PDP needs to put its house in order even from the national level –Engr. Doherty

Engineer Adedeji Doherty, a frontline businessman, former chairman of People’s Democratic Party (PDP), and a governorship aspirant of the party in 2015, 2019 and 2023. He is the chairman of DAIN group which includes Dohagro Industries, 10 degrees Events Centres among other businesses. He has been a member of PDP since 1998.

In this chat with ISAAC NGUMAH, Engineer Doherty talks about the contemporary political issues including the 2027 general elections. Excerpt:

During the 2023 election, you were appointed as the chairman of Presidential Campaign Council of PDP in Lagos State. Then you worked for Alhalji Atiku Abubakar and Okowa Vice Presidential Candidate of the party. Can you tell us how the political campaign went?

Yes, I was appointed as the chairman of PCC, the Presidential Campaign Council for Atiku-Okowa Presidential Council. It was a very revealing period; it was during that period I realized that a lot of works needed to be put in place in our party in terms of administrations; checks and balances in terms of sincerity; in terms of rule of terms and also following the constitution of the party. During that time, we planned our strategies very well. We had an outing that was created by obedient, Labour Party factions that came out of PDP Lagos State, when I was Chairman, it was 10,000 members; I spent two and a half years as chairman. We mobilized people into the party and we hit almost 30 something thousands, sitting members registered members but fortunately, our strength was mainly centered in Lagos West Senatorial District. It showed in the results of the presidential election result because most of the non-indigenes believed in us; they have supported for us over the years. It showed in the result of the election where Atiku Abubakar had only 75,000 in Lagos State that was the real shock to us because it is just PDP members that voted for Atiku Abubakar. It was just the figure we had in the party; we were about sixty something in the party in the 137,000 polling units. In the same election, the Lagos State senatorial unit had 275,000 in the same the non-indigenes voted for the President and voted for the senatorial candidate of PDP. So, I will tell you that our strategies worked, but it was truncated by this so action.

From your point of view, what do you think can be done in 2027 that is almost around the corner?

Is for the PDP leaders inclusive, it is for us to open our doors very wide and a lot of consultations because the last elections, the last congress we did not follow the parties constitutions our congresses in many states were faulty especially in Lagos State especially during thegovernorship elections even though you are a member in the BOT, NWC, NEC or local government, you are bounded by one constitution and everyone is supposed to follow the constitution and when you are an opposition, when you are not following the constitution it becomes an abatrust there are consequences and they are never good so when you don’t follow the constitutions of the party I will sight an example of PDP in  Lagos State you have a structure of the party conducts an election in corporation with NWC the NWC sends a committee down to conduct that election that is the adhoc delegate election you go through it and it is peaceful, it doesn’t have any rancour and at the end of the day, the committee came and they were happy it was peaceful. It then took the results and it got to Abuja, and Abuja now decides to destroy the whole results.

 Why should Abuja decide to destroy the whole result?

It was best known to them.

Are there no penalties for such action?

That was part of failure in the 2023 election. Now, you invite someone that has not even spent four months in the party coming from the opposition party to come and write the results; cooked results, the entire results; Congress results, the entire thing and we have paid for governorship forms of 80 something millions from hard sweat and you sell these forms and say you want to conduct primary elections and after that, you presented to us fake results from the national. We are not fools; we are grown men and successful men. Even the state chairman at time protested, you ignored it. We have been in the party for 25 years and then you tell someone who has just come to the party for four months to come and write results of a hard hand election; a Congress that was keenly conducted in all local governments and we made it known to the Chairman of the Committee that came to conduct the primary election. He sat down and told us we have been there for 25 years that he was told to come and deliver Jandor and we said okay we are not going to go anywhere, you deliver the Jandor but make sure that those of you that have come to deliver Jandor should come and deliver him during the general election we are not going to waste of resources in court and if you know how to manipulate the constitution  of the party then you should be able to manipulate the winning of the election that was what happened at the venue Adedosumu and others withdrew from the election and we all decided that we will not take part in that election anymore we will work for Atiku Abubakar and they even promised of returning our money for the form back to us which they never did we will also wait for Abuja to address the abnormalities in the governorship election, at the end of the day they never did, the candidate himself was not willing to work with anybody, he was not willing to bring everybody together he was not willing to do anything he was not willing to  compromise, he wrote all the house of assembly resultsfor the primaries he put his own people there for the senatorial, the house of assembly, the house of reps, he took the whole thing and we were just looking at him and the deputy governor which himself and bode George and others put their heads together and nominate he jettison them so from the governor and the deputy we did not even have a PDP member unfortunately this was what played, Atiku called me to see him which I did at the presidential airport he pleaded with me to please try and support this candidate called Jandor, Jide Adediran and I agreed and I tried to talk to others and a lot of them decided that they were not going to work with Jide and they left adedosunmi and others left to APC and other parties while I stayed in PDP, we spoke severally I was asking him questions concerning his agents list of which he was aggressive about and I also invited the leaders of the party in Abuja to intercede to see his preparedness because he sold this preparedness because to the entire party those that bought, bought it at the end of the day, and he never had an agent list how can you have 13,700 poly units  in Lagos and you cannot even present an agent list of which he refused right there I decided I wasn’t going to take part in the governor election because it was going to be a waste of time I see that he wasn’t prepared and he was doing what he wanted to do when all these things were going the APC was watching and they were reaching out to most of the PDP leaders and the deputy governor ask to see me and he was quite articulated on what they wanted to do and I said to your boss bola Ahmed Tinubu have always invited me close to four times when he was a sitting governor and when Obanikoro was our candidate and he has invited me severally and I never joined APC as of that time and he same response I gave to the president as at time  I also gave to the present deputy governor of Lagos State  and I put his mind at rest as far as I concerned the party has a candidate personally that is not my candidate I am not voting for the governorship, Atiku is my candidate.

