Plateau State chairman, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Honourable Chris Hassan, speaks with ISAAC SHOBAYO on the political impasse in the state, especially the alleged lack of structure against his party, which formed the basis on which all the state and federal lawmakers elected on the platform of the party were sacked by the Court of Appeal recently.
The Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, recently sacked all the state and federal lawmakers elected on the platform of the PDP in Plateau State on account of a lack of political structure. What is your perception of these judgments?
What is happening today with the interpretation of the judgment is alien to us in the PDP because we do not understand the structure they are talking about. Is it structure as in the political party or structure as in judgment? We do not seem to understand, but you know for sure that ever since the inception of the PDP, it has been one party that is well structured.
From the manifesto, from the constitution, and from the philosophy of the party, I want to believe that there’s no political party that is as structured as the PDP in Nigeria. And that is why, of course, you can see the existence of the party in all 774 local governments in the country; no political party in Nigeria has that. So we are well structured. Then, coming back to Plateau State, you are aware that we had a congress that brought in the ward EXCO, the local government EXCO, and, of course, the state EXCO, down to the zones of the six geopolitical zones. And we also concluded that journey to the national convention. So we are part of a structure; what is structure? It is in line with the constitution of the party.
Now that we held the congress, the state congress, in November 2020, I was elected as the chairman of the party. My brother, Kaze, went to court, and the court granted his prayers that we should repeat that congress. Because the PDP is a party that respects the rule of law, there was no problem with that election, but because we said let us go back so that we could save ourselves from litigation, the legal team advised us, and the EXCO was dissolved.
Upon dissolution, the national secretariat of the party put together the caretaker committee, led by Senator Tunde Ogbeha. He came here to the state; all of you are witnesses. And he was given a mandate to stay here for 90 days, and he did wonderfully well. A very experienced senator, an ex-military man, and a proud father of the North-Central Zone, his contact was actually very extensive. He consulted with all those who were aggrieved, and that saw the elections.
Before then, there were judgments given in five local governments that there should be repeats of congresses. It was that same caretaker committee that saw the conduct of the election that brought EXCO from those five local governments; local governments like Jos North, Jos South, and Jos East were part of those judgments that we received, and we went back. A new EXCO emerged, giving birth to the state congress. The state congress took place on September 25, 2021. And Senator Tunde Ogbeha was the chairman of the caretaker committee. However, in the wisdom of the party at the national level, knowing very well that if they envisaged there would be a judgment like this, they put power in an electoral committee headed by Prince Shola Akamudi.
Shola Akamudi came in here and conducted the congress. In that congress that he conducted, there was not a single individual that has gone to court again. Even Kaze congratulated me. The video clips are there. We went back on our journey, of course, trying to conscientise our people, trying to mobilize our people towards the election. And you saw what happened. We had a sitting APC government here. However, because to prove to you that Plateau people are PDP. And I told you that for anybody who is actually aware of and in tune with the Plateau struggle, the manifesto and the philosophy of the party come very close to our struggle. That is why you will find out that, overwhelmingly, we brought in 16 members of the state House of Assembly as opposed to the ruling party. We brought in five members of the House of Representatives. With two senators and a brand new governor who has the interests of the state at heart.
If we do not have a structure, check that, compared to other political parties, it is only the PDP that conducts a congress and primaries, which nobody went to court for. In Plateau State alone, for the House of Assembly, we had 313 people that went and obtained the form to contest for the House of Assembly. We had 19 people who bought forms to contest the governorship election. We had 68 people who obtained forms to contest the House of Representatives. For the Senate alone, we had 27. And no form was obtained from my office because we believe that there’s only one certificate of registration, and that certificate rests with the national secretariat of the party. For you to conduct anything in this state, it is the national secretariat that does everything. It is for us to see them as visitors and lead them to do what they are coming here for. Maybe link up the security agencies so that they can, of course, conduct their activities in a well-secured atmosphere; that’s what the state does. When do you say structure? Where do you place the structure? I want you to go and do some research. There is no political party in Nigeria today that has a structure like the PDP because we have a structure in 774 local governments.
Then why was your election knocked off by the Tribunal and the appellate court?
