Ndoma-Egba: PDP Suffering from Self-destruct
Former Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, in an interview with journalists shortly after he was formally received into the All Progressives Congress on Saturday, February 13, spoke on why he opted out of the Peoples Democratic Party. He also touche
What do you have to say to those who are of the opinion that you defected because PDP is no longer in power at the federal level? It is not an appropriate term in the circumstances of Cross River. If you remember what happened, quite a number of us – everybody who was sympathetic to me was shut out of PDP. For three year, I was not invited to any PDP meeting in Cross River State.
We were constructively evicted. So, if the party itself has evicted you, you can no longer be saying you moved from PDP to APC. I moved from the roadside to APC. PDP had already shut its doors against me and everybody, who supported me in anyway – Sandy Onor, Alex Egbona, Ernest Irek – all of them. And if you remember, they kept changing caucus list so that they could remove anybody, who had any sympathy for me.
Meanwhile the position of the caucuses was supposed to be statutory. It was spelt out by law. They stopped following the law. All that was important was ‘are you for Victor or you are against him?’ If you are for Victor, ‘remove him from the caucus.’
Was there anything you did wrong against the party? I can’t remember. People have asked me that question and I said they should go and ask the former governor. He will know that because I went to him each time I heard stories. But, that is in the past now. I have moved on. At least, I am able to go to wherever I want to go and I am warmly received. So that is in the past.
You people defected from the PDP to the APC, but you are saying it is not so. So, how exactly would you describe the action you have taken? It will be inappropriate to refer to what is happening in Cross River as defecting. What is happening in Cross River is simply a mass movement. They are moving away from the inhospitability of the PDP. When a place becomes inhospitable, the natural tendency is to leave there. So, when you see traffic out of a place, it means that the place has become hostile. And for people, who still have political life in them, they must meet somewhere else to play their politics.
It is like saying you are a farmer without a farm, then, what makes you a farmer? You cannot be a politician today without having a political party because our laws does not recognise independent candidacy. So, it is a mass movement and people are getting frustrated in the current circumstances, they would want a change. For me, my challenge is in helping to create an alternative. Let people be in a position to make political choices. That’s all!
The reception attracted a lot of interests, especially from the PDP, which many accused of concocting the bomb scare in an attempt to scuttle the reception ceremony. Do think the opposition has been able to attract attention from the PDP?
Don’t forget that there have been recent engagements with the establishment. If you recall in 2014, when they had the first set of congresses; that was when we had the first test of strength, and they lost. And for 24 days they were held to the ground, and it took all sorts of breaches of the constitution and they threw the laws, all known to the dogs for them to get it reversed.
After that were the elections, where for the first time, the opposition engaged the ruling PDP in the state in a fierce and credible contest and till tomorrow, the outcomes of those elections are still subject to very animated debates. So, there has been a recent history of a new energy, a new vigour from the opposition.
The opposition is no longer nominal – it is not a nominal opposition any more, it is a real opposition. And added to a situation, where there is traffic out of PDP, it means that this opposition can only get stronger. So, their anxiety, their fears are very legitimate. But how they have addressed this development is what I find very amusing because the methods they used are very cheap and infantile. Their reactions did not show any political depth. Is it true that the mass movement stemmed from the fears that the state could not afford to be opposed to the APC-controlled federal government?
That is not the reason for the movement. The reason for the movement is that there is real unhappiness in the state with the PDP. The PDP created a large pool of Internally Displaced Politicians (IDPs). It inflicted the injury on itself because everybody, who is moving was a PDP member. So, it is a self-inflicted situation in this state. I have heard people say ‘you benefited so much from PDP, why are you leaving PDP?’ Like I said before, I was constructively evicted, so, the issue of why I am leaving PDP doesn’t arise. PDP didn’t want some of us. The real issue is; how come the beneficiaries of the PDP are the ones who end up bitter?
The highest opportunity any political party can give you is to make you its presidential candidate. Chief Olusegun Obasnajo was president as PDP member, what happened? He tore his card. He made drama out of it. He publicly tore his membership card. The second highest position a party can give you is their vice presidential ticket. Atiku Abubakar left PDP and remained as vice president and it became a subject of litigation and he left the party. Audu Ogbe was chairman of PDP, he left. Barnabas Gemade was chairman of PDP; he left. You can mention so many people. So, what is it that they are not doing right? How come their beneficiaries become so bitter? Those are the proper questions. It is not whether somebody is grateful or not grateful. Something is fundamentally wrong.
Would it be safe to say that those of you who have come to join the APC in recent times are coming with a winning mentality that has been visibly lacking in the politics of the state? We are joining the party with a commitment to building a viable alternative, and we are committed to that ideal. And if you see the people who have moved, they are not frivolous people. Clemet Ebri is one of the most seriousminded Cross Riverian; Ambassador Sony Abang is a known political strategists. He was PDP chairman for 12 years. He midwifed the victories of the party.
He has left. Is it Paul Adah, Venatiius Ikem, former National Publicity Secretary of the party? So, there must be something fundamentally wrong, and these are all people, who are committed to an ideal, and who want to prove a point. So, I will answer the question by saying yes, we are going there to prove a point.
How are you going to handle the consequences of this defection to the APC, more so as there are fears that you are coming to hijack your new party? There is no carpet crossing in our situation. There was no carpet. It is a mass movement. Every party has a constitution. The APC has a constitution. No matter how many of us joined the APC today, it is not going to change its constitution. No matter how many of us joined the APC today, it is not going to change the existing structure of the APC. So, the fears are totally unfounded.
Are we going to change the constitution? Are we going to say okay remove the chairman because we have joined? It is not possible. So, when you say ‘hijack,’ hijack in what way? Even if you hijack the party, what would you do with the party? So, it is totally needless fears and unfounded as far as I am concerned. Have you considered the financial implications of reengineering a political party? Money is important in politics, but you could have the money and you refund it; like they say ‘refund the money’ now. The important thing is that you can do things efficiently, in which case you would reduce capital requirement. You could also generate a belief system where people just believe in a cause. So, that is what we intend to do – that look, this is a cause, you know, believe in it and sacrifice for it for the betterment of tomorrow.
I have heard people say ‘you benefited so much from PDP, why are you leaving PDP?’ Like I said before, I was constructively evicted, so, the issue of why I am leaving PDP doesn’t arise. PDP didn’t want some of us. The real issue is: how come the beneficiaries of the PDP are the ones who end up bitter? The highest opportunity any political party can give you is to make you its presidential candidate