MANTU: PDP Has Benefitted Me; I Will Not Decamp

• Military Is Greatest Promoter of Corruption
• Impunity, Manipulation Major Threats To PDP Revival
• Voters Deserve Enlightenment To Elect Good Leaders
Senator Ibrahim Mantu was Deputy President of 5th Senate. In this interview with LEO SOBECHI, he shares his views on the fortunes of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), party politics, corruption among other national issues.

By throwing in the towel, your former colleague, Senator Ken Nnamani, gave the impression that PDP has become irremediable; what do you think?

WELL, I have tremendous respect for Mr. Ken Nnamani, but I do not support his decision to dump the party that brought him to the limelight. It is true that all is not well with PDP, but since we have benefitted from it; we should do everything possible to heal it. I know Mr. Ken Nnamani is one of those leaders who have been working so hard to resuscitate the party to its lost glory. Our efforts have not yielded the desired results, that notwithstanding, I believe there is still plenty more room to restore the party’s lost glory. I think Ken Nnamani has lost total faith in the fight to turn around the party. Of course, when one’s faith is lost, the spirit to fight on would no longer be there. I do wish him well in his sabbatical, I call it a sabbatical, because once a politician, always a politician. I am sure I won’t be surprised to see him appear in another political arrangement.

There has been this talk about a new political arrangement; despite your optimism that PDP could be reformed, don’t you think that the seeming obduracy by those holding sway in the party to give way for fresh ideas is frustrating enough to warrant a fresh platform?

The truth is that for me, I believe that everything has its own time and that there is always the beginning and the end of everything. No matter how one tries to seat tight in a position, one day will be one day, that person could no longer be there. So I believe that since we are about to have our national convention, Nigerians would still vote in those they think have done well and vote out those whom they feel have not done well. The problem, which most people fear is that the impunity with which we are known for, will continue unabated. Many of us think that some people will use the power of incumbency to manipulate the electoral process. I think we have learnt enough, we have seen enough. And I believe Nigerians are not going to allow anybody take them for a ride.

So, do you think this idea of floating a new party is an easy way out?

Well, I have said as far as I am concerned; I, as Ibrahim Mantu, am not a party to anybody floating a new party as the way out. I am still very much in the PDP and I believe that we would do everything possible to reposition the party positively and bring back its lost glory. I don’t believe it is right for those of us that have benefitted from PDP to dump it or because people are frustrating people out. I would not allow anybody to frustrate me out of a political party that did much for me; I will remain in the party to fight it out and see that we bring back the lost glory. I will be grateful if our efforts bear fruits. Now, every time you are frustrated you go and float a new party, how many parties would you float in Nigeria? I believe that we should nurture two political parties like other parts of the world. Even when the constitution allows them to have as many parties as they wish, you find that they have only two. I think we should develop along that path. We should enlighten the electorate to be able to vote for credible persons, to change government by voting out the party that does not perform and vote in the party that distinguished itself.

But some observers say the recent exposé on the misuse of funds meant for arms purchase necessitated the call for name change in PDP and to bring back those that defected to APC; do you think this feasible?

The issue of corruption, to me, is a general problem in the country, it doesn’t matter which party that is in power. Corruption has become endemic in our body politic. And it is not restricted to politicians; you can remember how a recent investigation found that some civil servants had more than 3.5 billion in their bank account, a woman in charge of pension or something like that. So corruption is not related to politicians alone, it is a disease that has virtually affected everything. We need some attitudinal change to know that we must say no to corruption and not just pin it at politicians. I think we should actually see it as a disease that we should put all hands on deck to get rid of in our governance system and body politic completely so that we begin to enjoy good governance. The absence of good governance is what promotes corruption. Some of the people that went out of PDP may like to come back to PDP, because they have discovered that it is not better out there than in the party. Nigerians always complain that all the political parties in Nigeria lack internal party democracy. We don’t actually practice internal democracy and that is the root of what is wrong with our politics. Once the foundation of a house is wrong, anything you build on it will collapse. We have to go back to the basics to ensure that we play politics the way we are supposed to play it in accordance with the constitution of the party and allow the people to decide who should represent them at any level rather than imposition. We must go back to ensure that we practice internal democracy. If a person emerges as the candidate of the party through fraudulent means, he would not see anything wrong in using fraudulent means to manipulate INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission) during election. So, the thing will continue from there until the matter would not end until it becomes a cancer. I am appealing to all Nigeria politicians, no matter what political party they are, we must purge ourselves and resolve that never again shall we go back to our old ways. We have done enough damage to the economy, we have short-changed the people who elected us, we have done enough evils to the same people we were supposed to serve sincerely and honestly. And we should now repent and be born again to practice internal party democracy so that once more the confidence reposed on us by the people would not be betrayed.

