Maku: I Gave Everything to PDP But I Was Left in the Lurch
Former Minister of Information and Gubernatorial Candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in Nassarawa State Mr. Labaran Maku, in this interview with journalists speaks on why he defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), his guberna
Some political analysts are of the opinion that you committed political suicide by leaving the PDP where you rose to prominence for APGA after the governorship primaries, what is your take on this?
Let me say this, I never in my political career in this dispensation thought that I would leave the PDP, I have invested so much in the PDP since 1998, I have been a very loyal member of the party, both in Nassarawa and then God lifted me to be the minister under His Excellency President Goodluck Jonathan, my leader and my mentor. I gave the party my all, I served the party with loyalty, in all the positions that God gave me under the PDP, I became very loyal to the party, I used my resources to build the party, right from the ward to the state and the national level. At no time was I ever found wanting in terms of loyalty to the party, when I’m in something, I’m in it totally, not halfway. When we lost the election in 2011 in the state, the burden of building the party rested on my head, I was the one encouraging the party, because it was thought that immediately the PDP lost election the party would fall apart, but I insisted that the party shouldn’t fall apart because democracy means that you must sustain the opposition, so I encouraged members of the party, including ward officials.
Anybody you see in Nassarawa state today that is a party official, whether ward official or zonal or local government or state or federal, I bought all their nomination forms to make sure that they were not discouraged from participating in the party activities, in addition to that, I made sure that each time there was any meeting in Lafia, I will send money for transportation to come and go back, because there was no governor and there was nobody to help them. Every opportunity, if there was Salah or Christmas, I will send gifts to every electoral ward for party members throughout the 147 electoral wards, I will send rice, I will send gifts, even APC members eat rice from PDP people, because their party hardly ever cares for them. In addition to this, if you know, philosophically, I have always been the one defending the PDP, against all other parties, I was almost like the spokesperson of the PDP at the national level, wherever there was an attack on the party, I was the one who would raise my voice in defense of the party, the government that I serve and even the leadership of the party. I was virtually the one involved in the political polemics across parties, I was the one standing for the PDP, so I gave the party everything, there was nothing left for me to do. I invested all my earnings and whatever little money I had to make sure that the party stood strong, but unfortunately, as events turned out, as I was treated in 2007, so was I treated in 2015.
In 2007, I was deputy governor of Nassarawa state, having served the party as commissioner, and another four years as deputy governor, I contested for governorship, went round, I had strong support in the party, out of the 13 local government areas and 16 development areas, making 29, I had leaders of the party in 23 of them strongly behind me, we were working together with them because my governor then was leaving, he had finished his tenure. So, just about two months before the election, suddenly the system began to turn against me, I was surprised because I felt I had worked also with loyalty to my boss, completely as his son, I didn’t work with him as a deputy governor, he appointed me as commissioner and deputy governor, so I was very loyal to him, his defense and speeches I will write, virtually everything he said, I will make sure I put it in correct perspective, but in the end, just a week before the primaries, the party officials started telling me that they were asked not to work for me, that all of them were asked not to work for me that it appears that my boss has somebody else in mind, I wondered who this person could be and eventually it became clear that he asked them to work for His Excellency former governor Aliyu Doma. Of course Governor Doma had no problem with me, we’ve never worked together, so I have no disagreement with him, I knew he was in the ANPP, he contested against PDP in 1999, ended up in court with my former boss, he contested again in 2003 and ended up in court, so I was a bit confused as a young man how this would be possible until I was told on the last day that he was the one that my governor then was supporting. I was the one in the party system for those eight years, in the end the argument was that he was an elderly person, they wanted somebody who was elderly to run the state.
But by 2007, I was 45 years old, and I was older than some governors who were in their second term at that time, I was told that I was too young, I should wait, it was not yet my turn. Of course as a human being, I was upset, I felt I had given a lot of energy, labor commitment to the party, there was a lot of pressure on me to leave the party then, ANPP brought its ticket, people say you were the one that had the experience and the following in the state, and it is important that you should come and contest, I said no, I was not going to leave the PDP, I didn’t leave, I stayed in the party