happen in politics, not to talk of three years. There is still time for us to resolve our crisis and make the desired impact in 2019. I can assure you that PDP will surely bounce back, believe me and nothing is stopping us from taking over power in 2019.
What exactly is the contention of the festering crisis in the PDP?
I am sure you have an idea of what the contentious issues are. We were due for a National Convention in Port-Harcourt but just before then, there was a court order restraining the party from holding elections for the office of National Chairman, Secretary and Auditor.
A Lagos Federal High Court gave the order and said these positions were not vacant. As a law abiding party, we had to obey the court order. The National Working Committee of our party met and agreed and consequently announced the postponement of the convention pending the vacation of the court order.
However, contrary to the party’s constitution, some people went ahead to announced a Caretaker Committee to manage the party pending a new convention. Some of us think that this is wrong because caretaker committee at the national level is not provided for in the constitution of the party.
Besides, if the court said there is no vacancy in the office of chairman, then it is only logical that the person there should continue until the court matter is disposed off. That is how I see it.Will it then be right to say you are supporting the Sheriff faction of the party? This is beyond faction or no faction.
It is even beyond Sheriff being chairman or not. I am a law abiding citizen and a democrat. I am supporting the position of the law, which is that the office of chairman is not vacant for now until otherwise vacated by a court of competent jurisdiction that should be the position of PDP as a party.
There is no faction in PDP, As a member of BoT of my party, National caucus and NEC, I owe it as a duty to respect judicial pronouncements on my party. I am also a lawmaker so I should respect the law. So it is not a question of supporting Mr. ‘A’ or Mr. ‘B’ but a question of the law. Simply put, I view this whole episode from the standpoint of the law.
Many believe you are backing Sheriff out of anger over what happened at the Port Harcourt convention. Is that true?
Let’s get certain things clear here. I have told you I am supporting the position of the law, not anybody. However, yes, certain things happened at the Port Harcourt Convention that were indecent and not acceptable to me.
For instance I discovered that the Convention Planning Committee changed the congress results of eight local government areas in Orlu Senatorial District, which I represent in the National Assembly. This was after the National Executive Committee (NEC) of our party had approved the same results.
I confronted Governor Nyesom Wike, who was the Chairman of the Party Convention Committee on the matter and he did not deny it. It is not right that after NEC has approved congress results, a convention committee will change it. The convention committee has no such powers.
As a politician, you don’t expect me to clap for a development that affects me adversely. I saw it as a ploy to hurt me politically and I didn’t like it at all. So, yes, I was not happy with that but that has nothing to do with my position on the misunderstanding in PDP. As I said, my position was informed by the position of the law and nothing more.
Would you then say the PDP governors are the problem of the party?
That may not be far from the truth. Remember it was the PDP governors that brought Ali Modu Sheriff in the first place to make him chairman. The BoT of the party was not comfortable with that so also some stakeholders. But the governors insisted and eventually convinced the other organs of the party.
Sheriff now came on board and sold himself to the stakeholders and we saw that he has capacity, so when the chairmanship was zoned to the North-East, they unanimously endorsed him as their candidate for ratification by the national convention. There was no other candidate from his zone.
He was the consensus candidate of the North-East where the chairmanship was zoned to. Incredibly, the same governors, who brought and endorsed Sheriff in the first place, now decided to kick against his chairmanship.
So, I don’t know what really happened or when the marriage between the governors and Sheriff crashed or what the problem is, but whichever way you look at it, it will not be out of place for anybody to say that the governors are a problem in the party.
As things stand now in your party, do you think PDP can still make an impact in the 2019 elections?
2019 is still very far. As you know, three months is enough time for anything to happen in politics, not to talk of three years. There is still time for us to resolve our crisis and make the desired impact in 2019. I can assure you that PDP will surely bounce back, believe me and nothing is stopping us from taking over power in 2019.