By Simon Ebegbulem, Benin City

Since after the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo State suffered defeat in the hands of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in the July 14, governorship election, the party has been embroiled into serious crisis. Some leaders of the group led by the former state representative, in the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Mr Matthew Iduoriyekenwen, called for the sack of the present state executive of the Party led by Chief Dan Orbih due to what they described as failure of the executive to lead the party to victory in all the elections that held in the past two years in the state.

Following their call for the resignation of the Exco members,theparty leadership directed Iduoriyekenwen and others to appear before a disciplinary committee set up by the party. But the former NDDC state representative and others called the bluff of the Executive, insisting that they no longer recognize the Orbih led Exco in the state.

Amidst these controversies, Saturday Vanguard spoke to Iduoriyekenwen, who is leading this group, and he declared that apart from their call that Orbih and others should resign, they are also pushing that the national leader of the party and former chairman Board of Trustees of the PDP, Chief Tony Anenih, hand over the baton to the younger generation with a view to reforming the PDP ahead future elections in the state. He also spoke on other national issues. Excerpts:

Can we know sir, why your  group is insisting that Chief Dan Orbih led Exco of the PDP should go?
We all took our time to look at the accomplishment of this exco, as chairman of the party, that is Dan Orbih as a person and members of his executive. The truth is that it does not make sense if you are in a political party and the party is completely disconnected from the people. And it is that disconnect between the party and the people that displayed itself in the result of the governorship election.

Our position is clear, this man is the chairman of this party, and during his tenure, the PDP has run for election about five times and  lost all. We had the National and state Assembly elections last year, apart from in Edo Central senatorial district where we won through the effort of just one man, the national leader of the party, Chief Tony Anenih because that is his senatorial district, we lost other elections.

Now we went further  to participate in the governorship election; I am a founding member of the PDP in Edo State, in all my stay in this party, the result of the governorship election is the worst we have ever suffered in the state. I  believe that even in none PDP states, PDP cannot suffer electoral losses to the magnitude that we suffered in the just concluded governorship election, to the extent that we lost virtually all the wards in the state.

It is common sense, you are the captain of a ship and the ship instead of sailing for safety it is heading for the rocks, the proper thing to do as the captain is to hand over the command of the ship to some body else.

Dan Orbih has never won any election, our position is not personal,but for the good of the party. There was no strategy for the governorship election, some persons will feel because I did not win the governorship primaries that is why I am complaining. If I had even won the primaries with some body like Orbih as chairman, the electoral result would not have been different because he lacks the strategy, the intelligence that will lead the party to win any election.

He should not have even waited for us to ask him to resign, we expected him to have resigned immediately after the election. I spoke to key leaders of our party  after the election that we must restructure the party if we must ever become politically relevant in this state. Even some of the leaders who agreed with me, later started footdragging and they went to pass a vote of confidence on an executive that has failed woefully. Why will people be hailing some body who failed, not just failure, a disastrous failure.

That is our stand, we feel that there is nothing wrong with PDP as a party, we still believe that the party can still get it right if the proper people are given the opportunity. This is no more the time you put people to run the party due to some personal relationship the person has with some leaders. I even have a personal relationship with the people I am asking to step down but the truth is that they lack the capacity to move the party forward.

Mathew Iduoriyekenwen

But some of you party leaders were accused of working against your party but rather worked for Governor Oshiomhole in the just concluded guber election?

If they said because we worked for Oshiomhole that was why we lost, also ask them in their own individual units did they also work for Oshiomhole that led to them losing their units? Most of us who are calling for reform now, did well in our individual units.

The problem we have in this country is the sit tight attitude but the world is changing . Go and check the political antecedents of some of these people talking, many of them are still living in the past but unfortunately, politics has gone beyond the way they look at it.

These men in the days of digital technology they still want to take us back analogue ideas and it won’t work. But I am surprise they are alleging many things against us, they even invited some of us to a surposed disciplinary Committee, chaired by the same persons we said he has failed and should leave who has failed the party.

And we said for me I don’t see any basis of attending any meeting they called unless they want to call a meeting where they will formally resign and allow fresh people to take over the party. If they say some people worked for Oshiomhole that was why Oshiomhole won, and they also lost their polling units, that means they also worked for Oshiomhole.

