President Jonathan can’t contest on PDP’s platform – Ben Obi
Interview Jan 2, 2011

By Jide Ajani, Deputy Editor
Without prejudice to Adamu Dutsinma and Madam Sarah Jubril, the two other presidential contenders in the Peoples
Democratic Party, PDP, those on whom Nigerians have fixed their gaze are President Goodluck Jonathan and former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar.

In this interview with Senator Ben Obi, Director-General, Atiku Campaign Organisation (a two-part interview with the DG of the Jonathan/Sambo Campaign Organisation had been published earlier), he brings a fresh insight into the zoning argument.

According to Obi, “the judgment is that the party has a constitution, the incumbent has a right to contest. Of course, that is correct. We’ve never said he shouldn’t contest. We have never said so. The point is that there are other platforms that do not have zoning and rotation in their constitutions.

Obi, We'll congratulate Jonathan if he wins, but

So, if he wants to oblige himself the constitution of Nigeria, I would prefer a situation where he does that on another platform. But our own party provides for zoning and rotation, so he should go and look for another platform on which he would contest.

“There is nothing new under the sun. We had tried it before.
In 2007 when President Obasanjo decided to drive Turaki out of PDP and he had to move because they just denied he and his supporters, including my humble self registration, the Supreme Court said he could not only contest election on another platform but that his position as Nigeria’s Vice-President remained very intact.

”So, we ran on the platform of the Action Congress, AC, and Turaki remained Nigeria’s Vice-President. Look, the law is very clear. The President can collapse 30/35 political parties if he wants, that is his business.”
Excerpts:

Your political party is one replete with contradictions and one of the major sources of contradictions today is the issue of zoning and how the party appears to be handling it.

What are those things that you would want to tell Nigerians at a time like this, especially since your principal is leading the debate?

As a political party or as a campaign team!

As a campaign team for Turaki Atiku Abubakar.

On the issue of zoning, the matter is clear.

Like you know, the matter is in the constitution of the party, so it is a subject for public discourse and, therefore, we feel, that all those who are concerned as Nigerians are free to look at what we are going through and take a clear-cut position for or against in this matter.

You don’t have to push it to Nigerians. It is your party.

There is little or nothing we can do.

This is because this matter is already in the public domain.

Our own duty, as a campaign organisation, is to hold firm to our position with regard to our belief that first and foremost, we are members of a political party that has a constitution that is supposed to be guiding us as people belonging to a political movement. And, we believe further, that as a member and as members of a political party, you have a duty to respect the constitution of the party.

It is in that same regard that you are, possibly, also, going to respect the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

We, as responsible citizens of this country, are holding unto that.
That is, first and foremost, we know the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria states clearly that everybody who is qualified to seek the office of the President and Commander-in-Chief should be allowed to seek that office.

But, let me tell you, we all come under one umbrella called the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP.

We have to respect the rules of that party before we jump out to say we want to obey other rules.
That is because in this country, once you are in authority, people are always afraid of telling you the gospel truth.
It takes only a few people to tell you that this is not right.

It is based on that that some of us came together in 2006 to fight against the tenure elongation of Olusegun Obasanjo.
If we had kept quiet, today, there would not be a question of talking about zoning or no zoning which some people are now claiming that they are free to contest and they can do ABC or D.

That is the point.

There is nothing that is holding us back on what we can say or what we cannot say regarding zoning or no zoning.
It is clear in our party constitution.

But, were the situation to be reversed – Obasanjo is alive and Atiku is alive – and had Obasanjo died before the expiration of his tenure the first time (first tenure of four years) wouldn’t Atiku have contested in 2003? Wouldn’t he have been quoting the same 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as is being done so gleefully now?

Don’t forget that it was as a result of the need by the party to hold on to its zoning arrangement that there was an expanded caucus meeting.

That was exactly why PDP met in December 2002 and decided that the zoning should continue and that the presidency should remain in the south for another four years.

That decision also affected Turaki.