I do not want to make any statement that will look as if I am trying to disrespect the justice system in Nigeria. I respect the judiciary, but I want to tell you it is left to them, and it is left to their own conscience. But our lawyers argued this issue, and we submitted valid documents that prove that we had a structure. If we do not have a structure, it is the resolution of the judiciary, or INEC. INEC is the statutory body that has the right to know whether you have a structure or not. All I know is that the PDP, of course, met the requirements for people to participate in the election; we have already attained that, and that is why they allowed us to put the logo of the party in all the elections, which of course we participated in. In other political parties, you saw what happened during the primaries of the governorship election up until now; they are in the Supreme Court. In APC, somebody is still in court.
But one or two members of the PDP have come out to say the party has no structure. What’s your take on this?
We know where they are coming from; they are black sheep. But one thing is for sure: all these judgments can lead to voter apathy in the long run. When you go to vote and you know who you voted for, and the umpire goes to declare a different thing or the courts rule against their decision, they will say, “We are tired of voting; let them do what they want to do.” You saw what happened in Nassarawa State; you saw what is happening in some other states; and I keep asking questions: why the North-Central? Is it because we don’t have a voice? Or are we being looked at as people not capable of deciding for ourselves? But I want to say that our hope is in God; we are looking up to God Almighty because He has power over every human being on earth.
The impression out there is that only five local governments participated in the State Congress…
When you say only five local governments did participate, it is five local governments that didn’t participate, and these five local governments are just the EXCOs of the local governments. Mind you, in each local government, you have wards, and each ward has three ad hoc delegates, and each ward has five delegates. So when you see five delegates, that is the chairman of the party at the ward level, the deputy chairman, the treasurer, the woman, and the youth leader are part of the Electoral College. Those who were not allowed to vote were those who were EXCOs of the local government, because the court stopped them from voting as of that time, they had not conducted elections yet. Why are we looking at just five local governments, and these five local governments are those that the court has already ruled that there should be a repeat congress? And the repeat congress is not only in the ward; the repeat congress was only local government. Mind you, we have structure in the ward and in the local government. I repeat, there is no political party today in Nigeria that is well-structured like the PDP. Other parties evolve from us. When somebody says we don’t have a structure, what is the definition of structure?
I am taking you back to the issue of structure. So don’t you think all these ordeals that the PDP is passing through are a result of the power struggle between Senator Jang and General Hussain? This is because people feel they are the architects of this problem, particularly when it comes to who should be recognized as the leader of the party on the Plateau. Do you think this is the issue, or do you have other things to say?
It is an issue I do not want to delve into, but let me say something. The pride of a retiring father is to be succeeded by a worthy son. There is no father who wants to retire and wouldn’t want a worthy son to succeed him. It is left to their conscience, but let us pick one after the other. Former Governor Jang was among the founding fathers of the PDP. Jang is a lifetime member of the Board of the party by virtue of his position in the G8 and G34. These are people who fought for democracy; he traveled the nooks and crannies of this state, conscientising people towards a democracy. Our president today is a proud member of NADECO, which stands for democracy. And that was what actually culminated in the formation of the PDP, of which he is a lifetime member of the Board of Trustees.
Governor Jang was the governor of Plateau State for eight good years, a performing governor. Former Governor Jang went to the Senate. Now, compare our father, Jeremiah Useni. How many political parties was he a member of? He joined the PDP and contested for a senatorial seat, and by virtue of the respect we have for him, we accorded him a candidate in 2019. I want you to look at it very well. Also, as a gubernatorial candidate for the 2019 election, look at the votes and go back to the results. Look at the votes he got from Governor Jang local government in Jos South; he got far more than what he got in Langtang Local Government Area, where he came from. People say they are fighting. Fighting how? How many votes do they have? One vote. It is just that people just want to keep making elders fight. Some people are saying we do not have a state government in Plateau State because two elders are fighting. How? Are they in the government house? Is Governor Mutfwang not performing? Let me say that some people, both within and outside the state, want Plateau to grow. It is not just today; since the time of JD Gomwalk, it is still today. That is why I say that for those of us who are conversant with the Plateau struggle, we know where things are coming from.
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