Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Niger Delta Affairs and Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Kingsley Kuku, speaks with Special Correspondent, JULIUS ALABI, on the security challenges in the country, crises arising from recent PDP congresses and the merger of LP with PDP in Ondo State, among other issues.
Security and other challenges affecting second term bid of President Goodluck Jonathan
There had been problems before President Jonathan got elected, and he has been dealing with these issues. It is pertinent for Nigerians to understand that most of the problems inherited by President Jonathan were not created under his government. They were not created by him. Insurgency and crises have been in existence in so many places. In fact, when he came in, that was when the Niger Delta crisis got properly resolved. Imagine that the Niger Delta crisis that was still on, added to the Northern crisis, and crude oil falling to about 700 barrel per day as it were in 2009, there wouldn’t have been Nigeria anymore.
Our polity is under tension, with insensitive opposition. You also have a security situation motivated communally by people who do not like the faces of other people to lead in this country. Despite all these, our economy is not down; the economy is stable.
Crises in the last Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) congresses in some states
Crises as you saw in the chapters of PDP all over the country were pointers to the fact that this is the party that the people want. In the PDP, we don’t impose candidates. At best, what we do is consensus. It is not like other parties where one man will decide that this is the man who will be the governor, this is the man that will be in the House of Assembly, and this is the one going to the House of Representatives or Senate. In PDP, people have freedom of choice, freedom of speech. People speak out and agitate even against governors. People have the choice to say that they are not going to accept the candidates that are being pushed by other candidates. This has been happening and that is what you have been witnessing in the PDP.
But in Ondo State, which is my state, what we have been able to do, for instance, is that we have created a blend between the PDP, as it was, and the Labour Party (LP) members who are now in the PDP.
Possible cause of the crises
They know that PDP is the only party acceptable to the people of this country, so everybody wants the ticket. It is that desire that leads to the political heat because they know that people will vote for PDP. If you get the ticket, victory is yours. Therefore, everybody is agitating to be the one to be picked and trying to influence those who are going to be delegates.
Crisis arising from Governor Olusegun Mimiko’s defection to PDP
The crisis will soon be over. Nine-nine per cent of the political leadership in Ondo State have come together and we met under the leadership of the governor. The constitution of the PDP has it that the governor of the state shall be seen and addressed and reasonably respected as the leader of the party. So Governor Olusegun Mimiko is the leader of PDP in Ondo. I was there; I sat with him and put together a five-man committee. I was a member; we went and came up with a strategy to reduce tension and destructive elective processes in our party. In harmonising, we came up with a procedure and what we have done simply is this: the old LP, which is our new PDP; you remember they had three senators in the last election in 2011, and the old PDP didn’t get any senator. In the harmonisation policy, we agreed that the old LP can have two senators and the old PDP can have one.
Therefore, for us to have one and for him to have two, in the situation that the governor is the leader of the party, is not a bad bargain as far as I am concerned. I stand to be corrected and will continue to tell our leaders and our followers in Ondo: it is not a bad one that we have done. It is better for Mr. President, the PDP at the federal level, and for us. For the House of Representatives, you will also remember that only Albert Akintoye from Irele/Okitipupa Federal Constituency won on the platform of old PDP. The LP then won eight seats. As we are talking now, what we have done in that arrangement, in which I actively participated, is that the old LP, now PDP, can have six and the old PDP can have three from its fold. We are still pushing, that we agreed on that day, but our leader, Olusola Oke, came and asserted, having talked with the governor that the three allotted to old PDP is not enough. We are now pushing between five and four; we want four, so that the old LP can have five.
For House of Assembly, you will also remember that my constituency was the only one out of 26 members. The old LP won 25 Houses of Assembly seats. I don’t care what has happened today in the House of Assembly where people are moving. Some are moving to APC, while some are ready to move to PDP. The governor has moved to PDP and a large number of legislators have moved. Now, who has lost in the House of Assembly configuration where you had one and now moved to nine? The old LP has come down from 25 to 17. As far as I am concerned, it is the governor of a state, if we don’t want to deceive ourselves, that needs a House of Assembly. And since we are one people, for the remaining two years that the governor has in this state, there is need for him to have a comfortable majority and lead in the House of Assembly that will create less problems and tension for him. As it stands now, if we can have one more House of Representatives seat and one more House of Assembly seat, it will be better an arrangement for us to continue to talk to our people from the wards to the state levels. This is the configuration of the harmonisation we have been able to do.
The governor has also assured us that by March/April next year, he will conduct the local government election. Those elections will be conducted as PDP people. So it is going to be a run between the PDP and other parties in the state. PDP in Ondo today is going to do well in the local government elections. The local government system, being the closest government to the people, is the most impactful for the people of this state. This happened in our discussion with him. It is a wonderful thing and it is going to be a better thing for the people of Ondo under Governor Mimiko of the PDP. It is better today that we are now together and we are going to have a PDP government in Ondo, re-elected come 2017 by the good people of Ondo.