Chief Olabode George is a former Deputy National Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). In this interview with SEYE OLUMIDE (Southwest Bureau Chief, Ibadan), he wants the party to put its house in order ahead of election proper. 

How would you describe the victory of former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as PDP candidate for the 2023 presidential election?
What I said during the primary was that the will of the people should be respected. The post-mortem analysis of the primary, which is still ongoing, shows that the election was free, fair and credible and nobody could fault that. Although, somewhere along the line, serious politics got into play, which is normal and especially when Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State stepped down to allow all his delegates joined Atiku. That was politics at the highest level.
 
Our Southern politicians must learn because they were only trying to prove their mettle. And if God doesn’t want Atiku to win he wouldn’t have won. I have no qualms that Atiku won because he is still a member of PDP. But now that a presidential candidate has emerged from the North, we must return to what the founding fathers of the party conceptualised, that for purposes of unity, the six geo-political zones must be respected and represented. To follow the dictates as established by the founding fathers, if the presidency is from the North the vice president will come from the South, Senate President from the North, Speaker will come from South, Secretary to the Government would come from the North and national chairman of the party must come from the South. This was aimed to give every zone a sense of belonging.  
 
This is the time to start the post-mortem analysis and to massage the ego that has been bruised, PDP must return to the basis as quickly and as humanly possible so that when we roll out for the general election campaigns, the party will appeal to all Nigerians. This is where the candidate needs a lot of work to do on reconciliation.
 
I know that Atiku has been Christened as the unifier and the only way he can achieve that is to return to the tactical table and redesign the party structure very urgently, so that the sense of belonging and oneness as members of the same family would be re-established. He has to do this now because the division among tribes now is so pronounced. The mistrust among ethnic nationalities in Nigeria is very pronounced. PDP must reduce all these and re-establish that spirit of oneness. That must be the first approach for Atiku to get the confidence of our people back and especially those who are not card-carrying members of the party.
 
The planning must be seen to be going on, that all positions in the party that are in the North must come to the South and all positions in the South must go back to the North. If this is not done then we are not ready to win the next general elections.

How quickly would you want the National Chairman of the PDP, Iyorchia Ayu to honour his promise when he said that immediately the presidential candidate comes from the north he would resign?
 He has to. His word must be his bond. He said it and we are just about a week or more after the primary. We have a lot of crises in many states now in terms of the primaries, State Assemblies, governorship and others. Ayu can still spearhead the process of reconciliation to see how much he can do to calm frayed nerves. He said it right from the very beginning and people would take him on his word for the sake of the party and its sanctity. 
 
The onus is on Ayu to stand by his words. The party hierarchy must meet as quickly as possible to redefine and restructure. 
It is now the responsibility of the elders, governors and others in the party to ensure that the South produces the national chairman. The chairman and presidential aspirant cannot come from the same zone. We have to respect the party’s norms.

Would you say the North arm-twisted the South to get the ticket or that the South undid itself and lost the ticket?  
Politics is a game of numbers. When you think you alone can deliver then you will have issues. What I know is that the primary was open and fair. The South was beaten. As a general in the military when you go to war, sometimes one plus one might not give you two as an answer. In war anything is acceptable. Atiku won. I hope southern politicians would learn from what happened in the primary. But moving forward, Atiku and the party leadership need to revisit the whole plan and massage the ego of those that were bruised. We must reassure them.

Do you have any fear that under an Atiku presidency, the country will not be remarkably different from what has transpired in the past seven years?   
Why I won’t be troubled about Atiku is that the former vice president is a deft politician and having served in the Villa before for eight years, he must have had the prerequisite knowledge on how to handle the complex situation of this nation unlike what we have today.
 
Recall also that his first wife, Titi is a Yoruba woman from Ilesha in Osun State. She bore the first five children for him. So Yoruba blood flows in his house. He cannot say those kids are not his anymore. To me, he would have a good reach. The state of affairs in this country today is that of helplessness and hopelessness but Atiku, being an old hand, he will know what to do to reaffirm the unity of Nigeria. 

He is a deft politician and I added another parameter that goes positively for him. Once you have your household by marriage that is a strong relationship. As a young man during his days in the Customs, the first woman he married was an Ilesha woman who grew up in Lagos. You think such a man will not have a working relationship with the Yoruba? His children speak Yoruba and Fulani. So even if he is drifting away, his children will call his attention to it. They will remind him.

Same thing with the Southeast, he has had that spread unlike other presidential aspirants or candidates. So he has this added advantage and he is expected to utilise it optimally to show Nigerians that he is way above this ethnic sentiment problem.  
 
That will be a reminder to him, peradventure he wins the presidential election and that will give him a frontline attitude to see Nigerians as the same. They call him unifier because his children have the blood of Fulani, Igbo and Yoruba in them.  
 
What would be your advice to Governor Nyesome Wike, the first runner up to Atiku? He has pointed accusing fingers at Southern governors calling them traitors?
 I will appeal to him to put the outcome of the primary behind and forge ahead. It is not easy to have gone to that kind of battle and lost. He feels wounded, disappointed but as a Christian and believer in the Almighty God, I will appeal to him to cool temper. 
 
He spent a lot of money and I’m sure he has done his own post-mortem analysis, but let him calm down. I also want to appeal to the inner members of his family to appeal to him. 
 
I also contested once for the party’s national chairmanship and spent a whole lot of money. I didn’t get to the end of it.  

Some say there is a dangerous trend in Nigerian politics, which is the systematic marginalisation of the Southeast from mainstream politics. What’s your view on this?
That’s a fair assessment. We cannot all be members of an association and a member of that body is not regarded, something definitely must be given to assuage that pain and the perception that they (Ibo) are not wanted. I pray for those who have emerged that God will direct their minds because we are all Nigerians. Nobody should be left behind while others are rolling ahead; they are human beings.
 
Stakeholders in the two major political platforms need to look for something respectable, responsible to concede to Southeast. That has been the culture of the PDP that nobody must be left behind. In the calculation of Atiku now, he must also put into consideration that he (Atiku) has children who have Ibo and Fulani blood. The Southeasterners must be given that sense of belonging.