…says the era of ‘jumpology’ is over in PDP
…insists no matter what you provide for a nomad, he likes being on the move(defections)
By Emmanuel Agaji 
Hon Teejay Yusuf left no one in doubt in this interview after the Peoples Democratic Party PDP 101st NEC meeting that Nigeria’s main opposition party is back to right all the wrongs of the past as the estate developer and economist turned politician x-rayed outcome of the meeting and the way forward with the big umbrella party, excerpts.
Let’s kickstart with your 101st NEC confab, It was a long-awaited one, and very many people expected that certain things will happen. What exactly does this portend for the party? The ability to now come together and have a meeting and articulate issues, especially for a party that has seen a lot of movement in the very recent past.
Positive. It shows that in spite of whatever has been going on we can still sit down, jaw-jaw, and channel our energy towards making the party more robust. Leadership is not just giving instruction. It’s the ability to resolve issues. So, yes, it took a long time, but finally it was resolved.
And I remember somewhere then …and I told people that I don’t see PDP being diisabled because of this crisis. We will come out of it. Our challenge has always been people who do not believe in the ideals of the party, but see the party only as a vehicle to achieve political ambition. It is not out of place.
Isn’t that the problem of all Nigerian politicians?
Not all, but a lot who are more vocal, a lot who kind of become the face of politics in Nigeria. And a lot of our fathers who should be a good example are in this nomadic movement, nomadism.
You know, a nomad, no matter how, if you give a pasture, I mean, get him, store him in the place for a nomad, he still want to go out, no matter how, whatever you provide for a nomad.
So, there are politicians who just assume that the moment the situation does not favour them. And I keep telling people, when you leave a house because of issues, who told you there are no issues in the other house you are going to?
Is there any human organisation without challenges? Families. So, you cease to be a member of your family because there are issues. So, I believe – I’m not saying PDP in that way like a cult or whatever. I mean, free exit and free entry.
However, there should be some degree of commitment. So, that’s why I kept saying that we are not, as a people, Nigerians, politically develop democratic ideas and values and party ideology.
Why are you in party A? It’s because I believe so-so policies of the party. That’s my interest. So, it won’t be that easy for you to jump. That’s what we call in the university, we call something jumpology. If you call me jumpology, if it’s not here, we are back here.
And if you observe, even the scriptures say it, there is need for consistency. The Bible talk about having done all that you need to do. Stand in due season. It is not in your hand to know due season. It’s the hand of God. You do your part, but you move. I don’t want to go into individuals because, I mean, you are out, you are out. Let’s focus on our party.
Let me ask you this because you talked about something that caught my attention, that leadership is not just about dishing out instructions, but also about resolving issues. On Tuesday, four senators elected on the platform of the PDP decamped to the ruling APC on the floor of the Senate and their letters were read out by the Senate President.
Now, if that happened just three days ago, or two days before the NEC meeting of the PDP, how well would you say that the NEC has been able to resolve the issues causing the political nomadism, or is it political jumpology now, that we’ll call it?
There is no issue. Before now, everybody was trying to hinge on the fact that we have issue of the secretary-ship. Do we have any issue on secretary-ship again? No. So, but people will always find justification for whatever they are doing.
Don’t forget, in 2013-14, we had about 40 to 50 members of House of Representatives left PDP for APC. We had senators. So, it is now a culture in Nigeria that people cannot stay in opposition, they jump into the ruling party.
And they come with this idea, we want to get more democratic dividends for our people. We have to be so, so, so. I don’t begrudge them, but they should not tell Nigerians that because of a crisis. Is there no crisis in APC?
They refer to irreconcilable differences.
With who?
We will have to talk to them. Because as of today, PDP has no crisis anywhere as pal who is the secretary of the party. That is why the NEC was convened, signed by Senator Anyanwun; communication to INEC, signed by Anyanwun as the chairman. That was the issue before.
The Abuja local government primaries and results and what have you, the transition of candidate to INEC was signed by them. So, we had this before. It has been resolved.
What I’m trying to make you understand is that more people will say and don’t forget, before election too, some people who have moved that way, can still come back because a lot of them have their eyes on certain things they want to get there.
And there are other blocs in those particular parties they are going to, who feel that, no, we’ve here, we’ve tabernacle over this place for a long time, and we feel that we should be the ones who benefit from largesse. Some of that will be, we’ll run back.
You had at a point, was it 2019? I had one particular, I don’t want to mention his name, under like six months, moved out, moved in, moved out, moved back. So, it’s not about those things you read and they say. It’s about personal interest.
It’s not just those four senators.
A number of governors have moved. And isn’t that a cause of concern, that elected members of the party who were elected on the platform of the party into office, or different offices, are moving?
R: You see, it still boils down to what I’m talking about in Nigeria.
Yeah, but I want to know, what are the concerns of the NEC concerning this?
You see, the NEC definitely raised this issue, and the NEC mandated the leadership to challenge those things. It’s a court process, you cannot just pull anybody out because you have left my party, come and vacate this.
But the challenge in Nigerian nation, need to deal with and need to resolve, is that politics without some sense of honour, integrity and value, should be discarded with.
The idea of jumping from party to party, especially when you are elected on that platform; don’t forget, Nigeria does not have an independent candidature.
You cannot run election on your own. It’s a party that sponsors you.
In fact, if you remember the Imo scenario in 2007, when the party was not comfortable with the Supreme Court judgement about Ararume, and the PDP withdrew from election, Ararume couldn’t run, because he can’t run election without a vehicle, which is a party.
So by implication, whoever, even the Kogi scenario, as much as I disagree with, Abubakar Audu died, and Yahaya Bello inherited Abubakar Audu’s vote, because the court ruled that it was the party that earned the vote.