Do you not think that the PDP’s problem started during the guber primaries where some of you rejected the result?
It is common knowledge to every body that what we had was not a primary. And that is why I said this executive lacks political intelligence. If you know you want to manipulate the primary in favour of some body, you should also have put in place strategies to manage the crisis that will result after that.

The entire process from the primaries to the election was faulty. If there was a proper strategy in place I am sure most of the aspirants would not have bothered so much after the exercise. That was where the executive failed, they failed to manage the crisis but rather preferred to run the party like a small cartel, they formed a small cabal and ran the party as if it is their own personal estate.

In every department of the game the ACN was better equipped for the election than the PDP. I don’t want to go into the details of the mode of campaign of the party; I have always been on the winning side of PDP right from time and, I know what it means to get the grassroot to go along with you.

But our PDP executive saw our campaigns as an opportunity to make noise and possibly use the opportunity of being there to have assess to other PDP governors in terms of contracts and all that. Without thinking of the feelings of the people at the grassroot who are going to vote for you. The truth is that the Edo electorate looked at PDP as an elitist party and that was why we lost the election.

Are you one of those also calling on Chief Tony Anenih to hands off the running of the party to allow the younger ones to take over?

Well, honestly I agree with those that believe that there should be change of baton in the state PDP. I remember the last time we did that last congress that led to the emergence of this Exco, Chief Anenih made it clear that they were going to hand over to the younger generation to run the party. And what we are saying now is that they should allow us decide those who will manage the party, they are our fathers their should be no preferred child over the other.

If they take us like their children they should allow us put the right people to manage the party, you will see PDP bouncing back. But if we don’t get it right before the 2015 National Assembly election, then the PDP will be completely eroded in Edo State. I believe we still have time to reposition the party.

But don’t you think it is still going to be difficult for the PDP having performing governor in the person of Oshiomhole leading the ACN?

You should also realize that no matter how well Oshiomhole performs, he is never going to contest for a third term because it is against the constitution. So I see beyond Oshiomhole as an individual. Yes,the power of the incumbent is always strong in politics but in elections too, we have seen where an incumbent was defeated flat in his state. Before 2007 if they had told you that another party will take over Edo State you would not have believed. But today another strong party has taken over. Look Imo, Ondo and other states.

In politics every thing is possible.So I don’t see Oshiomhole’s performance as some thing that will permanently kill the PDP in Edo State, all we need is good leadership. And that good leadership must be mindful that by 2016 any body that is going to be considered by the people will be based on the person’s personal antecedents and not really party.

Even when Obasanjo was doing well as President, people were still contesting the presidency with him. So,I don’t believe that it is impossible for the PDP to bounce back no matter the achievements of Oshiomhole, if the PDP leadership hands the party over to the right people things will change.

2015 and President Jonathan
I believe that every body in this country has the right to aspire to lead this country. I believe that we must allow the right people to lead the country irrespective of the zone the person comes from. If  Nigeria must grow, we must go beyond those ethnic sentiments.

Any Northerner who is agitating that power must shift to the North just because of power shift will be making a mistake. I think Jonathan is doing well as a President and I don’t see any reason why people will be agitating that he must step down and allow some one else to run. If a Northerner is contesting election and we know that the Northerner has what it takes to lead Nigeria, we will support the Northerner. But I will not vote for some body because of his geographical zone,but on the antecedents of the person.

I am aware that people are blaming Jonathan on the issue of security but I don’t think he is weak as people are saying. What I see is that the man does not want to drag this country into war. For instance when we hear the agitations of these Boko Haram people, it is stupid, you hear saying that if Jonathan wants to contest again as President he should become a Muslim. That is madness.

However,I believe that there are persons who have vowed to frustrate Jonathan because the Presidency did not come from the North. I honestly think that the President does not want to drag this country into war because there have been several predictions that Nigeria will break and he does not want such to happen. I believe that it is one of the challenges facing this administration and I think we will overcome it.

The President has the capacity to order the army to be more brutal on these people but he does not want to kill the same people he is leading. People should also know that this is not a military regime but a civilian government under the watchful eyes of a full legislative body. So it will be unfair to say that the President is weak, he is doing the best he can in this situation and he does not want to play into the hands of those who want Nigeria to break.