Don’t forget or let me remind you that the Turaki had the support of 22 PDP state governors who wanted him to contest against Obasanjo.

That was why, in spite of the fact that 22 PDP state governors wanted Turaki to contest, he declined.
He wanted to run but ….

(Cuts in) Yes, 22 PDP governors; he wanted to run, but he didn’t.
The support of those governors was there, waiting. But he declined to run. He turned it down.
In fact, today, some of them are yet to forgive Turaki because he did no run.

So, you can see the type of dilemma that the Turaki himself has gone through.
And, this came to be simply because he said he wanted to respect the constitution of the party.

There is this other talk of the seeming non-workability of the consensus arrangement. Before Turaki emerged, the talk was about the fact that it would not work; but even after being picked, some observers still whisper the seeming disconnect between the aspirants – that is the quartet of Ibrahim Babangida, Aliyu Gusau, Bukola Saraki and the Turaki himself…

For every situation, you will continue to have doubting Thomases all around.
But I can tell you that as the Director- General of this campaign organisation, or as we would like to have it, the Consensus DG, it is my duty to liaise between the four principals.

I can say with all certainty that I go between all of them every other day and they tell me what they want reflected in the day-to-day activities of the organisation and it is so done.

I also get calls from them, they tell me ‘we think you should do this…’

And, even the chairman of the G-4, Gen. Babangida, would tell me, ‘you need to call this meeting; you need to call that meeting’, and, it is so done.

For all intents and purposes, I can tell you that they are all committed to it.

There was this statement recently made by the Turaki which caused so much furore – that ‘those who make peaceful change impossible make violent change inevitable’ – and President Goodluck Jonathan threw something back at him.

Why make such a statement? And, although your principal has come out to respond that he cannot be intimidated, is that the type of statement that should be made at a time like this?

You see, my reaction to that, I didn’t bother my head talking about it and I told the media team to just make a reaction and put an end to that.

Clearly, my worry is that it smacks clearly signs of inexperience on the part of our opponents.

That is so because the statement is a statement that every and any serious- minded statesman must make at times like this. This is a country where, everyday you see people threatening this and threatening that.

The answer to it is, in my opinion, simple: Make the process transparent so that everybody will see through it and nobody would have cause to complain.

That is necessary so that even when some people try to complain about the process, you will have others telling them not to complain, that the process was transparent.

With the way this campaign organisation has consistently complained, do you see transparency at the end of the day regarding the primaries of your party?

They are giving people like us cause for worry.

I have addressed a press conference and I have advised our political party leaders to call the campaign teams and let us into what is happening; to, at least, brief us so that we, too, can ask questions and then have answers.

And, at the end of the day, we should be able to work as a team.

We are still members of the same political party.

We do not want a situation whereby we would go public with matters that we ordinarily should have been able to settle in-house by throwing missiles at one another.

It is not necessary.

A few of Turaki’s associates are in court trying to stop President Jonathan from contesting. But there was a judgment two months ago on the same matter. To a layman, what are these associates looking for?

Well, the judgment is that the party has a constitution, the incumbent has a right to contest.
Of course, that is correct…

We’ve never said he shouldn’t contest.

We have never said so.

So, what have you been saying?

The point is that there are other platforms that do not have zoning and rotation in their constitutions.
So, if he wants to oblige himself the constitution of Nigeria, I would prefer a situation where he does that on another platform.

But our own party provides for zoning and rotation, so he should go and look for another platform on which he would contest.

But there appears to be an incongruity in what you have just said. Why should a sitting President obey a party constitution as against the country’s constitution. How would that happen?

There is nothing new under the sun.

We had tried it before.

In 2007 when President Obasanjo decided to drive Turaki out of PDP and he had to move because they just denied he and his supporters, including my humble self registration, the Supreme Court said he could not only contest election on another platform but that his position as Nigeria’s Vice- President remained very intact.

So, we ran on the platform of the Action Congress, AC, and Turaki remained Nigeria’s Vice-President.
Look, the law is very clear.

