Why PDP’s ship capsized –Ex-chair, Ali

If the now opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had managed its ship better, by weathering the rough weather, the results of the last presidential election may have turned out different, and it may have retained power at the federal level.

A former national chairman of the party, Ahmadu Ali said that the result of the last presidential election would have been different if former President Olusegun Obasanjo was still in the in the party.

According to Ali of the popular ‘Ali must go’ saga, “when you have a person of his (Obasanjo’s) calibre, there is always stability. His movement away from the PDP changed the centre of gravity of the ship. Worse, the party encountered rough weather and the ship capsized.”

Speaking on political parties in Nigeria and their ideologies, Ali in an interview, said that, “To be frank, a party is as good as its leader. If the party has a leader who has a set of rules as a yard-stick that he lives by in politics, apart from the normal one which stabilises the polity, the party loses its supremacy.”

According to him, “no Nigerian party has a clear-cut identity. All the parties want to give us roads, hospitals, schools, railways and more food (even though they have no idea of how to go about this). In the end, they all want to give us the same thing, so we opt for those we have some kind of ties with. That is why our politics is all about people and candidates and not issues.”

He continued, “In my time as party chairman of the PDP, we had 28 states of the 36 in our hands. I never went to any governor’s domain to go see him or look for a contract. I did not even send my wife. No. When governors come to see me, I’d ask: ‘What are they doing here? They have states to administer, let them go and do that. If I have anything to do, I will speak to the state party chairman; he is the only one I have business with.’ They didn’t like it, but I didn’t want to administer the whole thing that way.”

Read also: You must go March 28, PDP group tells Sheriff

He noted that when governors went on to form the Governors’ Forum, which gave them a strong bargaining power and, “because they control the purse, they were able to put anybody in any political position.”

He also said that “When Obasanjo and Atiku were having issues – I am not proud to say this – I sat Atiku down and said to him: ‘I don’t care who you are, but you are Vice President in this party’s platform. You cannot be in this party and give a lecture criticising the government of which you are a part of at the MUSON Centre in Lagos.’

“He said it was a mistake and that ‘After all, it was not in my written speech, it was a side comments which the newspapers decided to publish.’

“I said: ‘That is the problem with the press; they’ll always take the one which pleases them the most.’

“He left and I thought it was all done with.

“After some time, they had another misunderstanding and, this time, Atiku had more people on his side. I suspended all of them for three months and said: ‘If, after three months, any of you shows remorse and wants to come back, that person is free.’

“The rest came back, but Atiku never did. Yet, I gave him the benefit of doubt and did not convert his suspension to dismissal.”

RipplesNigeria …without borders, without fears

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now