From Idu Jude Abuja
Hon. Stephen Abraham Ajiya is a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who contested in the recently concluded PDP North Central zonal election held in Jos Plateau State. In a chat with Sunday Sun, Ajiya said that the zoning arrangement of the party remains the best election pattern that can give equal opportunity and representation to all ethnic groups in Nigeria.
He endorsed the political position that the party should field a southern presidential candidate in the 2027 general elections. He sheds more light on his position.
With the gale of defections hitting the PDP is there any hope the party bouncing back?
I can tell you that a bright future awaits the party, irrespective of what is happening right now. As you know, elections are coming, to be honest, almost all the APC, PDP or LP candidates are ordinarily members of the PDP, no doubt. Narrowing it down to the FCT, even if the APC wins today, it is still a win for the PDP. I must tell you that some of the former PDP members, wherever they are, are doing great jobs, be it at the ministerial level or as chairmen of their councils. We know the circumstances behind joining the APC, and he has a lot of support. We don’t discriminate because we are of the same clan, we speak the same language, and we only wish them good luck. Nationally, we dare to say the PDP will be better after President Tinubu’s administration. As it stands, one of the reasons that made me contest for the PDP North Central Zonal Chairmanship is that I believe there are things that we need to correct, particularly as it relates to zoning.
If you remember, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan lost his election technically because it was assumed that the North was supposed to have done its eight years with the demise of former President Umaru Yar’Adua. If he had continued, it would have allowed him to serve another 4 years to complete his term in the South. In PDP, that question has not been answered because those who are clamouring now that power should come to the North were the same people who suggested that Goodluck is from the South and that power should continue from the North, which brought Buhari in the 2015 election.
In my own candid opinion, I would advise that if the PDP should present a candidate that would contest against the incumbent, then the person should come from the South. As it stands now, I believe that former President Goodluck Jonathan is a sure bet, and a better person we can root for. If he comes out, he is only going to spend four years. We have seen some permutations. They said that some candidates have agreed that they will quit after four-year tenure and power will shift to the North. It is still that zoning arrangement that is compelling them to say so. That is why we have seen many from the South promising to do single four-year tenure if given the opportunity. So, we are sure that if Goodluck comes, he won’t even think of coming there to stay for another eight years.
But looking towards 2027, I don’t know how they can convince Nigerians that the North should take over power again in PDP calculations. And that is if they have their way, we will see how it plays out.
Will the defection of a bigwig like Atiku Abubakar not further destabilize PDP ahead of 2027?
You see, a day in politics is a long period. I believe that after the party resolves the zoning issue involving the South and North, PDP will bounce back. Let’s take it this way, the APC after Tinubu would have to have a candidate from the North, and the PDP would do the same in 2027. What would you expect? The election will be explosive, a clash of the Titans. Sometimes it is not the number of states one controls. We saw that during Buhari’s election when it was obvious that the PDP controlled more states but still lost the election. I suggest that the party should agree that the presidency should rotate between the North and the South, and if I have my way, it should be enshrined in the Constitution, so that when it comes to the North, we in the North Central should also vie for it.
But Atiku Abubakar has just distorted the zoning arrangement with the ambition to contest in 2027…?
Well, I don’t see this current President going back to Lagos in the name of losing the 2027 election. I don’t see it in this current arrangement that he has lost the election. There will be restlessness from the South, and the issue of agitation would come up again, and it is an aberration that anytime the South has the opportunity for the Presidency, it becomes short-lived. It is not healthy because it affects the region politically.
Again, the ADC might be a party ready to contest in the future. I can’t see how the ADC is going to defeat the current administration, and if by chance the PDP presents Goodluck Jonathan, then ADC is finished, that is my submission anyway.
Going by the zoning arrangement, are you saying that Atiku Abubakar’s move could be a futile attempt?
I won’t say so, because I am not God, but I will tell you that knowing Nigeria very well, and the way it is currently, the best option for the Peoples Democratic party is the man called Goodluck Jonathan because we in the North are sure that he can only do one tenure but for us to say power should leave the South, and come back to the North after late Buhari’s eight years, so what is the justification for equality. What is the argument? Is it that southerners cannot lead Nigeria? What made certain individuals in the North believe that it was their birthright? Does it mean that anything they say is right? Do we mean that the southern president is a difficult thing to achieve in Nigeria? We should remember that former President Jonathan was pushed out just for a balance of the rotation, and now the northeners are the ones distorting the process again. If Peter Obi had remained in the PDP, he would have been a better option. He should have been given the ticket to contest. I can also say that this is the same thing that pushed out Peter Obi from the PDP was also repeated in the ADC coalition. As it is now, they have blinded Peter Obi again, and we in the PDP were laughing at him because he didn’t know what he was venturing into in the Atiku coalition talk. We knew that Atiku would contest in 2027 and at the same time, that Obi was seeking the same thing.
