By Henry Uche
Former senator who represented Rivers East District, Olaka Nwogu in this interview monitored on Arise Television, spoke on the protracted political crisis in Rivers State PDP among other issues.
Are you a pro-Nyesom Wike or anti-Wike person?
For the context, Wike has been the leader of the PDP in Rivers State. I have worked with Wike as one of the loyal members of the party in the state. Generally, I make bold to say that I am a loyal member of the PDP and my loyalty remains to the party.
There is some confusion about whether or not Wike has been invited by the disciplinary committee led by Tom Ikimi. What do you know in terms of the latest developments about this disciplinary committee and should Wike be disciplined?
In the same context of full disclosure, I am a member of the disciplinary committee of the party, of which Tom Ikimi is the chairman. I was a bit disturbed when the reports came that Wike had been summoned at a time when the disciplinary committee had not even met to consider any of these things.
So, there has been a lot of misinformation to the public. Sometimes, people who should know better are the ones misinforming the public and it muddles up the issue because there are allegations that are flying all over the place and even the committee’s work is being put in a different light from what the committee has tried to do.
The committee is still organising itself to now look at its task and study its terms of reference before stepping out to do anything. Yet even some officials of the party have gone out to start characterising what is going on, which is not true.
Chief Dan Ulasi thinks that before the disciplinary committee, Wike should perhaps be approached by the reconciliation committee. Do you agree with that and do you agree that Wike has a right to some of the things that he did that some might consider anti-party, including working against your party during the last presidential election?
I think we should situate the question in a better way because when you put it that way, it’s like Wike is the accused. That’s not the case. We are trying to get a stronger PDP and certainly, the issues predate Wike’s function as Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and the so-called comments that have been attributed to Wike.
What has happened is that Wike was a presidential aspirant of the party and there was a convention and there were matters arising, which were never settled and Wike was very clear as to what he expected the party should do at that time. Several meetings were held, some of which I was privileged to sit at, both within and outside this country and so many efforts were put into it.
Wike was so unequivocal that he wanted the party to succeed and he made every attempt to get that point out. Recall that at that time, Iyorcha Ayu was chairman of the party and the presidential candidate was Atiku Abubabkar. Both were from the North and Wike said for balance, it would be good that one should be from the South, which has been the tradition.
Every effort to get Ayu to work within that framework did not work and every effort to get Atiku to make Ayu work within that framework did not work. At the end of the day, for the principles of the party and also for the geopolitics and people’s conscience, the party went into the election divided. It was divided right from the convention.
Recall again that the way the convention was conducted, somebody came out and stepped down at the point of commencement of voting. This altered the course of the convention’s outcome. There were distortions that the PDP knew but failed to take cognizance of or failed to act on. So, up to this matter, those divisions still arise and people need to talk.
So, the need for reconciliation is necessary but Wike as a person should be the subject of reconciliation. I think that characterization does not come in. Recall also that before Wike became minister of FCT after Mr. President invited him, he took the liberty of writing to the organs of the party. He wrote to the state chapter of the party. He wrote to the South-South, which is the zonal chapter of the party. He wrote to the National Working Committee (NWC) intimating them that he had been called to federal duty, to patriotic duty and the party gave its nod at all levels.
So, when you talk about Wike facing this kind of committee, well I’m a member, so I want to wait to see the content. If there is something there, then we work on it. But it’s difficult to understand what the calls are about because it’s a thing of contest, what breaches he made of the party’s statute and when you look at those, if there is something to act on then we act on it.
At this moment we have been hearing about calls and even distortions that shouldn’t come up. All these things don’t help our party. There is too much falsehood and distortion of facts in the public space.
You worked closely with Wike when he served as governor; why is it difficult for him to accept that Governor Simi Fubara is the leader in Rivers State at the moment and why is it difficult for him to work with the governor?
With the way party politics is structured, some people tend to believe that it’s an automatic right of the governor to be the head of the party. Even in the First Republic, sometimes the leader of a party is different from the head of government. In the case of Wike, he didn’t have a predecessor to hand over to him within the party. He organised, fought and brought structure.
