The National Publicity Secretary of the Caretaker Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party, Dr. Adedayo Adeyeye, in this interview with ADELEKE ADESANYA, bares his mind on the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration, concluding that the government has nothing to show for its almost two years of existence, except running the affairs of the country on the template left behind by former President Goodluck Jonathan. The former Minister of State for Works under the Jonathan administration also says that the pronouncement of the Supreme Court on the national chairmanship of the PDP would determine the decision to be taken by the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led caretaker committee on the proposed mega party. Excerpts:
The Appeal Court recently declared Senator Ali Modu Sheriff as the substantive national chairman of the PDP. But shortly after this, your faction convened a meeting and took the matter to the Supreme Court. Why did you take this step?
Well, as I speak with you, every organ in the Peoples Democratic Party is not in support of Ali Modu Sheriff as the National Chairman of our party. In the meeting that we held, every organ in the party, starting from the Governors’ Forum, to the lawmakers, former ministers, Okorocha’s outbursts confirm Sheriff as tool for destroying PDP – Adeyeye former lawmakers, state chairmen of our party nationwide and others, were in support of Ahmed Makarfi as the leader of the party, being the chairman of the National Caretaker Committee. And I would like to tell every supporter of our great party that the PDP is one. The current challenge is just temporary, which we will soon surmount and put behind us. We are one united party and we will continue with the struggle. On the judgment of the Appeal Court, we are going to the Supreme Court to get a better judgement. For this, I would like to tell every leader of the party to go back to their various duty posts and continue their good work. I am assuring that this is just a minor setback and by the grace of God, we will bounce back and gain our position once again at the centre in 2019.
Reports say former President Goodluck Jonathan has now identified with Sheriff, following his affirmation as PDP National Chairman by the Appeal Court. What is your take on this?
I don’t believe in that and I don’t see any implication of that. Former President Jonathan is an elder statesman. Of course, he is ready to welcome anybody who wants to feed from his wealth of experience, having governed the country for years.
His arms are open to everyone, even from the All Progressives Congress. So, the mere fact that he visited Senator Sheriff was not an indication that he has pitched his tent with him, because he also had a meeting with Senator Markarfi about the same day. And we didn’t see it as a big deal, except for Sheriff who has decided to make a big deal out of the visit by shouting all over the media.
I believe that former President Jonathan, who I worked with as a minister, will never take a side in the issue going on in our party. Instead, he will be finding ways to settle the case so that the party will bounce back. He will never team up with Sheriff. As an elder states man; he is free to dialogue with anyone.
Sheriff said PDP elders begged him to become the party chairman before the crisis. What’s your reaction to this claim?
If the leaders of the party begged you to become the chairman of the party and you are not interested, why did you accept? Now that you have accepted and they said they don’t want you again, why don’t you keep quiet and leave the office? Why do you want to hold the party to ransom? Ninety-nine per cent of the party say they don’t want you, yet you decide to lord yourself over them.
It means you don’t have the interest of the party at heart. And people should not take whatever Sheriff says seriously. You said you were not interested in the chairmanship position and yet you imposed yourself on the people, even when your tenure expired, and you have also been removed by a convention.
He should go, and allow peace in this party. People should be able to read between the lines and know that Sheriff has only come to destroy our party.
There is speculation that your faction of the PDP may be considering merging with the proposed mega party as an alternative, if the on-going crisis is not resolved on time. How true is this speculation?
The only decision we have taken now is to appeal to the Supreme Court; outside that, no other decision has been taken. When we get to that bridge, that is, judgement of the Supreme Court, then we will know the next option to take.
The Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, has called on Makarfi to accept the Appeal Court ruling, which declared Sheriff the PDP National Chairman, to allow democracy reign in the country. Do you agree with him on this?
Okorocha is known to be a rude and unorganised person. What is his business with our party? He is a member of APC, not PDP. Who is he to advise Makarfi on the judgement of the Appeal Court? Hasn’t Markarfi the right to appeal at the Supreme Court? After all, judgement was given at the Federal High Court in Port Hacourt and Sheriff exercised his right by going to the Appeal Court. Why did Okorocha not appeal to Sheriff not to appeal then? Why is it that now he is interfering in our matter, that Makarfi should respect the Appeal Court ruling? I think that statement was made in bad faith and it also showed the hand of APC in the crisis we have been battling with in this party. They are doing this because they know that Sheriff will not be a credible opposition to the ruling party. Since this crisis started, have you seen Sheriff making any statement against the ruling party? He has never spoken against this government. So, it shows that they are working hand-in-hand. Sheriff is being used to destabilise PDP, and Okorocha has just confirmed it.
Can you expatiate on this?
He doesn’t need to merge PDP with APC. All he will do is to make PDP comatose in order to be a very weak opposition, that’s all and that is what APC sponsored him to come and do in our party so that they can render PDP useless and that is what he is helping them to achieve.
What is your assessment of acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, in handling the affairs of the country since President Muhammadu Buhari began his medical vacation?
Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has been so commendable since the President went on vacation. Even if we are the opposition party, that doesn’t mean we should not commend what is done right by the party in government. We have seen that Prof. Osinbajo has been reaching out to communities in the country and reducing tension in the country with various measures. We know that Osinbajo is a very good and capable person and a person who has the fear of God in what he is doing. So, whoever moves against him will only incur the wrath of God. He is a man of integrity.
The PDP does not seem to be in support of the current administration’s fight against corruption. Why?
It’s quite glaring that the fight against corruption is an instrument against the opposition. It’s more of witch-hunting the opposition, because it is a war launched against the PDP and its people and no member of the APC has been prosecuted since the fight started. Once you are a member of the APC, no matter what you have perpetrated as corrupt act, they will overlook it, and that is the reason most of the PDP members that have skeleton in their cupboards have been moving to the APC, which I don’t see as saving grace for them. That is one of the reason people moved to APC so that they can avert punishment. For me, I don’t believe in such philosophy, because all of us cannot leave PDP and go to APC. If we all do, how do we have opposition party in the country, and once there is no opposition party in the country, then our democracy is at risk. So, for me, their move is totally wrong.
How would you rate the infrastructural development of the country under the APC-led government so far?
Nothing has happened to infrastructural development in the country since APC came into power. The only thing they have done is that most of the good works the PDP was doing before we left office were stopped and people are now bearing the consequences.
They formally stopped the projects and by the time they wanted to pick them up, prices of materials had moved up. Now, they cannot continue. Nothing has happened to infrastructural development under this administration.
The railway they have been shouting about is a project that was started by the Jonathan government. You will also recall that all the airport reconstruction and modelling took place under Jonathan. Whatever is going on in Abuja airport now, was also commenced under the Jonathan administration.
So, as far as we are concerned, we have not seen any new development. The Lagos/Ibadan Expressway, which we were monitoring, was stopped for more than a year when they came into power. If not, that road would have been completed by the middle of last year.
Also, the second Niger Bridge is also Jonathan’s project. As far as I’m concerned, there is nothing this administration can pinpoint as its own infrastructural project in the country. As for this, Nigerians will know who is deceiving who. I will just say that Nigeria should have a rethink ahead of 2019, because we cannot continue like this.
