Ambassador Adamu Waziri (CON) a founding member of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) and a former minister of the federal republic observes that all is not well with the party.? As one of the contestants for the office of the national chairman of the party, he insists that for the party to get it right, its leaders must return it to the masses. He spoke to CHUKS OHUEGBE. Excerpts.
May we know why you are aspiring to lead the PDP?
For those of us who were the founding members of PDP, we will say the party has come a long way. We worked hard to form the PDP and we are lucky to win the election in 1999, and PDP has been the ruling party since then. Whatever the case, whatever our challenge, there is still democracy in Nigeria and PDP has been the ruling party. I think to that extent we can say we have been able to work hard to ensure there is democracy in Nigeria from 1999 till date. Being the ruling party since 1999, we have become the target of the opposition parties.
The second problem is that we ourselves as a party, we have become arrogant, we have become complacent and we feel we have made it. And because of this kind of attitude, gradually we are getting our present challenges and the fortunes that we really enjoyed in 2003, are gradually slipping off our hands. It is a very serious challenge. It’s an eye opener.
?In addition, the oil subsidy crisis, the strike was also a very big eye opener, because it was a challenge to PDP. It was a challenge to the administration.? We the founding fathers of PDP fought for the unity of this country, and we cannot fold our hands now and see things happening the way they are they are going. We believe in Nigeria, we believe in democracy, so whatever some of us can do to ensure the survival of democracy we have to rise up to the occasion. We can’t remain silent. Whatever we can do to ensure the survival of Nigeria as one united indivisible country, we have to do it. For me, the time has come for some of us to open up, to come to the fore front to see how we can save our party, to see how we can save democracy, to see how we can work hard to secure the future of our party, because if things are to continue the way they are, 2015 will be a very big challenge to us and something must be done. So you require a leader who is committed, educated, who has the tenacity, the capacity, and the vision to be able to run the party at the highest level.
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You just painted a sorry state that The PDP has found itself in, how did the party get to this cross roads?
?We are still in the learning process for us to be able to ensure true democracy. We need democracy that is being practiced elsewhere in the world. I think because of that we are bound to see challenges. I think we are just toddling now and we need to grow and become matured. In the process of toddling, definitely you will fall and rise, so that is what is happening now. And I believe once the right thing is done, the vision and the ideals of the founding fathers really put in place, and pursued to ensure that we succeed and take the party and country to greater heights.
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You played a prominent role in the evolution of PDP as a political party. As someone who is aspiring to take over the mantle of leadership of this party, what do you think is responsible for the party to lose its bearing?
When we started losing our grip on power, when we started losing our fortunes, I began to experience that the problem with us as a party is that we are not even running the party as a political party. We have turned it into just a mere platform for election. That is not supposed to be the case. You must run a party as an institution. The party must run from the headquarters down to the unit; from the unit to the national level. The chairman at the national level must be talking the same thing as the chairman at the ward (the unit), that communication gap is there between the top and the bottom. We go for election every four years, after election we go back to sleep. We are not mobilizing, we are not communicating, we are not recruiting, we allow members to do as they wish, so things are beginning to fall apart and definitely? when things are beginning to fall apart, we are bound to lose elections and that is why we lost some states. So we must ensure party discipline, loyalty, we must ensure that we run the party as an institution, as a democratic institution that permeate every part of the country. The people must own the party; as the name implies: ' Peoples’ Democratic Party'. The masses own the party. Give them that feeling that this party belongs to them. When the people have that feeling, they will build the party from bottom to the top. Are we doing that? I think we shouldn’t fail because we are the ruling party we will continue to be there. Nigerians are becoming wiser and wiser everyday and they are organizing themselves. The moment we go to sleep, the opposition can easily challenge us and take over. And I think we have to run a party as a permanent institution. We must make our party supreme. We must make our party to outlive us.
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The call for the convocation of a Sovereign National Conference is gaining currency.? What is your personal view on this issue?
Nigeria has come a long way, and Nigeria is a great country. I always look at Nigeria as one of the greatest countries in the world because of our natural resources. All we need to do is to get it right. When we are able to get a few things right, Nigeria definitely will become one of the first ten countries in the world. And I think we should not allow certain squabbles or sentiments to divide us. We have come a long way and I believe that ordinary Nigerians love themselves too much. The problems with Nigeria are not the problem of ordinary Nigerians. They are the problems of us the elites. The ordinary Nigerians live in peace, they are happy with themselves, they want to work together, all that matters to them is to be able to have three square meals on their table. Let them be able to feed themselves, to send their children to school, to have good health care etc. So it is very important for us not to over- heat the polity at this point in time.? The problem of Nigeria is not Sovereign National Conference. The problem of Nigeria is we need to talk to one another; we need to reconcile ourselves, because in a democracy, we cannot be talking about Sovereign National Conference when you have a constitution. The constitution is supreme. We have elected our officers at the local government, state and national levels. We have the National Assembly, we have the Houses of Assembly, we have the President, the governors, and we have chairmen. These are elected representatives of the people and I believe every Nigerian who has any problem should channel his problem through the elected representatives of the people because the constitution is supreme.
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What panacea do you have for the security problems confronting the country?
To me, the greatest challenge a person has to deal with in Nigeria is poverty and unemployment. Our youths and graduates of universities have left school, some of them for four or five years they have no job to do. These are Nigerians who aspire for a career, for a future, they are aspiring to be like any other great Nigerian, and we are not giving them opportunities for these aspirations. The first thing we need to do to be able to solve the problem of insecurity in this country is to clear our youths off the streets. Let us try and engage and give them opportunity to be able to have something doing. It is very important for us to see how we can revamp our industries for the economy to be able to grow. Once power can be in place and the industries can continue to produce according to their capacities, it is possible to create jobs for our youth. It is very important to address the issue of agriculture. About 70/80percent of our people are engaged in agricultural production, let’s emphasize agriculture and put in money in agriculture so that we can create agro-allied industry associated with the various crops that we have in this country. This will help the rural people, this will get our youths engaged and I think when we are able to address these problems, the problem of poverty, unemployment, power, agriculture, I’m telling you most of the security problems facing the country today will be a thing of the past.
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Will this your position address the Boko Haram insurgence?
Every problem we have in this country, once you are able to address the problem of poverty, I’m assuring you 70/80 percent of the problem will go because people are angry, the youths are angry, they are looking for their future. Some of them come from poor homes and they think when they graduate they will be there to help their parents, so let’s create opportunities for them, let’s give them hope, let’s give them assured future and I believe we can do it because what we need to do is to have the right men and women there to be able to get it right for us and things can be great for us.
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