PDP is dying –Tapgun

Sir Fidelis Tapgun, former governor of Plateau State, erstwhile
Nigeria’s Ambassador to Kenya, one-time Minister of Industry
during former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration
and one of the founding fathers of the Peoples Democratic
Party, PDP is angry with the party he once prided as the
largest party in
Africa. In fact, when he spoke with Sunday Sun last week, the
basic element of his language was laced with extremely harsh
criticism of the PDP and the governors running the affairs of
states ruled by the party.
Execerpts
In this question and answer session in his house in
Jos,Sunday Sun first asked him why he has not been
speaking before now as one of the founding fathers of the
ruling People’s Democratic Party, the PDP?
“I thought you said you covered our primaries here. We’ve
been doing politics here. It’s just that we are not the talking
type, so to speak. And I have been a PDP man all along. I
was governor here;; yes, during the military. After it, I was
posted to Kenya when politics came back as an Ambassador.
I was there for three years and I came back and served in the
Obasanjo and Atiku Presidential campaign in 2003.
After it, I became the Minister of Industry. While serving as
Minister, I was asked to come back home and deliver Jang in
Plateau State. The instruction was clear: to deliver, Jang. Let
me put it properly so that you know what I am talking about. I
was asked to come and deliver him because Obasanjo wanted
PDP to win the elections in Plateau State and left alone, he
(Jang) would not win.
You mean Jang will not win?
Yes.
How?
There are so many things, but if you ask them at the party
headquarters, they will tell you what they told him at that
time. So, I had to leave my job and start the campaign here.
What happened was that at the primaries of 2007, himself
and… they went for the primary but nobody got 50 percent.
So, the two of them that scored the highest votes had to go
for a re-run. And the party was not too comfortable with the
re-run because if there is a re-run, the others will gang up
against him. For some reasons, the party wanted him to be
the governor. There are reasons which I know myself but I
don’t want to talk about them now. There was this agitation
that the northern zone has never done it. Then, the Beroms
have never done it. All those things were there. But
he turned out to be one of the candidates of the PDP at that
time. So, if they went for a re-run, it was not
going to be possible for him to win. For that reason I
explained the party said there was not going to be a re-run
because if there was a re-run, he was not going to get it.
They said we should go and reconcile the two of them with a
view to making one of them to step down for the other. We
tried to reconcile the two of them, it wasn’t possible. It was
Jang and Damishi Sango. When there was that stalemate, the
party told me, Senator Mantu, Slvanus Lot, that was the
Chairman of the party here and the Governor here, Botman
who was governor at that time should try and reconcile them.
We met in Abuja to try and reconcile the two of them, it
wasn’t possible.
But because it was getting too long, the hierarchy of the party
then called us to a meeting in the villa.
We went for the meeting in the villa, Obasanjo was there, Chief
Anenih was there, Ojo Madueke was there as the Secretary of
the party at that time and Dr. Ahmadu Ali was there. Four of
us came from
outside who were the leaders in the state, and then the four
party stalwarts were there. Then Obasanjo
surfaced in the villa. So, they asked us whether we had been
able to reconcile them, we said no, and
they said okay, the party has taken a decision. That was
Obasanjo’s statement. Well, the party has taken a decision,
Jang is going to be the candidate of the party. He said Sango,
you have to be patient. Go and
work for the party. You are a party man, bla, blabla, bla. So,
that was it. But Obasanjo went further to say Jang, you alone
cannot win this election because…there are so many reasons
he gave. He said people don’t like you…and so on. He said so
many things. So, for that reason, I am going to release my
Minister to go and do that campaign for you. I am saying this
for the first time so that people can began to hear this story.
He will lead that campaign otherwise, you are not going to
win. All the people I have mentioned are all alive. That was
the decision eight of us in the room took. Jang and Sango
were sitting outside. Obasanjo specifically told Jang that he
would not win the election if he went it alone and therefore,
he will release his Minister because he is on ground.
That Minister Obasanjo referred to was myself. So, he asked
Ahmadu Ali and Chief Anenih who were there their opinions on
the decision he had taken and they said it was okay. Botman
and
Mantu also said it was a good idea. So, Obasanjo turned to
me and asked: Tapgun, will you lead the campaign for him? I
said sir, anything you ask me to do I will do. He said okay you
are going to lead that campaign because I want PDP to win in
Plateau State otherwise we are not going to win. There was a
serious opposition, not only from the opposition party but also
from within. So, Obasanjo then called them in to announce the
decision to them.
He said Jang you have been chosen, but you are not going to
win the election because of this, this and this. First, you are a
tribalist;; secondly, you are arrogant…all sorts of things he
told him and people don’t like you.
He now told him that for that reason I am going to release my
Minister to run your campaign for you.
Are you okay with that? He knelt down in front of Obasanjo
and said thank you sir and turned to me
to say thank you sir because I accepted to run his campaign.
Then he stood up to say that he is not like that and that all
the things they have said about him are not true and so on.
That’s how we came out to do the campaign. This house was
the campaign headquarters;; this place you are sitting. So we
came here.
