Chief Chyna Iwuanyanwu is a chieftain of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He was a member of the Imo State House of Assembly in the Second Republic. He speaks to Correspondent Jude Opara on issues including the developments in the National Assembly which he says show that the APC is not yet a homogenous political party. Excerpts:
Why do you think your party failed in the last general election?
Well, let me start by saying that no human situation is perfect, and politics is worst because it is a game of interests. PDP was obviously the most national of all the political parties in Nigeria founded by a team of some of the most patriotic minded politicians the country can boast of who came together to fight the military government so that democracy can come to Nigeria.
It wasn’t a tribal party, it was truly a Nigerian party and that was why it was called the Peoples Democratic Party and the enthronement of democracy was the principle thing against the army.
Now we lost it when we resorted to impunity which the army is noted for, imposition which is anti democratic, insensitivity to the wishes and desires of the people and so we became a Democratic Party without the people while it was supposed to be Peoples Democratic Party. I had warned several times that the greatest problem facing the PDP was not the APC neither was it ACN, it was the people and I knew that the moment we lost the people we will lose the election so as far as I am concerned what we did wrong was the derailment of values, the vision of the original founding fathers of the PDP over the time.

Iwanyanwu
Actually the conquest of the PDP was not by CPC or ACN it was by members of PDP, the aggrieved members of PDP who left and the journey for me started when we abandoned the zoning principle.
Remember in 2011 when President Yar’Adua died some of us insisted that we must uphold the zoning principle which is the cardinal principle of PDP and that a Northerner should be allowed to finish the tenure of Yar’Adua but that didn’t happen.
Jonathan came and we were told it was going to be one term to complete the tenure of Yar’Adua of course we accepted but in 2015 he came up again and that is why you see that there was overwhelming conspiracy by the North, they felt that there was a conspiracy to exclude the North out of the presidency and they came together so both Northerners in the APC, those in the PDP and those even in the government and corridor of power of Jonathan conspired and betrayed him, those are the reasons we lost the election.
Now since it is not just about APC or PDP but Nigeria, what is your advice to the ruling party?
They should pay me for advice but because I love Nigeria, I think they should avoid the banana peels, they must avoid impunity, they must avoid imposition, they must avoid internal crisis, they have offered Nigerians during their campaigns certain promises Nigerians have a retentive memory and we are going to judge them, their performance or otherwise by the actualization of those promises they have made because our prayer is that it should not be the kind a promise a man makes to a woman on the bed.
Many people still argue that the APC is not yet a political party, what is your view on this?
I have always said that APC is Angry Peoples Congress since last two years. Now I told you how the PDP came together from the East, the North, the West and the South to form a national democratic party but that is not the same with the APC. The ACN is predominantly a South West party, CPC predominantly a Northern party with their own agenda then of course the Angry members of PDP and of course ANPP and one or two persons from APGA.

Politics is a game of interest, it is an amalgamation of interest groups, they are not friends and they are strange bedfellows therefore there is already conflict sown into the construction of the party and that conflict has already started manifesting because it is like when thieves go to steal, they are united by one agenda, their only agenda was to bring down Jonathan so that they can control government and the resources of Nigeria, that is all.
Yes they succeeded but in sharing, the problem has come; the President is CPC, the Vice President is ACN then it came to Senate President and Speaker the ACN wanted to take it again but the New PDP members said ‘no you have taken one, this one has taken two and we should take something’ and they conspired with the PDP members.
The PDP at home conspired with the PDP in exile and took over the leadership of the National Assembly and the ANPP is now asking about their own so you see that the APC is not a homogenous political entity.
So, are you happy with the emergence of Ike Ekweremadu as the Deputy Senate President under an APC leadership?
It is the beauty of democracy we are beginning to see because what happened at the National Assembly shows that no one man can hijack the Nigerian nation which was the agenda of the ACN leader.
Secondly it has asserted the independence of the legislature the law says that the members should choose their leaders, it didn’t say that the party should choose the leaders.

INTROVERT:
Should I say prophetic.