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Party Chieftain, Engr. DEJI DOHERTY
PDP has been in the news for sometime now over the internal crisis facing the party. For some months now the party has been divided into 2 factions. There is the Seyi Makinde faction and the Nyesom Wike faction. Both are in court, with one claiming to be the authentic Exco.
There was a court judgement last Friday annulling the last Convention held in Ibadan, which threw up Taminu Turaki (SAN) as National Chairman. Turaki & his group said they will appeal.
Engr. Adedeji Doherty is a PDP party chieftain who is unhappy with the mess the PDP has found itself in and he like others want the crisis resolved. He belongs to the Wike group.
They have welcomed the judgement. And they are eager to move forward.
Last Saturday, City People spoke to Doherty who is a valued member of the PDP. He has been a member of PDP since 1998 when ex-Pres. Olusegun Obasanjo decided to run for Presidency. And since then, he has been in PDP, where he has held key positions like Zonal Organising Secretary, Zonal Financial Secretary, acting Vice-Chairman (SWZone), State Chairman, PDP Lagos, Lagos Chairman Presidential Campaign Council (2023) and has been a governorship aspirant thrice (2015, 2019 and 2023). He is today a member BOT, also the Deputy National Secretary (Caretaker Committee).
He is very sure that the PDP will bounce back in no time. “Some of us can’t leave the PDP, because it is the only truly national political party. We have our strategies in place and we are coming back stronger,” he told City People. Below are excerpts of the interview.
Many people have been asking the question: What is happening to the PDP right now?
What is happening to PDP? Well, like I’ve always said it and I’ll continue to say it and continue to explain to journalists and friends of PDP, that PDP today is the largest and oldest party in Nigeria. And as such, PDP is supposed to go through all the vigour, all the ups and downs, all the hurdles of creating a better democracy for Nigeria.
And as such, today you have PDP that was managed very well from the beginning and it has gone down in terms of its management. What do I mean by this? It has been mismanaged for a couple of years and what you see now is the result of mismanaging the people, the authority, the internal democracy and violation of the constitution that’s supposed to guide everybody. Now, one of the pitfalls that PDP had created for itself is this, the creation of the Governor’s Forum.
The Governor’s Forum now became the Party and the Party structure itself now became submissive to the Governor’s Forum and all we needed was a situation whereby one or two governors or three governors believed that they could control by imposition, by subjecting people to ridicule, by lying on people, by creating a situation where the governor buys all the forms for an entire zone. This is unheard of. And you can fact check me, a Seyi Makinde buying the forms for the whole six states of the Southwest zone.
I’m buying only one form and making sure that no one is able to buy another form. This is the kind of brazen disregard for authority, disregard and abuse of office and disregard for the Constitution of the People’s Democratic Party. Now, in trying to make illegality legal, okay, they have created a situation whereby they executed the same thing, the same illegality against a sitting governor that is strong enough to fight back.
They also did it to a gentleman who is a top member of the party, Sule Lamido, who wanted to buy a form to contest for national chairman and could not get it because Seyi Makinde had given it to Turaki. Seyi Makinde did not allow anybody to buy a form for even the national secretary because he had given it to Arapaja. They say they are appealing I don’t know what they want to go and do or what they want to go and say at the Appeal court. The only thing they are saying, I can tell you, because I heard him talk on TV yesterday, the only thing they’re saying to defend themselves is that Oh, the Supreme Court has said that the party affair is a party affair and the judiciary should not meddle with a party affair.
No, that is not what the Supreme Court said because the Supreme Court cannot say that yes, we cannot legally, step in into a political party’s management if the political party is not going by the rules of its own Constitution. There should be a Checks and balances.
So when lawyers or when the legal luminaries talk about Supreme Court judgments and political parties, it is clear that the fact that you cannot just do anything you like in the political party just because the Supreme Court said this or said that. No, you cannot form illegality or go against the Constitution of your party just because the Supreme Court said it is anything that happens in the political party is for the political party to look at.
What next now, from your own faction?
What’s next, is that now that the judgement has come in yesterday, okay, we have already fixed a meeting for the BOT. So that’s going to come up sometime this week.
