November 14, (THEWILL) – Chief Olabode George is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. In this interview withAYO ESAN, he speaks on the recent convention of the party held in Abuja among other issues of national importance. Excerpts:
Your party had its convention in Abuja a few days ago. How was it?
The convention of our great party, which was held barely two weeks ago, has demonstrated so vividly the great possibilities that the Peoples Democratic Party is indeed the party that can break and remove the various afflictions halting our democratic process at present.The Convention was a celebration of peace and goodwill. It was one sweeping carnival, full of celebration and gaiety. There was no rancour, no violence and no ill will. And that is the way it should be. I congratulate all the newly elected officers who will manage the affairs of our party for the next four years. From Senator lyorchia Ayu to every member of the National Working Committee, I salute them all for their dedication, vision and selfless efforts to reposition our party to its winning ways. I equally congratulate the selflessness of all our state governors and leaders who ensured that the necessary cordiality and efficiency that resulted in the success of the convention. They are all now the new brave men and women given the privilege and mandate to re-strategise, restructure, overhaul and rebuild the party as one giant behemoth that will champion and lead our nation towards a peaceful, unified and indivisible democratic journey.
What is your charge to the newly elected members of the National Working Committee of your party?
My charge is simple. You know there is a tripod: justice, fairness and equity. It is a three legged body and any three legged body is a steady platform. The experience we had with the outgoing ones – though not all of them – calls for attention. I worked at that the headquarters of the party for 10 years, but because it is my party, I don’t want to go out to the market place to undress them. It won’t be right. But all I can say is that those who are coming have a lot of work to do to stabilise the platform and to bring back honesty of purpose, commitment, dedication and love for the party.
Also, I want to also tell them that they should ensure that the goals of the party must be higher than individual goals. If they do that, this party will bounce back. There is nothing that should be personal. If you want personal things, go and start your enterprise or your private company. This is the company of so many heads. So justice, fairness and equity must be embraced.
People will leave their states and head to the party’s headquarters in Abuja to manipulate results and so many things. Where are you going to hold elections, is it in your states or in Abuja? If you cannot control your people justifiably at home and somebody gives you the telephone numbers of people at the headquarters and you say you are the one that has been elected, who is going to vote for you? Those kinds of things must stop. You don’t resolve the problem from the outside, it has to be from home.
Some people are saying the PDP has never won elections in Lagos State under your leadership. Is this true?
Yes, it’s not my private company. Can I be at every polling station? Were they (members) not given enough materials and tools to be able to manage their areas? It is the people multiplied that makes the party.
Then somebody comes and says look, I must apologise to you people in Lagos, when we won in all the other parts of South-West, we also won in Lagos. That he was responsible for thwarting and manipulating the results. Since then they have all kept quiet. But these are the experiences of life. I have put my total being into the party. When we were working for Baba, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, what did I gain? I was locked up in Kirikiri Prison for no justifiable reason. If one didn’t believe in God, one would have run mad and would have lost the capacity to reason. Leadership is something that is God-given. Like the saying, some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness bestowed on them.
Having had a successful convention, how convinced are you that your party will take over the leadership of the country in 2023?
We still have about one year, you know. The convention has been successful. The quality of people elected is very inspiring. But as you know, power is a very tempting and dangerous thing. I will always pray for them. Remember I talked about a tripod earlier. If they make that tripod the main thrust of their administration, we will defeat the APC. This is because APC is a contraption and a congregation of strange bedfellows. There is no depth and no taproot. Therefore, our people must work with the commitment to respect the constitution of the party. They should be fair to all. They should not think that they are ‘Mr Know all’ because that leads to perfidy. I am praying for them. Dr Iyorchia Ayu, for instance, is an old horse. And I know that he is somebody that cannot be swayed by money. The Deputy National Chairman ( South), Ambassador Taofeek Arapaja was Baba Adedibu’s boy. I have known him since 1999. All the others should just make sure justice, fairness and equity are their guiding principles. If they keep to that, our platform will be stable.
The Lagos State PDP congress was stopped midway in October for fear of violence. How soon will the congress hold in Lagos?
We requested it. We wanted it stopped because they had created so much tension. Whichever way it would have gone on that Saturday, if we hadn’t postponed the congress, people would have killed themselves for no reason.