Are you not alarmed that between 1983 and 2016, retired military officers in politics still use corruption as black brush to taint the civilian politicians?

Even the military, they are the ones that actually promoted corruption more than any group. Let us go back to basics; you will agree with me that this is the first time in the history of Nigeria that the military has allowed democracy to actually last this long. If we go back to history when the first republic was barely one term, they struck. In the second republic within one term and three months, the military came again and what was their accusation, politicians were corrupt! In those days when politicians receive a golden pen, they are accused of corruption. People are stealing trillions. They never knew that one day Nigeria will budget billions because it was in millions today it is in trillions. And people you use see as honourable and respectable members of the society are being associated with theft. There was also the issue of padding of the budget by some civil servants, so you blame it on top civil servants not the politicians. Civil servants not politicians tried to claim three trillion naira as overhead. So everybody believes that politicians are corrupt, but the whole thing cuts across the entire nation, whether you are a civil servant, politician, soldier, journalist; everybody! That is why I said we must all go down on our knees and ask God to forgive us. We must repent and as Nigerians resolve that we must not continue on this path. There is need for attitudinal change, change from the hearts and change from the conscience. It is change because they are afraid of going to the prison, no. we must understand that it is wrong for you to short change the people that entrusted you with their resources. It is wrong for you to betray those people that look up to you to give them hope. Until you purge yourself and realise from your heart of hearts that you are wrong, then you are on the path to change. It is not because you are afraid of going to jail. So my brother, it falls on all of us to change our nation. This country is so blessed by God; God has blessed us with abundant natural resources and he has blessed us with quality human resources. A country can depend on human capital, but we have human capital and we have also abundant natural resources. By the time you harness those two, this country will be great. As I am talking to you, there are millions of Nigerians that have not had even breakfast, not to talk of lunch or dinner. We have to go back to God and change our attitude. And then use the abundant natural resources to work for the common good. That the economy is not doing well, the fault belongs to everybody.

Do you envisage a situation where civilian politicians could come together and set a template for the national rebirth you talk about?

I will tell you one thing. Everything has a beginning and an end; by the law of nature, when things reach saturation point, the natural law through the climate would bring it down to zero and start all over again. Our evils have reached to the high heavens, everything bad has reached the saturation point and so I believe that we must go back to the drawing board and start all over again. I can see a new Nigeria clearly, where people will repent of what was done before so that whoever gets a space to serve humanity would serve honestly and conscientiously. Everybody is talking about the way things are bad, there is need for us to change our ways. The awareness will come just like in the advanced countries we are trying to emulate; at one time or the other their situation was as bad as ours, but today we are now seeing them as ideal nations. We would also get it right. We have started; all these probes going on now, all this fight against corruption by the (President Muhammadu) Buhari administration is the beginning, We would continue to fight until eventually everybody sees the need to do things right, the need to say good bye to all bad ways of doing things because it doesn’t help anybody.  All the people that were greedily acquiring wealth see what is happening to them now. Anything not of God is bad; the end of it is disaster and absence of peace. But anything that is right or from God, the end result is lasting peace and tranquility.

Recently you rallied round some politicians under the aegis of Save Democracy Africa Group; where does that lead?

What I am saying now is in conformity with that. If want to save something, it means the thing is actually in danger. You are telling me about corruption, you are talking about internal democracy in parties; democracy is actually in danger. That is what we are saying that we must practice democracy as it ought to be practiced. That is why some of us have now come together to save the situation. We devote our time and resources to information, enlightening the people on the need not to allow any person short change their right to vote for right persons of their choice. So this is part of the contributions we are making to create awareness that our society will practice democracy the way it should be practiced. Democracy is better than the best dictatorship that is why we are trying to ensure that it would not be jeopardized by anybody again. We have not seen any government that is better than democracy.

Assuming the PDP convention does not end well, do you foresee further defections or will you be among those to consider a new party?

Let me tell you one thing. As I said earlier, I know that all is not well with PDP. But because the PDP has benefitted me, I don’t think it is right to abandon the PDP because all is not well with it. It is just like somebody whose father is infested with leprosy, it would not be right to say my father is no longer my father because he has leprosy. A good son would say, let me try to cure him, which is what some of us are doing. Cure the PDP of all its ailments and position it positively before the people and restore its lost glory, so that it could get back to its old aims and objectives of being purpose built for democracy and a party of the people. If we go to the convention, it is expected that the persons that will emerge would enlighten the people to vote the right caliber of people. But like you say, if all do not go well, I believe that you don’t just try once and fail and give up, I believe that there will always be one, two or three parties in Nigeria. I would not say because PDP is not in power today, let me crossover to APC, no. the problem is actually because we are not playing the politics of ideology; that is one of the things that gave rise to Save Democracy Group.