  2027 is around the corner and you as a pioneer member of PDP look at how other members have joined the ruling party and other parties, but you still remain in PDP, do you not think as an older member of PDP in Lagos you should begin to galvanize members of PDP for reconciliation and peaceful gathering for 2027?

Lagos State is not like any other state of PDP where they have Governors and things are moving very fast in Edo State because they have a governor; in Ondo State they are moving very fast because they don’t have a governor that is why we beg the sitting governors to help the non-sitting Governors’ states, PDP structure in Lagos State you need serious investment in a part where your passions sacrifice your inputs is realized or be shaky most parties  do not realize that if you don’t give confidence to members, they will never invest in the party. PDP needs to show it is now ready to deal with the rule of law; it is now ready to follow the constitution to create level-playing field for everybody and that it is now ready those that served the party, those that invested in the party are those that sacrificed in the party are those that are recognized in the party, unfortunately, we have leaders because of their position as BOT they appoint and impose somebody as chairman. You impose him as this or that he doesn’t even go through an election. Definitely, he will not tie the importance to that position. I was state chairman. I funded the party as at that time some leaders wanted me to play to the gallery. Some leaders took me to court and I was not in good times with some of the leaders of the party, they also funded some court proceedings against and this is the time I was galvanizing into the party, if I was Governor, will Endsars happen? No. If I was Governor, will I tell them to break down the houses that people built? No. if I was Governor, will I lockdown Ladipo market? No. I will talk with them, we will agree on something. If I was Governor, will we still be talking about primary health care? No. If I was Governor, will we still talking about pensions that people are not collecting? If I was Governor, will there be so much double taxations? It is wrong. I have a little factory, small scale factory I have shut down one because of double taxation in Lagos State. We have close to high level figure of taxes, everybody is taxing people any department in Lagos State has turned to a revenue-generating department. Why do you think it is so because Lagos State has incurred trillions debt; all the young men that are in government have all turned to tax collectors and they put on uniforms and what is the future of that person? Where does it end tomorrow? These are the issues. The women, the young ladies,Lagos State needs to address a lot of issues. It is not just talk of symbolism, conference symbolism. What happens to the blue rail, the red rail and serious debts have been incurred? Who are going to pay these debts? Our children, your children, House of Assembly children, the Governor and the deputy Governor’s children, they are going to pay either to China or World Bank.

What can you say on the just-concluded protest and the next protest that is coming up in October this year?

Protest is part of democracy. When former President Goodluck Jonathan was president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu was the head of the protest. I remembered Femi Falana and the late Gani Fawehinmi; they were all at the Freedom Park and when I asked Jonathan what we are going to do about it, he said it was part of democracy. As a matter of fact, he told the CP and the IGP that the CP should give them security so that hoodlums didn’t hijack the protest.

PDP in Lagos State needs to put its house in order and restructure the party. What is your take?

Well, it is not only restructuring the party, it is to create incentives in the party. I warn the Governors of the state none of them can become president if PDP in Lagos State continues like this; they need to get involved in the daily financial support of the party. Where is the PDP Lagos State forgetting their support, some of the leaders in the party have sent them out into oblivion; sent them out of the party and they don’t even care and they alone cannot fund the party but they are sending more leaders out of the party and we have NWC and we have a BoT and the NWC needs to be involved in the creation and the structure of the party of the state. Where you don’t have Governors, they need to fund them in an impoverished state and impoverished economy. You don’t expect the ward chairmen or zonal chairmen to use their money to run their own meetings.

