‘Bode George didn’t impose Lagos PDP exco’

Setonji KoshoedoLagos State Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Honourable Setonji Koshoedo, recently spoke with Adewale Ajayi on his plans to reposition the party and reconcile its aggrieved members. Excerpts:

What challenges have you faced since your assumption of office as the state chairman of PDP?
My challenges have not been beyond the regular ones in any political setting. Basically, the most visible one is managing human beings, particularly politicians. I have been experiencing them.

How are you coping with the problem of members of the party who are aggrieved because they were cheated?
That I will say that is one major challenge we are facing, but that is probably a long-term problem that will be solved on a long-term basis. On the morale of members of the party, we are trying our best to give them hope, making them to realise that there could be light at the end of the tunnel, making sure that we re-orientate them to see some good things in the party.

Anytime from now, the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) may announce a date for the local government election in the state. If LASIEC decides to conduct election into 57 local government areas which you have earlier kicked against, what will be your approach? What are the chances of your party?
I want to believe that the number of local government into which election will be conducted will be influenced by the government in power in the state, but the government must be guided by the rule of law, according to our president, Umaru Yar’Adua’s dictate. The rule of law must be followed by all tiers of government.

Also, the governor of Lagos State is a lawyer and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria. I want to believe that he will follow the rule of law. If a law to create new local governments is passed by the House of Assembly and the process for creation local government states that they have to be listed by the National Assembly and that is not yet done, the issue of conducting election into 57 local government areas instead of 20 should not come up under a learned person like him as the governor of the state. Even if on political grounds he is being forced to do that, I think his profession should not be put at stake for what could be avoided.

Our stand is that whatever the rule of law says on the issue of local government election or the number of local government that should feature is what Lagos PDP will follow.

On the chances of Lagos PDP, we will work hard for the election; we will do our best and we will put in all that it takes to win an election. We will go out to convince the people that we could do it better; we will campaign and at the end of the day, I believe, we will have a good chance. At least, it will not be as it used to be.

The present executive of the PDP has been taken to court because there was an injunction restraining the party from organising any congress that would produce executives. How are you handling the issue?
As far as we are concerned, it is normal for a group of people to be aggrieved. Their grievances could be out of dissatisfaction with some occurrences within the party. Let me take you back to the foundation of all these things; after the 2007 general election, there was polarisation in the party; while some people came together to make a positive change, some were busy accusing others. They did not only do that within the patty, but also went to the press.

The problem also led to the need to re-organise the party. Every member of the party was expected to participate in the congress. That some decided not to participate does not mean the party will stop the reconstitution process. According to the constitution of PDP, it is wrong for any member of the party to go to court against the party; we are supposed to sit down and discuss whatever the problems are; if truce cannot be achieved, any erring member can be sanctioned. The current executive is not even interested in sanctioning anybody. The party is interested in bringing everybody together to work for the success of the party in Lagos State. I want to assure you that we will do our best to reconcile the irreconcilable.

How do you view the impression that the present executive was installed by Chief Olabode George and it owes its allegiance to him and not the party.
As I have explained earlier, immediately after 2007 general election, the party was in disarray and some leaders of the party, including Chief George, who is the number one leader of the party in the state, by virtue of his position as deputy national chairman of the party, invited some party leaders to several meetings at which it was decided that the party be re-organised. The re-organisation did not only produce an executive, but also a leadership group which we called elders ’ council. The leadership group’s first assignment after inauguration produced the executive. What I am trying to say is that Chief George did not just sit in his room to write down the names of members of the executive. Every stakeholder and leader sat down together and came up with the names of the executive members for the party and we ended up having consensus candidates. We came about the consensus option because our experienced in the 2007 governorship primaries gave the party a very difficult crisis to solve before the general election; that was one of the reasons we lost the election. In their wisdom, the elders came together and found out that it would be better for us to work in unity and they started doing that. While they were busy working to come up with what everybody would agree on, the other group was quarrelling, going to the press and court. In the wisdom of the elders, after putting in place the executive, they have started looking into how to resolve the crisis.

It was learnt that ever before the congress, the aggrieved members made some demands that the executive positions should be shared. If they make demands before reconciliation, will you be ready to meet with them?
I want you to know that the reconciliation was initiated by the outgone executive and it was resolved that both parties should sit down and come up with modalities of working together. That arrangement was distorted by the aggrieved people. If you want resolution, you sit down to sort out things. In most cases, they have personalised issue, rather than look at this office as an institution. I am not against anybody, what I am concerned about is that the PDP should be victorious in Lagos State. If they had given room for reconciliation early enough, it should have been resolved before now. You must have heard that many efforts were made to resolve the matter before now, but the party cannot just stand still; its works must continue. If they come up with conditions, they will be considered, but it must not be out of place. Whatever condition they come up with shall be negotiated, but they should be reasonable.

Your ambition is for the PDP to produce next governor of the state. Considering the factors that have militated against the party in the past which are still prevalent, how do you achieve this?
There are many areas we have to attend to, but the most important of all, after reorganisation which has reached a very high level now, is to repackage the party. When the people of Lagos see a new PDP and they are convinced that the new PDP has their interest, rather than that of a few personalities, at heart, I believe the people themselves will yield and follow the PDP. Having the victory for PDP in 2011 election won’t be too serious a problem.

Delegates to the PDP national convention had prepared for voting, but eventually, some of the candidates withdrew. How would you assess the convention?
It was the highest level of democracy. There are two ways to achieve democratic result; one is through election and other is going to the roundtable. To use what is happening in Lagos PDP as an example, we were at war with one another, we went into primaries and somebody emerged and the other candidate was annoyed. That was what culminated in failure for the party. If we had been able to sit down; if all the resources used for the primaries had been deployed towards getting a consensus governorship candidate, the party’s performance would have been better.

The same goes for the national convention; about a day before the convention, we were having about 27 candidates. But at the end of the day, there was serious politicking overnight and the leaders of the party were able to come together and resolved that there should be a consensus candidate. There could have been an election, but if I know that going into an election will bring me failure, I will withdraw. It was out of serious politicking which is another form of democracy that we did what was done. I believe it is better for the PDP and that is why nobody is making any negative comment.

The man that eventually emerged as the national chairman has wider acceptability. If we had had election on that day, only God knows what would have happen; imagine that 26 candidates from one zone were struggling for a post; it could result in a violent situation.

Having in mind that the governors influenced the choice of Vincent Ogbulafor, will it be right to say they have taken over the party?
Don’t forget that governors are stakeholders in the party. They are number one persons in their states and the peace and unity of the PDP is paramount to them as well. They saw what was happening and as leaders, 26 of them agreed that they had to do something about it; they came together, discussed and deliberated on the matter and they took a decision. The decision was to come up with a consensus candidate who nobody ever thought could emerge chairman of the party. The decision ended up paralysing any force that could have come up and all factionalism that existed in the past. Immediately Ogbulafor was chosen, the acceptability was so glaring and everybody was satisfied.