The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Bamanga Tukur, in this interview with OLUSOLA FABIYI, talks about his party and insecurity in the nation
The three major opposition political parties have concluded their conventions and have agreed to merge in order to form a formidable party. What is your reaction to this?
For us to have a healthy and developed country, there must be democracy. Democracy is a must because it is the foundation. It gives individuals the opportunities to express their wishes and their fears.
So, when political parties were formed, they come out with the combination of all that the people want; they will come out with the wishes of the people and put them in their manifesto. If you want to create or form a party, you have to go to the people first. Your going to the people will enable you to understand what they want. Your manifesto will be based on what the people want. In other words, the manifesto will reflect the wishes and expectations of the generality of the people.
Once you reflect the wishes of the people in your manifesto, they will come to you and support you. They will join your party because through your manifesto, you are making a promise to them. But if you don't allow them, or the majority of them to really express their wishes and you do not reflect those wishes in your manifesto or you don't allow them to have free access to you, then you will start having problems.
What did you do to make the Peoples Democratic Party better when you assumed office?
When I came, I told the people that I am one of the co-founders of PDP and I know what we said when the party was formed. PDP should be a party of the grassroots because we want to carry everybody along from bottom to top. For us to develop as a party, we must be united and peaceful. It is necessary for us to really meet needs of the majority of the people. This is what we have been doing since we came on board.
Was that the reason that made your party big?
The reason why the party is big is because at the beginning, PDP was able to have membership right from the ward level. It is the only party now that really fields candidates in all the elective posts, in all the wards and local governments throughout the country. That is where we are and that is what really makes us a truly national party, a truly national party; with presence in every part of the country. Because of our spread, there is a bond among our members. Based on that bond, we have created fairness; we have created equity and justice among our members. We have created what I call partnership and patronage. So, with all of these, it will become very difficult for any opposition to upstage an organisation like the PDP.
In other words, PDP is not bothered about the emergence of the All Progressive Congress?
No. PDP wants democracy and PDP cannot pretend that it is the only party that exists in the country. PDP recognises that there are other parties, associations and whatever you call them, and we are ready to work with them. But PDP is not distracted by other parties coming together. PDP should now find out what else it is not doing as a party that other parties are doing, especially things that they are doing in favour of their own members. In other places, at the beginning, it is ideology. But people don't talk about ideology at the moment. Before, it was communism and socialism. It was divided between the West and the East. This is no longer the case. Everybody knows that today, it is human rights, justice, democracy and equity. That is the ideology today. These are the issues. How deep you are as a party and how prepared are you to practise these issues will now determine how your members will continue to support you. That is the idea. When there is opposition, it will ginger you. If you have been sleeping before, now you have to wake up. PDP is under my watch. We can work with any association because I see it as a competition.
How competitive do you think the opposition parties are?
It is a competition. If I go to market with my money, do you tell me what to buy? It is a free market. Our own is to field our candidates. If we are doing well, our candidates will win.
With what is happening in Rivers State, would you say the reconciliation you preach has failed or succeeded?
Reconciliation is a continuous thing. It is still going on and we are not tired of doing that. We will continue to reconcile our members, because we want peace in our party and in the country. You cannot say that we have failed because of one isolated case. We are pursuing it further.
The leader of the Niger Delta Volunteered Force, Mujaheed Asari-Dokubo, recently said there would be war if President Goodluck Jonathan is not re-elected in 2015. Do you agree with him?
It is a wrong thing to talk about war in election. Election should be free. People elect who they want. So, election is free. Election should not be something you say if somebody does not win, then something will happen. Once you say that, then it is no more election. Election means you offer yourself and the people will either take you or they take another person. That is what election means and it must be free and fair. So, if someone makes it a matter of controversy, I don't think people should take such issues seriously.
So, if people are trying to confuse issue, people should ask them, 'Why are you fighting about election? We thought we are in a democratic country where we offer ourselves for service and people are free to choose.' When the time comes for people to elect their leaders, they will vote according to their conscience.
Some people have been asking for the resignation of President Goodluck Jonathan because of the way he is handling the security in the country. What is your reaction to this?
My reaction to this kind of talk is that it is just ignorance. Was it the President that killed policemen? He was not the one. If there is any security threat, the security agents will take care of it. Recently, some people were killed in Boston Marathon by bombs. Would you ask Obama to resign because of that? A guy went berserk sometime this year and opened fire on pupils and teachers in an American school. Would you say Obama should resign because of that? It is lack of exposure or ignorance that makes people to say things like that. Opposition can say anything they like, we are not bothered about that.
We heard about your purported resignation while you were away…
I also heard about it when I was in Canada. They said I have resigned. But you can see me working here (PDP secretariat) for my country and my party. I don't know where such rumour came from and I won't bother myself finding out because I am here to serve.
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