Daramola: Wike Needs to Seek Caution Over Move to Destroy PDP
Former Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party in Lagos State, Chief Tunde Daramola, in this interview with Segun James, advises Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers state against destroying the Peoples Democratic Party that brought him to national limelight
Politics has started in earnest and the most interesting politics is happening right here in Lagos. And until recently the PDP has not really been a force in Lagos, but right now some people believe that there might be changes. As a former secretary to the party in the state, and a national ex-officio member, what is your take on the political situation in Lagos?
Well, I am not the spokesperson for PDP at the Lagos level, nor at the national. But as a stakeholder I can consider myself an elder and a leader of the party. Because I have been in the party for over 20 years. Like I was saying, I am not a spokesperson for Jandor either and I have not had the opportunity to meet Jandor. I have heard about his political progress, his mobilization ability, which is commendable, and for him to have won the ticket at the primary is commendable also.
There is the needs for a lot of hands to be on deck to defeat the APC in Lagos. APC is more entrenched in Lagos than anywhere. You will ask me why I said so? Because the structure within the APC is a monster structure. What do I mean about monster? There are people in the transportation union paid up to the level of the conductor to work for APC. And we cannot but say we need modern PDP. We need the people of Lagos to rescue the party from the shackle hold of Bola Tinubu. Because the successive governors after Tinubu have all been, what I will call rubber stamp governors.
So, right now, a few days ago, the governor of River State came to Lagos. He is of the PDP and he endorsed the Lagos State Governor, a situation that has really affected the chances of PDP in Lagos. What is your take on this?
I do not think it has affected the chances of PDP whatsoever. Governor Wike is an individual and he has only one vote. one vote. He cannot even control the vote of his family. If Wike votes one way, chances are that his children or his wife may vote another way. Thank goodness that the INEC has promised to use the BVAS, which is the biometric identification method to identify voters to ensure that votes are counted. And also the electronic transmission of votes from polling units. My appeal is to INEC. The way Wike is behaving, he is behaving as if he founded PDP. He doesn’t know how PDP was founded. Wike had a leader when Wike was, I don’t want to call him Boy, Boy, for Peter Odili, who was the first governor of this democratic dispensation. If Governor Peter Odili who is a medical doctor, a reasonable person, if he did not break the house that he built, who is Wike? People have joined PDP and left, the party did not break. If you remember, in 2007, I think, when President Obasanjo’s tenure was coming to an end, Peter Odili was the leading candidate to become the president of Nigeria. In order to assuage the feelings of the north, they wanted a Northerner. That was why they brought in Yar Adua. Bringing in Yar Adua, Odili will still have won at an open convention, because I was a delegate at that convention. Odili was appealed to, to take the vice president, but people who thought Odili will have been too powerful for them to maneuver, did a mago mago, and Odili’s chances to become the presidential candidate, nlor the vice presidential candidate was shattered. But Odili did not break the house. If he had broken the house, people like Wike will never be governor of PDP. Because it was after governor Odili that Rotimi Amaechi became governor and Wike was his Chief of Staff. So my dear brother, as I said, thank goodness there are BVAS and there is going to be electronic transmission of votes from the polling units. The mago, mago of the coalition center is gone for good. Why would Wike come to Lagos and endorse an opposition party? If that had been done by a chairman of a ward or a local government, they will have cut off the head and charged him with anti-party activities. What he has done is anti-party, and if he thinks a statement matters, it doesn’t matter to the people of Lagos, number one. Number two, the followers who are aligned with his thought before are going to one by one distance themself from his approach of breaking the house that were built by his leaders. And he cannot do that because I am sure PDP leaders would not allow him to do that.
But don’t you think he has a grievance that is supposed to be addressed especially his grievance against the composition of the party right now and his grievance against the chairman of the party?
Speaking for myself as a stakeholder, it was Wike that put his resources behind Uche Secondus to make him chairman. Secondus is from the south, Secondus is from the south-south. Secondus is from Rivers where Wike is from. For whatever reason, if you remember, 2019 it was rumoured that Wike wanted to be vice president to Tambuwal . So he put resources behind Secondus to be chairman and he put resources behind Tambuwal to emerge as presidential candidate. But Wike is not God. The plans failed, Wike is not God and one man cannot claim to be God. God choose his leaders. Leadership is bestowed and you can emerge from people. But if you are behaving as a sour loser, what should people like Peter Odili, a Medical Doctor, what should he have done? He is the one that brought them up. Rotimi Amaechi, Nyesom Wike. What should Peter Odili do? But life continues, Odili remains a statesman and Wike is still a young man. At least I am older than him. Wike is 61 year old. There is still time.