By SIMON EBEGBULEM, BENIN CITY

Elder Sunny Uyigue is the leader of a faction of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Edo State that in gestures and utterances is seen as a prop for the ruling Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN in the state. It was not surprising that the members of the faction styled as the Ogbemudia/Akhigbe faction openly sided with the candidates of the ACN against PDP candidates in the recent round of elections. In this interview with Vanguard, Uyigue gives reasons for their political infidelity: Excerpts:

What is your  view of the conduct and outcome of the last general election in the country?
Jonathan’s victory was expected and it was well deserved. For once Nigerians have demonstrated that this nation does not belong to a section of the country. Jonathan’s victory has changed the politics of the nation and I pray that it will continue to be like this. I pray that Jonathan should honour  his pledge in 2015, by giving it to the Igbos because they are overdue for that position. We could not have voted for Buhari here because we know his antecedents. He is not a democrat at all. He scuttled democracy in 1983 and that coup was very unnecessary.

The people he sacked, thousands of them are still alive and they will continue to campaign against him. Buhari can never win any election in the South and the nation as a whole. The problem is that he is a violent person, you can see how his CPC members killed innocent Corpers who went to serve their fatherland. Do you think the soul of those children will be happy with Buhari.

If he wants to divide the nation let him do that because instead of the people of the South continuing to suffer untold hardship while their own people here keep enjoying, let him divide the country. We have suffered enough in their hands. When CPC was campaigning they were inciting people. Look at the national chairman of the party, his own area in Auchi, he could not win a ward even in his village and they resorted to violence. Who told them they could win in the first place? President Jonathan should ensure that all those who perpetrated that evil in the North are prosecuted.

Edo Presidential election
Coming to Edo state, Oshiomhole deserved the victory he achieved in Edo state because he labored for it and he has again shown that you can succeed politically without the so called god fathers. God fathers have been a very serious problem to the progress of politicians who want to perform, particularly in Edo state.

In this state one man has been playing god, seeing himself as if without him nothing will happen in this state. Thank God he has now been reduced to a community leader. It is clear that in Edo state, Edo South and Edo North can move the state forward without the so called god father. The era of imposition is over in Edo state and I want to say it clearly that Uromi can never dictate the political future of the people of Edo South or Edo North.

Why did you as a leader of the PDP work for ACN candidates rather than your own party candidates in the elections?
Yes I am a PDP leader in Edo state but I want to say that the voting pattern in the last election, did not follow party lines. The voting was purely on personality.

Look at the candidates presented by the PDP, they were nothing to write home about. But the ACN presented quality candidates and people voted for them. Formerly, the god father is always imposing people but now the people said no more imposition of candidates and that was why the PDP failed in the elections. People voted for performance, PDP did not fail as a party but it failed because the candidates were wrongly fixed by the god father this time.

We learnt that the Ogbemudia group and that of Chief Anenih met before the election, but why was it difficult for you people to settle your differences before the elections?

It is true we met, I led our group while Chief Anenih led his group to the meeting. Unfortunately It was a belated meeting. I call it belated because their god father had picked candidates all over the state for the PDP without our contribution.

So it was now difficult for us to support such candidates when we had no input as to how they became candidates. The so called leaders the group paraded in Edo South, many of them could not win their wards or their Local Governments. At that meeting, we told ourselves the bitter truth that you cannot work in UAC and go to Johnholt to  get salary.

In Benin, if you send somebody to an errand, if the person comes back you tell him welcome. People you don’t know how they travelled how will you know when they comes back. Then we agreed at the meeting that Jonathan’s position was not negotiable, that all of us will vote for Jonathan and I thank God we did just that. The PDP candidates here did not tell us they were contesting for any position.

So we decided to look at the performance of all of them, we now decided to vote for performance and it happened that most of the ACN candidates had performed. We did not deceive ourselves in that meeting, we in Ogbemudia group made it clear to them. This election has taught the godfather a lesson.

I always tell him that he cannot vote in his village in Uromi and also come to vote in my village in Edo South. He cannot sit down in this parlour and be dictating for Dr Ogbemudia. The five Local Governments from Edo Central, they registered 242,000. One Local Government in Edo South, Ikpoba Okhai registered 240,000. That is equivalent of the five Local Governments in Edo Central. Oredo registered over 262,000. So how can a man from such a small enclave continue to dictate to us, that will not happen again. Until he learns to concentrate in his area as the senatorial leader of Edo Central where he comes from and leave Edo South and North alone, PDP will continue to suffer in Edo state.

But some of those in your faction have been accused of romancing with the ACN government and collecting money to destabilize your own party, what is your take on that?

The people saying that are stupid because if we want to go to details, we know those in PDP who celebrated with Oshiomhole when he won in the Appeal Court. We know how Chief Anenih led Ugbesia and others to Oshiomhole’s house, pumping Champagne while celebrating the fall of Osunbor, their own party man. This happened three days after the judgment.

We have the tape and you know that is a serious anti party. Let me also tell you, Oshiomhole is the Governor of Edo state and not ACN governor. Today we all are enjoying his developmental efforts and not only ACN members. So long as he remains governor of this state, we in the Ogbemudia/Akhigbe faction will continue to give him his due respect. That does not mean we are helping him, Oshiomhole’s performance is working for him.

But there was a time Dr Ogbemudia declared that the two factions have reconciled but surprisingly, some of you still refused to honour the agreement?

The truth is that Dr Ogbemudia is an open minded person. He met with Chief Anenih and they agreed that we should put an end to this crisis. There was some sort of agreement between two of them and the agreement was that the leaders of the three senatorial districts should meet. The agreement was that Chief Anenih should convey a meeting in Edo Central, Dr Ogbemudia Edo South while Admiral Akhigbe will handle the one of Edo North. Ogbemudia kept to the agreement by immediately calling his own meeting on the 5th of September 2010.

After Ogbemudia’s meeting, Chief Anenih called his own meeting in Edo Central, but only Solomon Aguele, the former Chairman of the party in the state was allowed to enter the meeting from our own group were rejected. Instead of them allowing Admiral Mike Akhigbe to call the meeting in Edo North, they instigated the Chief of Staff to the President, Chief Mike Oghiadohme to call his own meeting. So the whole arrangement collapsed. They are always saying that Ogbemudia/Akhigbe group are inconsequential in Abuja, but with the result of the election, we have seen those who are inconsequential in the state now. Politics is a game of numbers played by those at the grassroot is not a matter of cabals coming together to decide the faith of people.

So what is the way forward now?

The problem in Edo state PDP can be solved if all of us can be sincere to ourselves. This problem of some leaders telling Abuja that these people are inconsequential, I can deliver Edo state any day any time is the problem of the party in the state. We are not in ACN, if people can leave the ACN and declare publicly for PDP, If I want to join ACN why won’t I do the same? We are not thinking of that yet. I cannot leave PDP for Chief Anenih because I joined politics before him. All we are saying is that there must be autonomy in the three senatorial districts.