We have fixed a meeting also for the NEC. That’s going to come up sometime this week. You understand? And the NWC is going to meet.
I think the road is open. They are going to go to Appeal. But the thing is that you cannot say, you’re going to ask for a stay of appeal and obviously stay of execution.
Do you understand? Yes, they’re going to do all that. Excuse me. But the fact still lies in that the court has decided.
The court has taken a decision. And the decision is final. Until another court overturns the decision.
That means the appeal court, you have to wait for the appeal court’s decision to overtone this particular act. In the meantime, there is only one party. There’s only one Executive committee.
There’s only one national chairman. There’s only one national secretary. You understand? There are no factions anymore in the People’s Democratic Party.
The court has already said the Turaku-led exco must not parade themselves with those positions anymore. So if they go anywhere today and they parade themselves, you understand, by calling themselves national chairman or national Publicity secretary or national secretary, then we will go ahead and advise our lawyers to institute a Form 48. And then later if they continue, we slam them with a Form 49, which will be committed to prison since they are going against the decision of the court.
It’s a simple thing. We all have to be legally guided. And at this particular time, let us be legally guided.
You know, so that is basically it. There have been quite a lot of things there.
They suspended a lot of people. You understand? And I don’t see why they shouldn’t also be suspended.
There are those who feel that part of the crisis rocking PDP is that it’s deliberate, it’s meant to make sure that the PDP is not strong enough to tackle APC and as we approach 2027 elections and that it’s also to keep the party the way it is now and all that, what do you say to that?
Well, you will agree with me that people will always talk, you understand, people will always talk and I believe that it is all towards them just trying to make good something that is already bad, you understand, you know. At the end of the day, it is simple. If you have not done the right thing, then why are you talking about anything to do with somebody is trying to do this or do that or whatever, you understand.
It is true that the PDPs Democratic Party since Ayus time, you understand, have not been following internal democracy. That is the major issue. They haven’t been following internal democracy and as such, you understand, the product of that is exactly what we are seeing today, you understand.
So let us take it that the wall, the loser cannot get into a wall except that wall is cracked, you understand. So if the war is not cracked, how will anybody be able to get in? Even if someone gets in, then it is your fault why the person has been able to get in.
Won’t the defection of many of your members to parties like APC and Accord Party and Co, weaken the PDP?
Thank you, for that question, Seye. You understand, a lot of people have asked me this question and I think when we look at it in its real sense, what are we in politics for? Is it for the party or it is to deliver the dividends of democracy to the people? Is it about the people? Is it about Nigeria? Is it about PDP or the party or your political party? Or my political party or myself? I think the answer is not far-fetched. The answer to this is that Democracy is in Nigeria to stay, that’s number one.
Number two is that democracy, political parties, governance should be about the People. Yes, PDP can be a scapegoat. PDP can even be sacrificed.
For what? For Nigeria to grow. In Nigeria today, Seye, we have close to 18 political parties. Let’s go back, 18 political parties and I believe that each of the presidents for the past 26-27 years have come as presidents for a purpose in the democratic history of this country.
Obasanjo led the presidents. to be the first president during this democratic season. Now, Yar Adua came next.
Goodluck Jonathan came next. They all had a purpose. Buhari came next.
He had, no matter how bad he was, he had his own purpose. Because then, during Buhari’s time, we saw some certain things that we had never seen in the north that had been covered up. Now, instead of a war to ravage out of the north, we’re able to see pockets of Boko Haram, with ISIS, Fulani, and all those things, which are being curtailed within a space in the north.
Now, because of the presence of these rebels, we now see a situation whereby the North is now being focused militarily, both by Nigeria and by the international community. Buhari created that situation. Now, Bola Ahmed Tinubu has come into the political space.
Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been a senator. Bonat Amed Tinubu has been a civil rights fighter. Tinubu has been a two-time governor of the biggest economy in Nigeria, which is Lagos State.
Bola Ahmed Tinubu has now, before being president, also single-handedly installed a President in this country. In that man, you can see a lot of traits.