There was no money. Sometimes I will remove money from my
pocket and put fuel in the car before money started coming
from the headquarters. I led this campaign against people’s
wish. I had to plead because they know what I can do and
that I am a man of honour. They then said because of you we
are going to do this. Not that it was hidden. They told him to
his face.
So, what happened that …Nothing. It’s just that after he won
the election, I started advising him on what to do and they
decided that nobody brought them. It was God that brought
them to power. So, they should alienate everybody. But at the
first few months of their administration, I had cause to go to
Ota Farm to report them. Baba came to Abuja and called
them and me and warned them in front of me. After that,
when they started doing it again I had to take them before the
Ekwueme Reconciliation Committee. I was a member of that
committee. I had to tell them to intervene because we had a
strong gulf among our party men on the Plateau. They were
all called to the Legacy House and spoken to. They refused t
cooperate with anybody in the state. They were just doing
their work, all the other stakeholders, including Sango and
myself that brought them to power.
He had a clique. They call themselves Jang Organisation or
something of that sort.
But this was a long time ago. You mean there has been no
healing of the wounds since then?
Jang is not a man of healing. That’s the unfortunate thing. He
doesn’t forgive anybody.
You probably did something that he didn’t really like if you
just reflect…
No.no.no.no. Nothing. If I did something to him, I wouldn’t
have agreed to lead his campaign. The insults I got from the
people who accused me of accepting to serve in governor’s
campaign whereas I did a Presidential campaign was painful.
They were wondering why I should reduce myself to that level.
I told them that it is the President that told me to head his
campaign. But, that is his life and I think
it is unfortunate.
You were governor of this state in 1992. Nearly 23 years
after, you suddenly decided to throw your hat into the ring
and now some people, on hearing your name as one of the
aspirants are asking if there is
anything you didn’t do then that you now want to do more
than 20 years after.
If you say I was governor, I don’t know how long you are
talking about. How long was it? I came to be governor
because I wanted to do certain things for the state. That was
why I came on board.
But the military didn’t allow us. We did only 18 months;; so
we had to go.
After leaving office, we had three governors who vied for the
position of governor and were in office. So, there was an
interim within which you should have contested and…
Okay, Dariye and this one;; yes…this is the point I was trying
to make now. That was why I was asked to come and do this.
I was the one that was going to contest in 2007 and because
of this complaint that I have just told you about (the need for
governor from central zone), I am from southern zone…that’s
why Obasanjo said I am the one on ground. Do you catch the
story? I was the one that was going to contest, but because
of this complaint, I said okay there is no problem.
What really went wrong between you and the present
governor?
He is not feeling happy. There was no primary.
But they announced results. As announced you got only one
vote and the question is that even the Director-General of your
campaign didn’t vote for you.
This is the whole thing now. That is why you should be
wondering. They sat in their houses and cooked the results.
But you know the politics in Nigeria today. You know that. I
am not going to tell
you that one. That’s the way we practise politics today in this
country, and I think that it is not something anybody should
laugh about. It is also not ajoking matter. We are going down
the drain.
Is there no hope of taking decision and redressing the
matter?
What are you solving again. They have already taken their
decisions and they have already started doing what they want
to do. The primary was cooked and arranged to get out
somebody.
In other words, you have accepted the results from the
primary?
I have not accepted, but if they say that is what they want,
what do you want me to do? They have imposed the results
on people. So what do you want me to do?
So, what is going to happen next? If you have not accepted,
what is your next line of action?
Well, the people of Plateau State will decide, not me.
What does this portend for Plateau State?
It is unfortunate. Well, I have told them that if this thing is
not corrected the party is going to lose. We have not hidden
anything about that. We have told them in very clear terms.
We have been in this party, PDP, from the start;; so nobody is
going to tell me anything about the PDP. Nobody. But if we
continue the way we are going, the party is dying.
It’s not only in Plateau but Nigeria, generally. The party is just
dying because of this imposition. If you take a look at the
report of the Ekwueme Committee on Reconciliation, that is
what is supposed to be the Bible of the party secretariat. But
they are not fol- lowing it at all.
There is no internal democracy. The governors are just
allowed to do whatever they want to do. They impose
everybody from the councillorship;; this is not healthy for the
PDP. It was meant to be a people’s party;; that is why it is
called People’s party. The people are supposed to decide what
hap- pens in the party, not governors. But the governors have
hijacked it. In fact, they have hijacked…even the president is
being held at ransom by the governors. So, it is not going to
help the party or anybody for that matter. The idea of the PDP
we formed then was supposed to be an all inclusive
movement. That is why we called it the People’s Democratic
Party. It is owned by the people and not the governors. The
people decide who gets what in it;; not individuals.
As it is now, individuals are those deciding what the people
want. PDP has derailed completely from its
original intentions. Internal democracy is the most important.
Allow the people to chose who they want. That’s the most
important thing. If you allow the people to chose who they
want, then you will be fine. But if it it anything you want that
you force down the people’s throats, then, the people will
resist.
If you look all over the country, you find PDP members
jumping to other parties.
To be continued