Chief Edwin Uzor is not only the Delta State Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), but also a critical stakeholder in the party’s victory in the 2015 Delta state elections. With about 18 years involvement in party politics, he is privy to information most Nigerians want to know. In this interview with AMOS IGBEBE, he reveals factors that worked against the party’s victory in some states as well as the Presidential elections, what the people should expect from all PDP elected officers, and goes further to send a word of advice to the soon-to-be ruling party All Progressives Congress (APC) to beware of defectors.
Excerpts:
What is your view about the performance of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the last elections and what do you think were the reasons for it?
It has been said that PDP did not perform well at the just concluded elections, and this made us to lose grip of the central government. The main reason for our losing the election is based on the impunity of some persons within the party. These persons felt that the state governors are becoming too powerful by virtue of the responsibilities and powers they wield within the party at the state level. As a result of this, they started doing all they could to reduce the powers and functions of the governors. What we have always known before is that the governor, being on board, knows the pains of the people as well as what we need to do. They know the kind of candidate to present to get the people to massively give their votes to the party. They know the tricks of the politicking at the state level.
Another thing is that at the last PDP primaries which took place in November and December last year, a lot of things went wrong. As a result of this, many strong people in the party left and went to the opposition. Through that, we lost some of our supporters, because as these people left, a few of our supporters left with them, and most of them felt that they had been shortchanged. This happened in some states in the country. One important thing we must understand is that if you go to the polls with a credible candidate, you have no problem clinching the desired position, because the masses will vote in your favour because of your candidate. That is the beauty of democracy, and we achieved that here in Delta State because we have a Governor in the person of Dr. Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan, who allowed the people to speak. In December, we had a free and fair primaries election in this state, in the presence of thousands of observers. The people were allowed to speak, and this showed in the way Senator Ifeanyi Okowa won massively in the April 11 elections.
There is also the issue of trust. A lot of people, whom we had trusted, betrayed us in the election by secretly working against us. What we are doing now is a postmortem and this will help us re-strategize for the future.
Now that the PDP is obviously in the opposition, what is the implication?
For any state in this country to do well, it is in the hands of whatever party that is in the seat of power in the state. It is the state government that holds the state. PDP is in the opposition at the federal level, but at the state level, PDP is the ruling party. For the past 16 years, PDP at the state level has continued to stabilize the economy of this state and this has reflected in the voting pattern here in Delta State, at the last election. Now that we are analyzing the situation, we are seeing what went wrong, and then we will re-strategize.
Following the fall of the PDP at the federal level, many people are saying Delta cannot afford to be in the opposition to the federal government. What is your take on this?
Deltans can attest to what they have been experiencing in Delta state for the past 16 years. For the past 16 years, Deltans have enjoyed the governance of the PDP governors in the state, from Chief James Onanefe Ibori, down to Governor Uduaghan. Since 1999, PDP governors in the state have stabilized the economy of the state. Some years ago, Warri was known to be a very dangerous place, but with the 3 point agenda of Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan where security was prioritized, peace has now been stabilized in Warri and every other part of Delta state. The governor has worked vigorously on his three point agenda of Peace and security, Infrastructural development and Human Capital development. You can see that Delta state is doing well in all these areas, and that is why the good people of Delta decided to pitch their tent with the PDP.
All the achievements over the years are the reason why Delta State PDP now has the Governor-Elect, 3 Senators-Elect, 10 House of Reps Members-Elect, and 23 State House of Assembly Members-Elect. Even the few House of Assembly members who won in other parties, are PDP members who left to contest in other parties because they felt that they had been shortchanged. If you examine them critically, you will see that they are truly PDP members at heart, based on their manifestoes. The people stayed with PDP because there is nothing any other party is offering to them that PDP has not given them.
Since the announcement of the elections results, there has been a lot of defections from PDP to APC. What does this mean for the PDP? How do you think this will affect the growth or otherwise of the party?
These defectors are the saboteurs we are talking about. It is the presence of such people within the party that caused us to lose in the places we lost, in the first place. If they were truly politicians, they will remain with the party where they were made. Political parties are about ideologies. If your ideology changes simply because the party just lost at the federal level, then you were never truly a party member. To top it, the only thing they will do in the party where they are going to is to cause trouble. All their expectations from the party will be rubbished, because there are other people who have spent their time building the party to ensure victory. When they discover that they have lost all round, they are most likely to resort to causing trouble for them.
My advice to the APC is that they should be very watchful of such defectors, because they are not true politicians, they are only there to reap where they have not sown.
As a party, PDP is not bothered. It is even better that they have left, because now we know those we can truly plan with to achieve success. We now know who and who not to trust, especially as we strategize to take power back in the near future.
What is the party doing now to consolidate and take a stand, especially after losing some members to the opposition?
At all levels of the party, meetings are already being held among stakeholders and party leaders. We are already analyzing and knowing what the things are that we did not do right, and where exactly we left uncovered. Thankfully, the saboteurs have left the party, and those who have not left, we know who they are and we know how to work with them. We know the true party faithful and we are now getting set to consolidate on what we have now. For the states where we still got massive votes, we will certainly not let them down. All our elected candidates will do all to justify the votes of the people who voted for them.
What should Deltans expect from all the PDP candidates whom they have voted for? What should we expect to see after May 29, 2015?
All our elected candidates will vigorously work towards delivering on the party manifesto as soon as they are sworn in. They will deliver, not only to justify the votes but to ensure the party win in another four years time. From the Governor-Elect, Deltans should expect an improvement on all what Governor Uduaghan has already started. As soon as he collects the baton, he will continue and improve on all programmes of the present government. Governor Uduaghan has 3 point agenda, while Senator-Okowa is coming in with 5 point agenda, among which you will find wealth creation, as well as youth empowerment and job creation. Deltans will not be disappointed, having voted for the PDP.
APC has played the role of opposition, and the people have seen the kind of opposition they were. What should the people expect from PDP now that the roles have been reversed? What kind of opposition is PDP going to become from May 29, 2015?
We are not going to form the kind of opposition that APC was. We are not going to embark on mindless criticism and politicizing all issues just to distract the ruling party from governance. We will form a strong, credible and reliable opposition, because Nigeria needs a solid opposition for democracy to thrive. We are going to become the watchmen, calling them to order when they go outside the constitutional provision, providing constructive criticisms, putting things in the right perspective and blowing the whistle where necessary.
We will allow the APC to focus on their governance, so that they have no cause to blame their failure on us, in the future. We will not only be reliable, but will form a better alternative for the people, because it is clear that the APC will not last long, being a combination of different parties with different ideologies. They have not even been sworn in and they have started bickering over who gets what position. That was not the case with PDP. Ours cannot be like theirs, that I can assure you because in time we will bounce back.
Some party leaders attributed the failure to win the federal government to lack of internal democracy in some states. What is the party doing to remedy this?
We have seen our mistakes and we are correcting them to build a new and stronger PDP. In coming up with this new PDP, we will base entirely on internal democracy because a party divided among itself cannot stand. The troublemakers have defected and more are still going to defect after the swearing-in.
Word of Advice
I have learnt that the best way to politick is to be known for your attitude and ideology. People have to learn to connect to their people at the grassroots. That is the reason you see some big politicians were unable to win their units. You cannot claim to be in charge if you do not flow with your people at the unit level. Go and take charge of your unit first, before moving on to other units. Be a grassroot politician.