Now we have witnessed the carnival-like atmosphere at the recent national convention. That is what I’ve known to be our convention, a peaceful gathering. The party leaders said they wanted to come penultimate Saturday to hold the congress in Lagos State. I asked what the urgency was for? We decided to have it postponed, so that we could have a long time to calm our nerves. Whatever they came up with would have been okay.
Let the conducting of the congress in Lagos State be a litmus test for the new managers of the party. Let the outgoing managers go, we don’t even want to see their tail lights anymore. The new ones should come and conduct the Congress. As you know the new broom sweeps cleaner. I am not talking of the APC broom, not that kind of broom. We are in touch with the leader of the party now in the South-West, Engr. Seyi Makinde. Let us do it properly.
I want to say this now: We have a big problem in Yorubaland. See what happened in the North; immediately they said the party had zoned the chairmanship to the North, it took only five days to bring one person. The person has even said that if the next President comes from the North, he is ready to resign. That is deep rooted politics. Can it happen here, where one person wants to be everything?
You once said that you would quit the leadership role in politics after the 2023 general election. What led to this decision?
I was discussing it with my first child and while we were talking, he said, look daddy, we need you more now. You know I just had a surgery. Maybe after the surgery he is beginning to think differently. He said daddy you spent 25 years in the Navy. By 2023, you would have spent 25 years in politics. That is 50 years of your life in service to this country. He said he thinks that is enough and that they need me more now. When I looked at it, what he said made a lot of sense to me. I am even 76 now. If I have put such a number of years into the service of the nation, I think that is okay. I will remove myself from partisan politics. So I will not be for Party ‘A’ or Party ‘B’ and I will be the father of all. If there is anything that is not going right, we will proffer solutions and discuss. By 2023, I will be 78 years- old. Well, Generals don’t retire, we only fade away. But my body system is sending me an alarm. I was a state governor when I was 42. Now I am 76 years-old. So from 2023, I won’t be participating in partisan politics and you know another person will emerge.
So it is not because you are discouraged or you are being pushed out?
No. Do you know the beauty of it? My participation in politics and in PDP has been a good one. I spent almost 10 years at the National Secretariat of our party. And there is no part of this country that will hear Bode George and will not say that PDP man. That is the glory of it. Nobody can push me out. It is my decision. You know I think I am getting to my zenith in politics. That wealth of experience is still there because they won’t leave me. Of course, the press will be there until God calls me back home. In 2023 I will be 78, what else do I want to do in politics? You know this body when it comes to a certain level, it tells you to take it easy. You can see the American President, Joe Biden now, sometimes when he is talking, he would just flip. He would have forgotten what he said earlier. That is why his rating is dropping. You know it can’t be like when he was younger. So if you love yourself, when you get a telephone call from your body system, you need to take it easy.
Are you saying President Muhammadu Buhari is being slowed down by his age too?
You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to know that. You know he is struggling with his health, he is struggling to cope with the enormous duties. To read the memos alone is a lot of work. Now Nigeria has so many ministries and he must read, approve or disapprove. As President, he hardly sleeps. How will he sleep? He keeps working on defence, economy, agriculture, education and so on. The ministers must come and discuss with him in memos. I worked closely with the presidency twice during the Abacha/Diya regime and when Baba Obasanjo was president, he didn’t sleep. So when you get to President Buhari’s age, it is very difficult to cope.
Do you agree with General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (retd.) that whoever wants to succeed Buhari should be below 70 years?
I know Oga must be talking from his own experience. This is because this job is very demanding. If you are serious about serving your people, that is the best bracket. Once you pop above that, you will be there, but you won’t be effective. And the more you struggle to say you want to be effective, the more alert you will be getting from your body system that the heart, the liver is complaining. That the food is not going through properly or there is one ailment or the other. You don’t deceive yourself. It’s the way the Almighty packaged the human body. I now believe He is the greatest scientist. For me I don’t know what anybody is looking for at that age. You just need to be playing with your grandchildren at that age.
About the Author
AYO ESAN, has been actively reporting and analyzing political events for different newspapers for over 18 years. He has also successfully covered national and state elections in Nigeria since the inception of this democracy in 1999.
