Expect more defections from PDP before Edo governorship elections – Ize-Iyamu

Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu is a founding member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) but left for the Peoples Democratic Party and contested the 2016 governorship election in Edo State. He recently returned to the APC ahead of 2020 governorship election in the state. In this Interview with TITUS AKHIGBE, Ize-Iyamu spoke on a number of issues affecting the polity.

*********At the early stage of the APC, you left for the PDP and few weeks ago, you returned to the APC, what necessitated these movements?

Political parties must learn to respect rule of law – lawyer

You know that I am one of those who formed what is today the APC in Edo State and I also played a role at the formation at the national level and we succeeded in installing Comrade Adams Oshiomhole as governor; first and second term. We had some disagreements in our congresses and because of that, a lot of those who were close to me felt that they were being targeted and there was a lot of anger, so we left more out of anger, not because of any other matter even though a lot of attempts were made even by Adams Oshiomhole at the last minute to see how we could resolve the issues ourselves but it was already too late because we had committed ourselves to go to the other side, so we had to go and we left, but that did not mean that the door was shut completely because we still had a lot of friends in the APC who did not like the fact that we were leaving and they kept appealing to us and of course at the national level, those who also knew me and know some others were also not happy that we left and there have been consistent appeals that we should come back especially as they know how passionate we are about good governance and having laboured so hard to put the government in place. It is something that we resisted at the beginning but over time, we have to discuss it extensively and the consensus was that we should return, that was what led to our coming back.

*********Now that you are back, what new things are you bringing to the party?

I am very passionate in anything I do and like I said I intend to by the grace of God add value to the APC, good enough, we are already in government at all levels but as at today too, there are some crisis which has been blown out of proportion, many people even wonder why I should be coming in at a time like this and I said, is it only when things are good that you return home? When things are bad you abandon it? How are you sure God cannot use you to bring peace to bring unity and bring stability, but I know for most of the major players it will be difficult, today it is hard for me to see any major player in APC that I will say I don’t know, so I believe that I am in a position to help strengthen the party and there are also others who were also not there, sitting on the fence that my presence will also attract, so we intend to help settle whatever misunderstanding exists, we intend to bring in more people into the party, we also need to strengthen the structure of the party to the extent that some of these mis-understanding right now should not happen again in the future. If you have people of character, people of depth, people who understand what party structure means, you will find out that some of these issues can be nipped in the bud before they even blow to public attention, so I intend to also share my wealth of experience and make them know that in a family, there are bound to be issues, but what makes a family unique and successful is the ability to deal with issues as they come and we are going to help make the party stronger than it is now.

*********Your coming back met some resistance, how are you warming yourself into the hearts of the members of the party? 

We will continue to do our best, but you must know too that it is also not too surprising. If you are going to a place, there are those who are excited, there are those who are apprehensive, it is like when you use millions to sign a football player, there are some payers that will be very excited, of-course the fans will be overjoyed, but some other players will be worried and say this player that they signed, will he not take my position? But if you continue to play well, your position is secured and sometimes, you people can complement each other, so there is really no reason for the apprehension to reach the level of the kind of reactions that somebody tried to put in place when I was coming in, these apprehensions can be there but they can also be discussed and there can be assurances. I have told people that my first pre-occupation is come to the party, fully integrate with all those that I came with and many more that will come later and add value, any other thing that comes after is okay but I am not coming with a particular mindset of it is either this or it is not that, that is not it.

To be honest, the party has survived without me in the past few years and if I drop dead tomorrow, the party will still survive, so I will just do what I can and those who are worried must understand that a political party is not a secret cult where people can be shut out. Politics is a game of numbers and if we really believe in democracy and one man one vote then we should be excited that somebody is coming in and nobody should lay claim to a particular position, even if you are the occupant. The only thing it gives you is that it gives you the advantage of being able to perform and show to people that you deserve to hold on to that place, nobody can say because I am there no other person should be there, no it doesn’t work that way. If that is how it is then all we just need to put in place is once a man holds a position, until a given time nobody should go near there, but the given time is a first tenure which is four years. Nobody will aspire to push out a governor after two years, but after four years the first tenure is over then there is an optional second tenure. It is optional, it is not mandatory and even to get it depends on your performance and the acceptability of the people in the party and the people outside because they are two hurdles you must cross so what is key is performance. If you do well, a lot of times, your second tenure is a piece of cake.

