‘OBJ shouldn’t quit as PDP BOT chairman’

Sylvanus LotChief Sylvanus Lot is the outgoing chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Plateau State. In this interview with Isaac Shobayo, he speaks on sundry issues relating to his party as well as his ambition for second term of office. Excerpts:

As the chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Plateau State, can you say what the position of the state regarding the coming national convention of the party is?
As at now that I am talking to you, the party in the state has not made up its mind on who to go for among those going about trying to sell their candidature to the party. But I can assure you that before the convention, we will make our position known.

Do you support the moves by a pressure group within the PDP, called G21, that former President Olusegun Obsanjo should relinquish his position as the party’s Board of Trusses (BOT) chairman.

Members of the group are entitled to their own opinion, but to the best of my knowledge, the former president did not just impose himself as BOT chairman, it was done through a normal process as specified by the constitution of the party, so, he cannot be changed by primordial sentiment.

Are you contesting for the position of the state chairman of the party?
Yes, I am in the race with full backing of my party from the central zone. Based on the zoning arrangement of the party, the chairmanship position was slated to the zone and consequently narrowed down to two local government areas; that is Kanke and Mangu local government areas and I was adopted as the consensus candidate of the party.
But another person, Professor Dakum Shown, from the zone has also signified his interest to contest along with you. How do you surmount this?

His declaration to contest was a big surprise to all members of the party, especially from the central zone, because he was among the elders of the party in the zone who prevailed on my only opponent, Yakubu Deshi, to step down for me. His coming out to contest is a big surprise to all of us. But I am not bothered; we shall meet to slug it out. I challenge him to remain in the race.

What is the governor’s reaction to the development?
My response to this is that the governor has always maintained public pronouncement that he doesn’t have any candidate. And during the primaries for the councilors, he never told me that he had any candidate and I have not seen anything contrary in his practice. So, my feeling is that Professor Shown may only be dropping names because he feels that is the only thing that can help him. If the governor tells me to back out for him today, I will gladly do so because of my relationship with the governor. And if there is any candidate favoured by the governor, I should be the one because I went round with the governor; we had a very successful outing and today, he is the governor.

So, I claim some level of credit for it even if it is one per cent as it happened during my time. If the governor calls me today and asks me to step down for Shown, I will oblige, but until then, we are going to slug it out.

So, what would be your priorities if you win?
My priorities would be to invite all our members that have left for other parties to come and join us. Plateau State is a family, we understand and speak the same language. The umbrella is big; let us come back and rebuild the state, afterall, we were in one party before and the people of Plateau State have spoken by giving us 21 members in the House of Assembly. So, we want unity. The premise of my campaign is that I am a unity candidate. I want to unite Plateau State through the medium of the party. Some of these people want to come back so that we can join hands in reconstructing the state. The second thing is that we are going to sit down and reorganise the research department of the party secretariat. We will research into where we are doing well and where we are not so that we can advise the government. For instance, the budget of the state for this year is a budget of hope because the governor is reorganising the internally generated revenue of the state so that we can even survive on that. So, if we put ourselves together, Plateau State can rise again.

How do you expect your party members to take you serious on uniting the party when you have not shown any commitment towards this in the past one year?
If you remember, at any time I have the opportunity of speaking with the press, I always say that we are extending hands of fellowship. But you know, in an election year like this, some people still want to make a point; they will insist they can only come back after the election. I even went a step further to tell them that if they join us now, it would be as good as having joined us from day one when we started.

Will your reconciliation extend to people like former governor Joshua Dariye?
Dariye is a member of the PDP, he was only suspended. But for him to be readmitted, he has to make the move. I cannot go and coerce or cajole him to come, he knows what to do. I have heard him say in the press that he respects Governor Jonah Jang and that he is in the PDP. He has said so himself, it is only his body language that suggests otherwise.So, we regard him as a member of the PDP. We will welcome Senator Janfa, but I expect people like Yahaya Kwnade to retire; you know every profession has a retirement period. These are elders, they should retire so that we can get advice from them.

The present race is seen as a contest between those PDP members that left for the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in 2003 and those that left for All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP). How would you react to this?
No, it is between the foundation members of the PDP. I am a foundation member of the PDP; we started it in Bukuru here. We are all foundation members and don’t forget that I was a governorship aspirant in 1999. We used our resources to build the PDP and at that time, there was no Shown. Unlike Shown, I have never lost my polling centre or ward. For the purpose of clarification, let me say that the Mangu North East Constituency comprises Panyam, Pushit and Gindiri which has about six wards. They are more in number there. But in the two wards of Panyam and Pushit, the PDP won. But the contestant was from Gindiri. So, the little advantage we gave them was swallowed by what happened at Gindiri and that was not my fault. And you should know that it was the first time Mantu was winning in Mangu. So, nobody can diminish me by using some useless statistics.

What are your achievements so far?
One is the leadership or administrative style I brought. We have two major styles of administration; one is to delegate and the other is to be an autocrat. My predecessor was more of the latter. But in my own case, as an administrator with many years of experience, I have decided to delegate responsibilities in accordance with the constitution. It is during my time that the zonal chairmen were made to function; I don’t deal directly with the local government chairmen; they must come through their zonal chairmen. I am implementing the constitution of the party by delegating responsibilities.