I recall that at the time of the election, Wike practically nominated Fubara to be governor. That made Fubara head of government, but that did not automatically make him head of the party. The party allows contests, like the last congress, there were contests. So, if you say the governor is head of the party, should you give him a list to write in the name of all the officers?
People bought forms, people contested, and people loyal to Wike literally won all the seats. But after the process, some people are saying that the seats should be given to Fubara. Does that no amount to subversion of the democratic process?
Is it logical to have a man who is not on ground in the state to be the leader of a party where you have a governor who is also a member of the party?
Yes and let me explain to you because I am a politician. This is a democracy. Let’s say a completely unknown person decides to join the PDP today, organizes the party and people follow him, and he decides this is the way he wants to go with the party, so long as he gets the support and there is a contest and he wins, he becomes the head, maybe, not the leader because the word leader doesn’t even arise.
A political party is a collection of interest; is it logical for the most senior person in the state chapter of a party, who is the governor, not to be the leader or is it because you people are benefiting from the state?
My answer does not have to fit what you want, but if you allow me, yes, it is extremely logical that the party can be led by the person, who most members of the party align with. And what has happened in Rivers State today is that Fubara has emerged as governor by the benevolence of Wike, but the same people Wike used to make Fubara governor are still in PDP and most of them have their allegiance to Wike.
So, while you would think that because he’s governor, they should automatically give him leadership, you then have to change the members because the members are PDP members. They voted for Wike. You see, something is happening in Rivers State today where most people who voted for Fubara feel betrayed, that even Wike is betrayed and they stand with Wike.
So, when you think that they should just give back, then they should leave the PDP. They didn’t leave. And they occupy, or they are the people who are the strength of the party. So, you will like the nomenclature leader to be put on somebody, but in politics and in democracy, leadership is earned. And in this case, the leader of the party is the man that most party members accept as their leader, and the person is Wike with all sincerity.
I’m sure you know Chief Olabode George. He was one of the founding fathers of the PDP when the party was established in 1998. Now, he says that Fubara is the leader of the PDP in Rivers, except you are saying that he does not know what he is talking about. Is Wike bigger than the PDP?
I just hope that as I continue to explain some of these things, you can also see it from what it is. I was at that event and Wike said ‘if you come to destabilize my state, I will set fire to your state.’ It was basically an ‘if’ in a conditional thing. It’s a political talk. If you stay in your state, because truly those people have no business in Rivers State, and why you see this Rivers problem continuing today, it’s external interference.
Usually, Fubara is one of us, Fubara is part of Wike, and Wike is part of Fubara. By now, this matter probably would have been over. People will not let it be. You see people coming up, whether on ethnic platforms or some, you know, fellow governors. These were Wike’s colleagues just a few months ago, a year or so ago. Now you come up and you say, we demand this and it shocks Wike.
Remember, I tell you this specific case of Bauchi. It will surprise you that when you used it, there was a time we said G5 plus one. Plus one was Bauchi governor. They were colleagues and they respected each other. So, when you now take a stance, and the man says, if you come to my state, I will come to your state, it is a way of saying stay off. Everybody now interprets it in their own way but that was a clear message.
Now on the comment credited to our elder statesman, whom we all respect very much, you should also take it in context. He said that the leader of the state ought to be the governor. The circumstances that even birthed Fubara as a governor were the handiwork or the work of literally a single man. At the time he gave him the government, he did not give the structure. The man wants the structure.
So, there’s a battle for structure. It’s understandable. It’s politics. All over the world, there are people of influence. A market woman might tell her fellow market woman to go and vote for a particular candidate, and they will vote. The president of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) might decide that students should vote for a particular candidate, and they will go in that direction.
So, relevance of individuals is natural in politics. That was why I told you that there are interests and tendencies within politics. In River State today, there are two blocs, which are located by the division between Fubara and Wike. They went into a contest and Wike won it all. And many people cannot understand why Wike must win. And you use the word ‘a man not in the state.’ It doesn’t work that way. The people in the state believe in him.