But if there is a crash in PDP, don’t you think it will give the ruling party an upper hand?

I think it will happen.

So, what are your strategies right now?

I was once a chairman and I did what I had to do and some of the leaders took me to court. My name was concealed out of the Convection. PDP needs to put its house in order and right down from the national level, we had a problem and Ayu did what he did which was terrible and mistakes have been made at all front even myself.

As it is now, how can these internal crises be settled by your party so as to move forward?

I think first of all is having the wiliness and second is having the determination to have the passion for the party. We have a NWC that controls the day-to-day running of the party in Abuja and we have a sitting chairman of the BoT. These were created in the party to create a check and balance including the neck since AYU was taken off by court and Damagun was made acting chairman; since then till now, the party has not seen peace and Wike is either in or out of PDP or APC. At the end of the day, for those that know him know he is rebelling maybe for how he was treated after Convention I don’t know his grievance. PDP has to go inwards and reconcile itself; it has to reach encompasses. If the PDP does not organize themselves in the next few months, then we have given the ruling party an opportunity.

Atiku Abubakar has notified his intention to work with Peter Obi in 2027. What is your take?

It is a good fatherly step and we are expecting it to crystallize into something and if it crystallizes, a lot of damages that had already been done to the party will be undone.

President Bola Ahmed has been in office for over a year now and there has been the issue of fuel subsidy which he removed. Apart from fuel price hike price, today, the country is faced with the issues of hardship, insecurity, kidnapping, terrorism among others. How do you assess this government in power so far?

Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu was the Governor of Lagos State from 1999 to 2007. So, the ideology of bringing fears even at the national level to even the members that he works with is wrong for APC.

People are saying that the President did not come up with concrete plans before he assumed office. What is your reaction?

Well I won’t say yes to that the Bola Ahmed Tinubu knows what to do he has structuresinstitutions both here and abroad so he knows what to do and how to revamp the country. Theory does not explain Nigeria you cannot study how to manage Nigeria in a book, the economic fabric of the country has always been shaken  a lot of activist have complain they were side by side with the president during protest and now he is complaining against protest and I will advise the Mr.president to try as much as possible to use the same structure they used during NADECO to bring back the realities of the country where NADECO and what NADECO stood for what he should stand for now that God has put there as president.

Local Government has been granted autonomy by the Supreme Court of Nigeria, what can you say to this?

I believe in the autonomy of the local government I believe the local government should be independent from the governors I believe governors are not doing as much as they should do, if they adhere there won’t be much poverty in the land because you cannot blame the federal government for everything especially The local government autonomy it is right only if the president wants the local government to work it will work but I see a loophole, and if Mr. president wants a national body like to overseer the election of the local government that means 774 local governments you have taken over 774 local government chairmen in states that belong to your party and other party so who is going to be paying the local government chairmen they are going to be flying to Abuja directly and the presidents calls a meeting of the 774 local governments definitely they will heed and be submissive.

Should the country sit down and look at the 2024 National Confab?

The constitution need to be rewritten and amended I believe that the presidency has too much power, the center has too much power and I believe they are handling more expected in terms of the confab that there should be restructuring I believe there should be a new constitution that creates a situation and governors are forced to do what they are supposed to do in the various state, restructuring can be within the zones the governors can come together and have a common purse where they can say oh let you be agricultural center for the southwest, food basket will be between you and Osun educational basket will be between Ekiti and Ondo and different developments for the zone will be shared among the state but funded by the state, what is wrong with Lagos, Oyo, Osun, Ondo, Ekiti, Ogun creating a common purse a fast train that will go round will the federal government to build a first class hospital in Badagry in Lagos state what is wrong with all the state coming together to fund all the university for all the states what is wrong with all the state coming together to have a common purse to create different things different infrastructures in the various states in the southwest and is how it should happen in the east, northeast and the north central that is restructuring from the mind.

Would state police solve security problems in the country?

I can tell you that some governors will misuse it, I don’t want say more than that but it will be fast and useful but it will be used by politically against opposition

What can you say on the proposed six year term for the presidents and the Governor?

Six year term is enough for the presidents and the governors to perform I support single six year one term it is the best

What can you say on electoral process in Nigeria?

The electoral process needs to be revamped; it needs to be adjusted; we have a lot of loopholes,and a lot of insincere chairmen of INEC.

What can you say on just-conducted election in Edo State?

We have seen all that took place I think PDP will see justice

What can you say on the upcoming election in Ondo State?

PDP will win in Ondo State; people are tired of APC and want to vote out APC

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