When that coalition invitation was sent to him, we knew what was going to happen. The idea was to bring him in and rubbish him because Atiku wouldn’t let go. After all, he, Atiku Abubakar, made the coalition to prepare himself for the 2027 presidential election when he saw that the PDP had become too difficult a place to pick a ticket.
When we saw the arrangement, we knew Obi couldn’t win the election under this arrangement because no one was going to give him a ticket under ADC, unless Atiku did not contest. But we knew they wanted to make him Vice-President. To some of us, we laughed when we saw Peter Obi in the coalition, and we said, ‘Was this not the same arrangement he rejected in the 2019 election?’ Why then did he reject it only to come in 2025 to accept the same arrangement with Atiku?
We saw it coming, and we thought he was just working on a mockery. And for you to see how dangerous and desperate they are, Atiku Abubakar hurriedly and officially resigned his membership of the PDP to confirm to everyone that he is out to pick the ADC ticket for 2027.
You see, I was waiting to hear Peter Obi announcing to the general public that he has accepted to be a running mate to Atiku Abubakar, which he had rejected earlier, and who told Obi that a vice presidential candidate will never get the chance to be president. Obi’s coalition move surprised all of us, even when the South East had vowed that they wouldn’t settle for anything except the President, which is the truth. Except for Goodluck Jonathan, who became President after the death of Yar’Adua.
Tell me, which state function does a Vice-President perform? He is only sent him to attend burial ceremony. I thought he should have also planned a coalition for LP, but at the time, I saw he was not even the person doing so. He may have been disillusioned and was not allowed to think properly because the coalition was not put together by him but was organised by another person, who then invited him. And the question is, did he think that after Atiku had spent his money putting up the coalition, he would leave it for Obi to pick up the ticket? These were the questions some of us were asking when we got wind of the arrangement.
Do you know that the current National Chairman of the ADC, David Mark, wasn’t even brought in by Obi, nor was the current National Working Committee (NWC) composed by him? I don’t even see his contribution in the whole arrangement and composition of the party, so Obi was just standing aloof waiting for the coalition presidential ticket to be handed over to him. How? Who gives that kind of free food?
I think it is the right of every Nigerian to contest which I don’t have a problem with. I also believe that Atiku Abubakar has served this country and also has all the credentials qualifying him to be a credible candidate, but there are things we have to consider because even at the age of 90, he can still contest. So he has to wait after the South has done its eight years.
With Atiku and other members leaving in droves, what do you think can be done to make the party bounce back?
Speaking from experience, money has a lot of roles to play, one of which is belonging to a political party. No politician remains in a party where he records no success or remains irrelevant. So people are also defecting because they also want to eat and remain relevant, which might be their reasons. Again, I don’t think those leaving now should be there permanently. I believe that they will soon be back to PDP because I said earlier that the PDP gave birth to all of these political parties, and what we see nowadays is a bit of drama among politicians. When they fail to get what was promised to them before crossing the carpet, they will always head back to their mother political parties. Let me ask you one question: did anyone ever dream of Mallam El-Rufai leaving the APC? Something happened because the ADC has a lot of resources, and such people don’t think the way we do. That’s the way of politicians, but I must tell you that the PDP is going to get stronger for some obvious reasons. One of them is if the South is allowed to produce a presidential candidate, and secondly, after the South might have served its eight years, then I see the party coming back because it remains the only political party deep-rooted across the 774 local governments of the federation. That is my position, and I also believe that the mass exodus means well because it will enable the party to be focused and plan for the years ahead.
Are you saying that those coming and going are those looking for mere opportunities to jump at?
Like I said, there are several reasons people do what they do, and we believe that the man who just left for coalition should this time allow the party to be, because we are bouncing back. With good people and resources pulled together the PDP will be back to retake its place as the best party in Nigeria. And don’t forget that we are not the ruling party, and that we are also battling the power of the incumbent. Do you think the party in power would like to relinquish power? Some of these crises are sponsored ones, but what we are saying is that there must be good leadership within the party to help defeat these external aggressions.
You took the party and INEC to court regarding the North Central election in which you contested. Please explain the reason.
You see, what we have discovered in this party is that some people take the PDP as their private estate or business and feel that nobody has a voice. Before I headed to the court, I gave opportunity for us to talk, but no one listened. I had reached out, but they knew they were illegally occupying the position. When the election was held, INEC didn’t participate because the letter inviting it was not signed by the secretary of the party, and the INEC made clear it had to be signed by the secretary, and that was on one condition. Secondly, and from all indications, the person I contacted did not fulfill the election requirements; he failed to resign from the position held as the PDP deputy national auditor at the time the vote was being cast.
