Indiscipline cost PDP victory in 2023 general election – Okeke

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), hitherto a big umbrella party in Nigeria, appears to be tottering today. A member of the Board of Trustees (BOT), Chief Ugochukwu Okeke, in this exclusive interview with LAWRENCE NJOKU, admitted that gross indiscipline and policy inconsistency was the party’s undoing during the 2023 general election. He, however, said the situation was being corrected to enable the party to rediscover its winning formula.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is going through rough times presently and this has been blamed on policy inconsistency as regards the 2023 presidential ticket. What can you say about this?
THAT election was really a challenging one for the party and has remained so. Ordinarily, when you have such an election with a lot of rancour, disagreement, disunity and misunderstanding among the leaders of the party you are bound to fail. That’s what happened to the PDP. We actually lost the election by ourselves. Like you asked, we are already working towards healing the wounds. PDP is a very large party; we are a large family. So, it’s not something I can sit down here and tell you that this or that has been used to correct the anomalies that have been noticed. But I believe that something deep, serious and far reaching is being done across all cadres of the party from the wards, council areas, states to zonal and the national levels. We are trying to bring in people that are truly PDP to take up the mantle of leadership. I strongly believe that if we do that, it will help rebuild the party as a stronger opposition and a party that is going to win elections at all levels in 2027.

Does your party know what it means to be in opposition going by what is happening in the National Assembly where your members appear totally lost on issues?
I don’t totally agree with you on that. But I agree that there are issues that are very obvious in the National Assembly based on the leadership of the PDP. And it goes back to pre-2023 elections. Those factors that made us fail in the election are still playing out there. But like I said earlier, we are still looking deeper to find ways to come to terms and agree on the way forward. After all, we can agree to disagree.

Let us disagree and agree not to disagree anymore. But the truth is that the PDP remains the leader of the opposition. We have not done well as we should, but efforts are being made to make us better. That’s all I can tell you for now.

Party discipline and supremacy are cardinal if any party must move forward. Some people are in PDP working for other political parties, yet the party seems helpless in that regard?
The party still remains supreme because all of our leaders who are in political positions are there because they come from the PDP. So, the party is still supreme.

But in practical terms it might not look so because of those issues that we are having. That is why I said that we are trying to resolve those issues so that the party will be stronger and put its weight behind every decision it takes. After all you don’t just say you are strong by mere word of mouth, you put it to action. I agree that one major problem we are having is indiscipline. Once we restore discipline in the party and get men of integrity and valour, men who can be strong and firm, who can always call a spade by its name, then this party will come back to life.

It will get to a stage when even if we are only 10 in the party, we will know we are 10 instead of saying we are hundred and we cannot truly say that we are hundred. So, there is a need for us to still remain together and sort out our issues.

Is it the structure or persons in the party that is at the root of the problem?
It’s obvious it’s the people, not the structures. The persons who control certain people in the structures are the people making the structures weak. For example, you have an issue of someone who wants a successor from a different zone other than where it will come from, then the party tells you this is what to do and you say no. The person takes a negative stand because you feel you are financing the party. That’s why we must go back to our books where this issue of financing the party will no longer be in the hands of a few people. It should be thrown open so that we can truly have a democracy. Democracy as we all know is about the majority. The minority must be heard but the majority will have its way. Unfortunately, in PDP in certain times, the minority have their way.

In Anambra State, a careful observer would discover the lack of very active ward, local government or zonal offices of the party where members gather for regular meetings. What is your party doing about this?
Your assessment may not be completely correct. But I am sure it’s not entirely incorrect. You are aware that we just recently inaugurated our Caretaker Committee, in an effort to restore and reestablish the “power-to-the-people” party.

The committee has already hit the ground running. The issue with Anambra PDP is that we need an introspective assessment; we must ask ourselves whether we are trying to make the party better or worse.

Efforts are now being put in place to ensure that all impediments are tackled for robust political activities to be restored. For example, there are parts of the state where insecurity has made political activities difficult. However, the government has promised that the situation would improve soon and we believe them. Once security is restored, things would become robust again. You can take it to the bank that PDP still remains the party to beat. But unfortunately like you earlier asked and I answered, some people have tried to use the party as their personal property. That’s principally part of what has been creating most of the issues bedevilling the party.

Is the PDP truly ready to rediscover itself when its members have continued to leave in their number to other parties?
Yes! Because if PDP is not ready to rediscover itself you won’t find someone like me coming on board the party’s Board of Trustees (BOT). It means they have understood the need for experience, energy and the need for the younger generation to be brought on board. I am not that young, but I’m younger than most other board members.

We want to rediscover ourselves. Nigerians are yearning for the PDP to come back; they are yearning for a stronger opposition like a shadow government as you see in the United Kingdom. We are talking about an active self-asserting opposition that can look into what the Federal Government is presently doing and come in to offer other solutions and ideas to the benefit of all citizens. After all, opposition doesn’t always mean antagonism. It gives plural and better views and ideas on issues, programmes or policies/projects of the government.

The truth about the PDP is that the recent elections were there for us to win but we lost it. We lost it because of our inability to see through what is right and be able to stand for it. If we look at the three key contenders in that election, you will see that they were all from the PDP -His Excellencies Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi and Rabiu Kwankwanso. The three were from the PDP family against one person from the APC. With that scenario, we had divided our votes and support base and it was difficult for us to win. Now realising that this is the challenge that we faced and may continue to face going forward, we have decided to look inwards with a view to getting it right.

Therefore, I want to appeal to Nigerians that the last election didn’t go wonderfully well with us, but we have realised our mistakes and we are poised to correct them. We have also realised that a lot of citizens are now losing faith in our democracy. Many have become so disillusioned and said they won’t cast votes again or participate in any more political activities. I saw viral clips on social media where people were openly and publicly destroying their voter’s cards. The answer and my reaction to all that is no! We cannot get our democracy right if we succumb so easily. The road to freedom is never an easy one and the tree to our freedom is not watered by water but blood. We won’t shed blood, but we will be stronger and more resolute to redefine democracy in Nigeria to truly be the government of the people. For us to do this, we must continue to have faith in ourselves. We won’t import someone from the UK, the U.S. or wherever to come and rediscover democracy for us here. That person(s) must be from Nigeria.

I really appeal to our people to have faith and have faith until we get it right. PDP will rebound irrespective of what is happening now. Some of the things happening now including those running away from the PDP are being done for want of what to do. The process of rebuilding the PDP has started and we are committed to it. There is no perfect situation anywhere in the world. Every political party including the ruling party has something challenging them. But the beauty is in knowing that you have a problem and you are trying to confront it. This is what we have done and will continue to do to present a more organised and better party for Nigerians before the 2027 general election.