So if you look at these two scenarios, you now begin to question the legality and legitimacy of people crossing with the mandate given to them. But these are things that must be tried in court. There have been trials in court.
Unfortunately, there’s a clause in the constitution, and I, my little time in the National Assembly, I did at every point in time we amend the constitution to raise that.
Whatever the court says about the movement of anybody to another party, if they say, okay, your movement, your decamping is illegal, until the presiding officer read, confirm, and put a vote before you leave the house, or you leave your seat.
By implication, it’s difficult for parliament, for you too, because of the fact that you have left your political party, lose your seat. Until that section, of the constitution is amended.
And for governors, unwritten, but you’re becoming a norm; governors are becoming leaders of the party in their states. Those days, way back.
Are they becoming or they have become?
They are now. But those days, the party used to be supreme, and it started, that’s why…
When you talk about those days, are you talking about the Fourth Republic, or previous times?
Previous, I’m talking about Second Republic. And even at the beginning of this republic, it was so. Party, I mean, leadership was more respected. Governors would come for meeting and submit themselves to the leadership of the party.
But now, even Governors’ Forum is not recognised by any organ of the party. It’s not in the constitution. But Governors’ Forum takes decision.
APC had a Governors’ Forum meeting, and the president and they came out with the chairman and the party had to endorse.
So, it still boils down to the mentality of an average Nigerian. We bring this mentality of, the oligarchy mentality, where the man who has the biggest office, dish out instruction, until we consciously imbibe some democratic values.
And the long rule of military, too contributed. A man who was in his 20s, 30s, 40s, who have been used to giving instruction; you now come to a meeting, and he is now 70 years old, and the man of 40 is saying, no, I disagree on this. He says how dare you?
He might not voice it out, but within him, he’s not happy, because he has been used to dishing instruction, and it’s been obeyed. So, these are the things that accumulated and brought us to this level that we are.
But for me I have hope, I have a conviction that what we have done yesterday is a step in the right direction, and we should not be putting the government on its toes, because that’s what is expected of us.
We need to begin to look at every policy of the government, make sure that we give Nigeria a better alternative. That’s why I said, I’m not interested in talking about those who have gone, my focus is PDP, and my focus is how PDP become the ruling party in Nigeria.
Now let’s talk about members of the PDP, but who are actively engaged in the activities of other political parties?
What is NEC, or what did NEC have to say about that?
It was very clear, you had a meeting on Tuesday, founding fathers and stakeholders of the party, and those things came up, and it was very clear.
I keep telling people, it’s not a coalition. If you say a coalition, it means party A, B, C, D comes together, and decided that on so, so, so, presidency or governorship, we’ll pick a candidate of this particular party, and we all rally around that candidate. No.
What you have is an assemblage of individuals who believe in the candidature of one man, to become a candidate having that political party, and they move into a party, so it’s no more a coalition.
So, you see, it’s not that PDP, NEC, say, go and do this or SDP NEC took this decision, no. Individuals came together.
So to me, it’s a political party they have every right.
Some of them are still members of PDP.
That is where I am coming to. However, now, NEC has said this. You can’t, it’s illegal to be a member of two political parties. Some of them have taken the initiative, the boldness to resign from PDP.
For those who have not resigned, the moment you have, because some of them, it’s so unfortunate that honour is far from a lot of them. Some of them, tactically, did not resign, and did not take the membership card of that party.
So, legally, it will be difficult for you to challenge what they are doing, he has not resigned from PDP. He didn’t take ADC card. So, in law, he’s still a legal member of PDP.
However, the party has said we are going to the convention now, we going to have election, so new things will happen. Unfortunately some of them will still come back. That’s unfortunate thing.
That’s why some people are angry, that if you keep doing this, if everybody does the same thing, will there be a house for you to come and meet?
You have some key members of your party who have said, look, I am a member of the PDP, but I’m going to work for the President to get a second term in 2027. What’s in store for them from the NEC?
That’s what I explained to you. Our challenge majorly as a party came because we deviated drastically from our norms and values.
Prof. Jerry Gana lucidly enumerated these things, justice, fairness. In 1999, there were a lot of very, very qualified Northerners who would have ran for presidency. They said, no, let’s sit down.
From G18 to G34 and what have you, we formed this party on the basis of equity and what have you; let the presidency go to the South. If you remember the Jos Conference, Obasanjo and Ekwueme were the leading candidate. Rimi wanted to run, he was qualified imminently but no, we have to do it this way.
So what we did wrong that got us to that, because when you say, hey, somebody is in our party and is supporting another party, you must not treat only symptom, you must treat the root cause.
The root cause was that we failed to zone for the first time. In 2014, some of the leaders of our parties, eminent leaders of the party, said it was a turn of the North that they should not remain in the South.
Five governors walked out of PDP, they formed new PDP and became members of APC.
In 2019, the parties looked at their narrative and 2015 election and say we must continue with our zoning. 2023 will now fail to zone, that is the basis.
So the same way some people felt in 2014, that is the turn of the North. In 2023, some people said, no, it’s the turn of the South.
And unfortunately for us, the same man who led the rebellion of 2014, that it was the turn of the North, is now the one that is now benefiting from 2023 becoming a candidate and at that time the narrative has not changed.
I’m sorry, I hear some people say, the North has only ruled for 10 years. Buhari, eight. Yaradua two. The South, Obasanjo eight, Jonathan six, Tinubu now four, so it should be the North.
I say, did Nigeria begin in 1999? How? This narrative is to suit somebody’s ambition.
And I hope that the PDP gets its act together and stands firmly on its feet.
We are coming back fully. Nigerians should be very, very expectant, something good is going to come.
THE END
