Hon. Fort Ifeanyi Dike, who represents Ihiala
Federal Constituency of Anambra State in the
House of Representatives, is the House
Committee chairman on Inter and Intra Party
Relations. An engineer by profession, he is
also a member of the Peoples Democratic
Party, PDP. Unlike some of his colleagues who
had pitched their tent with the “new PDP”
following the crisis in the ruling party, he has
not yet taken position. He however told
Vanguard in this interview that President
Goodluck Jonathan’s second term ambition is
the cause of the crisis in the party. Excerpts:
BY Levinus Nwabughiogu
No one expected that the PDP crisis would
assume the dimension it assumed in the
House of Representatives. Do you think that
your colleagues made the right call in joining
the new PDP?
One will be politically naïve not to expect what
is happening. You know in most states
whether we like it or not; and that is one of
the distortions in our current democratic
dispensation, most of the people who came to
the National Assembly came with the goodwill
of the governors. The governors were
dominant in giving them tickets in the
parties. Lack of internal party democracy is
one of the things my committee is fighting. So,
you found out that the governors were
instrumental in getting them to the National
Assembly.
So, in return, most members of the National
Assembly owe allegiance to the governors who
helped them. So, in a scenario where the
governors are taking sides or joining a
particular faction, you would naturally expect
that they will take as many members of the
National Assembly from their state as
possible except those who were helped by the
Presidency or who have developed rapport
with the Presidency or the national PDP,
otherwise.
Don’t you think staging a walkout on the
President on a day of a ruling party’s national
is an affront on the office and person of the
President?
Ethnically and conventionally, it wasn’t the
right thing to do. One may be pushed to term
it as disrespect to the President. But you also
know that we are in a democratic
dispensation. So, it depends on how the
people were pushed to the wall. It depends on
all the efforts they had made previously to get
these issues resolved whether those efforts
they made were recognized or addressed and
so on. So, in a democratic system, people
have so many ways of fighting for their right.
And what they did is within their right in a
democratic system.
Do you see the Speaker taking side in the new
development?
I am an observant member of the House of
Representatives and based on that I want to
tell you something. All the clamour or
speculation about the Speaker, Aminu
Tambuwal is because of his direction, his
understanding of the issues of leadership in
this country. Tambuwal is not out to merely
promote the party, PDP that he belongs rather
he is concerned about the welfare of the
Nigerian masses.
So, what
drives him is
the
improvement in the condition of the masses of
Nigeria. In doing that, he now finds critical
those acts of omission or commission by the
ruling party. So, as far as I understand
Tambuwal, he is not pro this person or anti
this party. He is not pro-APC or Pro-new PDP
or anti-PDP.
Where do you belong, new or old PDP?
Personally, I am an agent of change. Without
necessary being of new PDP or old PDP, I am
not a member of the new PDP yet. And it may
not be on my cap to join immediately. I will
prefer to stay in the old PDP. But I must make
this observation. Nigeria requires change. As
the Chairman of the House Committee on Inter
and Intra Party Relations, I recognize that
political parties in Nigeria including the PDP
need to undergo radical changes and
reforms. The way they are going about their
affairs are not in consonance with the ethic,
spirit and modalities of an ideal democratic
system.
Do you think the centre will still hold for PDP?
To me, it is clearly an issue of 2015. People
have interest, both the current President and
other people; they have interest to become
President. That is the issue. Each group, each
faction, each person will try to put in place
condition that will suit and advance his own
ambition. In spite of reconciliation efforts,
unless certain issues are addressed, they will
come to nothing.
The issues that need to be addressed are: Is
the President going for a second term? If the
President is not going for a second term, all
these issues will not arise. If the President
deems it right to go for a second term,
naturally, he will now have the interest to
retain a Chairman that will promote his
interest in the party primary. So, it is expected
that he will try to retain the present chairman
or have in place, a chairman that will be loyal
to him when the presidential primaries come.
Now, if he makes the mistake of removing the
chairman or in the pursuit of peace, give away
the party’s structure to other people who also
want to be President, he will be doing himself
in. So, he will never give up if he is politically
wise. He will now try to hold the old PDP as
much as possible and the only condition he
will yield to will be to now try to make
cosmetic efforts but ensuring that nothing will
affect his presidential ambition in 2015.
On the other hand, the other people too who
want to be President know that if they don’t
fight and remain in PDP and PDP doesn’t have
a crisis, they cannot emerge on the platform of
the party and they will not emerge on the
platform of any other alternative viable
platform because they may find that in spirit
or under certain condition, they may not able
to make it in the APC or the APC may not by
their opinion be able to secure as much votes
in the North.
So, they will be bent on creating a division in
the PDP in order to afford them a platform to
run for the Presidency. This is natural. They
will be doing it in such a way that if they want
to desert the PDP, they will cause a lot of
havoc and of course create a lot of factions in
the PDP to allow National and state assembly
members to be able to follow them to the new
party. So, what is happening is a normal
scenario that is expected in politics. So, if PDP
is indeed, serious about solving this problem,
they will go back to basics.
What are the basics? Did the President
promise not to run a second term in 2015?
Was there any such agreement? If there was
such agreement, what are we going to do
about it?
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/09/jonathans-second-term-ambition-behind-pdps-crisis-rep-dike/