And if these are the preconditions or requirements for the conduct of the election, and they knew that my opponent failed these conditions, why did they not disqualify him and swear me in as the only qualified candidate? Or why was I not given the ticket as the only qualified candidate, but because some people are so powerful, that is why we are still finding ourselves here and that was why we have decided to approach the court. For clarity, PDP did not contest my submission in the court, they are not contesting my prayers, because the current PDP Secretary knew that if they went against my submission and that of the INEC which justified Anyanwu as the party secretary, and they fought from the beginning, then their fight may crumble. The fact is that the fight for party secretary lies with these facts because Anyanwu is the national secretary who has the mandate to invite anyone to a party gathering. And I know that PDP cannot come to the court and say that anyone can sign its official letters outside that of the one authorized by the Secretary. So I want to know what they would present at the court, and that is why we are ready to contest this matter till the Supreme Court. If the party law can be changed in the middle of the election process, then the court should tell us. So that we wouldn’t drag the party into problems next time. In this instance, I am helping the party. The outcome of this would help build legal reference points in the future. They should not see it as if is Ajiya’s problem; it is either the PDP aligns with me, or they shoot themselves in the foot.
My point is that I am trying to correct the anomaly. I am trying to strengthen democracy, so nobody should say that I am an enemy to anybody, no. I was the first aspirant to purchase a position micro-zoned to the FCT. But after getting my form, nobody invited me to the party meeting for state party meetings till the election in Jos, I was left on my own as if I had committed a crime just for the intentions I had. I wrote them complaining of the wrong intention of presenting a sole candidate, but the only answer I got was ‘name your price’. Honestly, I don’t know where they got this phrase, and they mentioned it as if we are all paupers. That is how they go about insulting people and people now find it difficult to believe that they offered me money and I refused as if to say that it is so difficult for politicians to reject such illegal offers. We did not accept their money and when we saw what they were doing, we wrote about six different letters each warning them that we are headed to the court if the process did not change. They should know that this is a democracy but some of them are taking it personal, it is not anybody’s property. One can leave PDP today and join APC. So that is how it should be looked at and they are in the position to either align with me or shoot themselves at the foot.
As an indigene of FCT, can you highlight the performance of the present administration, vis a vis comments on prioritization of projects?
Actually, I wouldn’t have loved to dwell on this but as far as I am concerned, Barrister Wike is doing well despite people’s dispositions and incase Dr. Goodluck Jonathan comes back as Nigerian President, I would like him to again appoint Barrister Wike as the Minister not FCT. If not for the Minister, I know what I pass through because of traffic gridlock at my axis. It was a road that was awarded during former President Goodluck Jonathan and after several years it was not done. It was Wike who came to open up the road and I would see myself as a hypocrite if I should criticize what Wike is doing in the FCT. I doff my cap for him and I wish that he should do more. In development economics, economy is good when roads infrastructure are built and he might be a student of infrastructure which as far as I am concerned the beginning of good economy starts with good road networks to drive transportation of goods and services.
Supposing he built hospitals at satellite towns with good roads to transport the sick people, had he done anything? So roads are major priority to any government. Tell me, what did the previous ministers do, some of them even returned money to the Federation Account claiming that there is nothing to be done again in the FCT, meanwhile here is a man who is not even certified of the money given to him but need more to continue the good work. So we urge the National Assembly to appropriate more money for the FCT projects. We know that there is money to do that. The National Assembly can also add more money for him to build hospitals, and other things.
So Senator Ireti Kingibe should also cross check all that was budgeted for the FCT as a lawmaker and tell us which the former Ministers were not able to fulfill. May be Wike and Ireti should find a meeting point to dialogue and that is what it should be. I see democracy working. We now see open proofs of the present administration but it should not be done in bad faith and the probe should not been seen as a witch-hunt. In democracy these things are bound to happen and because we have been subject mentally that people can no longer talk and if they do they are tagged to be enemies. That is not how democracy works. We should not see criticism as war.
What are your takes regarding the ongoing constitution review by the National Assembly in all the six geopolitical zones?
I don’t think we need a new constitution, and that is why we have the National Assembly there to do their work in case there is need for such. I believe that the idea of a new constitution does not arise now but if there is anything they feel that needs to be corrected then it can be done. Like in the FCT, we need such provisions to be amended. There is nothing wrong in having an FCT Assembly instead of carrying our budget to the National Assembly to deliberate upon. They should also allow us to have a governor or a mayor, it depends on the constitutional power you give to him to act. Let’s have Abuja city inside Abuja like the Vatican City inside Rome in the Italian capital. But we can have Abuja state co-existing among each other where a Minister and the Mayor work separately.
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