The President can collapse 30/35 political parties if he wants, that is his business. But I am saying that holding the office of the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and indeed, the President of any country, whatever is the constitution of any organisation, even be it a club, a social club, if that social club that you belong to has a constitution, please, try as much as possible to obey that constitution.

You must respect that constitution.

The possibility is that once we begin to violate that constitution or constitutions, even of clubs, then the likelihood is that the constitution of the country too, would be violated.

And, we don’t want that to happen.

But, people are asking: What does Atiku Abubakar want? What does he want, after his stupendous wealth and having served as Nigeria’s Vice- President?

Turaki is a politician.

Politics is derived from the Latin word, Polity, people, therefore, if you want to serve the people and serve them well, the only way you can succeed in doing that is by holding the lever of power yourself.

You cannot do that as Vice-President.

Here is somebody who has served as Vice-President, his first shot at the presidency was in 1992.

Again, in 1992, in the interest of the party and as a nationalist and statesman, he buried his ambition.
Again, in 2003, in the interest of the party, he dropped his ambition, against the pressure coming from many of his colleagues, the governors.

Now, we are in the race, we’ve gone through many of the hurdles, including consensus and now we are going into the primaries. All I am saying is, let the PDP conduct a transparent primary.

If we are defeated by the incumbent, I, as DG of this campaign, will issue a congratulatory message to the incumbent. But, my word is transparent, it has to be transparent.

The same thing I said as DG of Aliyu Gusau because I made it clear that the moment the nine wisemen came out with a consensus candidate, I will immediately congratulate whoever emerges and that was exactly what I did.

Obi is also desperate as the boss Atiku. Political prostitute! where did you keep PDP constitution when Late Abubakar Rimi , Barnabas Gemade etc ran against Obasanjo? GEJ is a Nigerian and must excercise his fundamental human right.

Ben Obi you and your Oga are politically irrelevant in Nigeria. You lost your relevance because of impatience and Nigerians now know that you are making noise for personal aggrandisement.


You can never attain a higer political position in Nigeria. Thank God for the sentorial position you attained.

22 governors my foot. When the likes of ibori and igbinedion and the other 20 govs were looking for a safe haven they decided to support their brother in crime.

Fck whatever constitution the PDP has, a party constitution cannot be greater than the interest of nigerians.
Abi person go see fire, then go put im hand

All i want is a free and fair election were by nigerians would vote for who they want and not some party constitution determining what nigerians want.

And all this bloody politicians should knw that the constitution of nigeria supercedes what ever law they cooked up from their pit of hell.

Ben Obi is a tool

Damn right!
Jonathan the 'daft' needs to obey the party's wishes or get the hellout of Dodge.
He should be disqualified for flouting party rules.
He who waves the umbrella. . .also carries a broom.

PDP for life!

The Nigerian Constitution guarantees the freedom of association, does that mean that you can belong to COREN when its constitution stipulates that it is only for registered engineers?

It is lame to say that the constitution says anyone can contest and so the party's constitution is at variance with that. You can contest on a platform, but that platform must exist otherwise you are not allowed to contest. In the same vein, though anyone can contest, you cannot be an independent candidate. Would you then say that because you cannot be an independent candidate, then your rights under the constitution have been abridged?

PLEASE I WANT TO KNOW WHY GEMADE & LATE RIMI CONTESTED AGAINST OBASANJO .ARE YOU TELLING ME THERE WAS NO PDP COSTITUTION THEN? WHY IS ATIKU WORRIED? LET HIM FACE HIS CAMPAIGN AND ALLOW PDP MEMBERS TO CAST THEIR VOTE .


ATIKU HAS KILLED HIS POLITICAL RELEVANCE. EVEN IF HE EMERGES AS THE FLAG BEARER, HE CANNOT WIN THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION UNDER FREE AND FAIR ELECTION.

PDP , MAKE ATIKU YOUR PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE AND LOOSE TO OPPOSITION.