Buhari’s government filled with hypocrites, deceivers –Pearce

Dr. Adetokunbo Pearce, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in Lagos State, and former publicity secretary of the Segun Adewale led Lagos faction of the party under the Sen Ali Modu Sheriff’s then PDP. In this interview with INIOBONG IWOK, Pearce talks about the state of the party in Lagos State, the forth coming chairmanship election of the party and the Buhari administration.

What is the true state of the PDP in Lagos State presently?
I was the publicity secretary for the Ali Modu Sheriff group in Lagos State. After six or seven months I realised that we were spending our time fighting ourselves, the Bode George group, rather than the opposition which would not do Nigerians any good, so I dropped my position.

And I decide to work as a public affair analysis, which I have been doing and until now, I have granted more than 20 interviews, writing essay and taking about restructuring and how the country can get better.

After the Supreme Court judgement I said we are now one party. Let us go back home and work and rebuild the PDP,

but unfortunately Bode George went to the media telling them he would hand over the keys of the secretariat to the rightful owner which is his loyalists and group lead by Salvador, against the Segun Adewale, Maina group also in Lagos.

I said this man is not ready for reconciliation even as an elder of the party in the state.

That incidence created another ripple and trouble in Lagos PDP and the problem continued because as an elder of the party in Lagos, Bode George failed to unite the party and bring the people together.

But I though there has been reconciliation meeting after that, even recently?
I am always for peace. This is the problem, when the party had the last convention in August at Abuja, I was a member of the main convention committee and I saw how event unfolded.

There were moves to reconcile members and Caretaker committees was set up in some states including Lagos State, but the man who headed the caretaker committee in Lagos State is not neutral, it is has shown in the way he is working:

he openly backed Bode George for the party chairmanship position, he is always seen in Bode George house and he wine and dine with him.

I said I would not go and hold meeting in Bode George’s house. Let him call a meeting in the party secretariat I would be there, but this continues until the recent ward Congress, where Bode George group went to write the names of people, and the man died some days after.

Even Barrister Akinsanya brought out his list, the ward Congress was a complete nonsense, this is all happening because Bode George being an elder of the party in the state has failed to unite the people.

How do you access the chairmanship race and the aspirants?
The number of aspirants from the South South is few, I think it is only Dokpesi, the momentum is still with the South West.

The other geo-political regions South East, North East, North West have all come out to support a candidate from the South West.

I think on a democracy basis when you have five out of six you have won. I think the chairman would come from the South West.

I am the Coordinator of Adeniran campaign in Lagos, this chairman position is very important in the life of the PDP that it cannot afford to play games with it.

We need a chairman with integrity, someone that can unite the party and bring peace: Bode George lack integrity, of all of them the one person who don’t have problems with the EfCC is Adeniran,

there is no way Bode George would become the party chairman that the opposition would not call him and ex- convict and his wife is a director general in an APC government, so there is no way he would not sell our plans to them.

For Ladoja, he just came back to the PDP, his chances are slim, and for Gbenga Daniel the kind of politic he was playing in Ogun State put the party in bad light and position;

forming several illegal groups, and for Agbaje it has not been long since he joined the party, it is too ambitious for him to want to become the party chairman.

But there are insinuations that Adeniran is being funded by Kasumu Buruji because he can be easily push around?
We should use the word co-operative. Nobody can control such man with his vast experience, a founding member of the party,

a Professor of political science, grandfather and he is not controversial, Adeniran is the rightful man to lead the party, he knows the in and out of the party.

You talk about the ward Congress in Lagos do you mean there are still problems?
Yes, there was no congress in Lagos, it was inconclusive and now the chairman of the caretaker committee is dead.

I don’t think Lagos would be able to have an executive committee by the time we have a convention in December, because there is division as we speak in the state and that has not been sorted out.

I think Lagos is a peculiar case and one of the issues is that the Maina group have not been integrated into the party.

How do you assess the President Muhammadu Buhari led government so far?
The Buhari government is a hypocritical administration, a deception and a failure. Look at his administration with all the promises; he has failed to fulfill them.

His government is filled with liars; he has shown that he is not a President for the whole country. Look at the Boko Haram killing people and he is silent, go to the streets and see the hopelessness among Nigerians.

Buhari would always stand for his people, look at his first appointment when he resumed office, majorly from the North, the South East was totally ignored.

The man even said it that his focus would be to his people who gave him majority of the votes. So he is keeping to his promise.

Do you have confidence in the anti graft war?
Yes a war is going on, but it appears it is only targeted at the opposition. Let him start with himself first, lying is corruption, deception is corruption.

Look at the killing in the country, what has he done? Look at the security Chiefs, out of 14, 11 are from the North. Look at the recruitment in the CBN all in favour of the North.

But he has set up special court and committee to speed up cases.
The committee would only work if we have the right environment, the one that is free. It wouldn’t work and I don’t believe the court would achieve anything.

Can he prosecute Saraki, Amaechi and the rest? As long as the court doesn’t prosecute people in government no one would take it serious.

This government is spending more money taking care of Aso Rock than Jonathan did, they are not serious about the anti corruption fight.

More than two years after they are still blaming Jonathan’s administration, he has shown he is not ready to resolve problems in the country.

Sincerely, if you look at the state of affairs in the country you would agree with me that the issue of restructuring would always find a way. Look at the at the states:

there is no equality in the states in the country, for example Lagos and Kano has the same population size, but Kano has 44 local governments and Lagos has 20.

Even Jigawa has more, 27 than Lagos, you can see that there is clear injustice in the country which is unacceptable.

This current system which put the mineral deposit in the states in the exclusive list, it is bad.

That is why the country is like this and you can see nothing is working: I have said it on different occasions that Nigeria cannot develop without true, fiscal federalism.

What are the chances of the PDP in 2019?
Let the PDP get its house together then am sure we would win and give Nigerians another government, the worst would be better than this.

There is no way the APC can win the election in 2O19. They are not even united, they are divided into groups, is it the Tinubu group, Buhari group or Saraki group?

The APC has been fragmented into groups, a party that cannot hold a convention, they don’t have a structure and I can tell you they would lose the 2019 election.

Do you expect surprises from any new party?
Any party that come and is organised and realises that there is imbalance in the structure of the country and that it need to be restructured would do well.

Look at the South East it has only five states, that is injustice, Lagos has less local government to Kano inspite of having same population size.

The country cannot develop if we keep depending on oil, we have to allow the states control their resources.

Quote
The Buhari government is a hypocritical administration, a deception and a failure. Look at his administration with all the promises; he has failed to fulfill them. His government is filled with liars; he has shown that he is not a President for the whole country. Look at the Boko Haram killing people and he is silent, go to the street and see the hopelessness among Nigerians.