***********Are you contesting in the 2020 governorship election in Edo state?

There is nothing wrong if I want to contest, there is nothing wrong about it at all but my ambition should not be a threat to anyone, human beings are ambitious but if the truth be told, before I even came into APC, was there not this problem? So nobody can accuse me that oh you are coming in to cause crisis, so the crisis has been on and I think the crisis is more because people just believe that once a position is their own, no other person should aspire to go near that position, that is not democracy so anybody of substance that comes into the political space becomes a suspect; this is the same thing I have heard it said of Dr Pius Odubu, I have heard it said of General Charles Airhiavbere, I have heard it said of  Egnr Chris Ogiemwonyi so I am just a new entrant into those being accused. If we desire to contest, is anything wrong with that no? To be honest, the more credible people who are offering themselves for service, the better for our democracy. So for me, I ran for governorship before so it is only natural for people to believe that I will be interested and I can tell you that I am consulting, I am watching, if my contesting will destroy the party or bring war, of-course I can decide that for the better interest of my party not to bother, but if at the same time I also believe that I can add value and there is a genuine desire for a competitive process I will offer myself.

************The crisis in the APC came to limelight with the controversial inauguration of the state House of Assembly, what is the way out of it, could the governor have handled that issue differently?     

Before now, I had refrained ever saying anything about the governor, from when the campaigns ended in the Supreme Court, I congratulated him and I have kept quiet about his performance. But I can tell you that I really believed the governor did not handle the situation well, because if you play back now, you will find out that for the past one year all we are hearing about is crisis and crisis I have not seen any project being commissioned, I have not seen anything serious being done. In any meeting, everything that is being talked about is about the problems that they have.

Nobody was elected to begin to lament about problems or to begin to issue threats, if your party was able to secure a hundred per cent in the house of assembly, that is something that they should celebrate, now it becomes absurd that such a feat will turn to an albatross, to imagine that out of your 24 only a few number will now be inaugurated is sad and let us face facts, let us really be honest with ourselves, inauguration is something that everybody looks forward to, the party looks forward to it because to them, it is an opportunity to savour their victory; the persons they elected are being sworn in and the person himself will want to bring in his family, will want to bring his friends and many of them after the ceremony they want to entertain their constituents, so they come from various places and some of them might even be coming to Benin for the first time, they might be coming to the House of Assembly for the first time. Most of those members were robbed the opportunity of that kind of unique fellowship by the way it was done.

Of course nobody has disputed the fact that even when they wanted to complain, they went to do a press conference, they were attacked, they were beaten and that was what led to their moving to Abuja.

Now, they have instituted series of court cases. What should have been done is that the governor knowing that we cannot run our democracy without the second arm of government should have initiated serious processes to unite the House. Even if it means meeting the people in Abuja to reassure them of their safety but from that time till now, we have never had of any such meeting till it got to the extent where the Speaker sol moto just announced that he has declared their seats vacant. You are not doing this to people in the opposition party, you are doing this to your own members and the number questions your popularity, because you are saying that in the House of 24, you have declared 14 seats vacant, it means that it is even a minority that is holding sway in the House and you have driven away the majority. Out of that majority for example, Edo South Senatorial District where I come from that had ten people in the House before is now left with three, that is enough to make people protest, the area now has three representatives by the singular action of a member that was elected in his own constituency just like the others.

In all these, apart from talking to them, if your children decide to run away from home, is it not your duty to go and look for them? The bible talked about the shepherd who noticing that one sheep out of a hundred is missing, leaves the 99 to go and look for that until he brings it back. So if 14 of your members even decide to absent themselves, thank God they are not in Russia, they are not in Canada, they are in Abuja, you have an Edo House in Abuja, where they attempts to dialogue with them so that the matter can be resolved? No. Even when our revered Oba went to meet the President, asking him to help resolve the crisis, for me that would have been a wake-up call to settle the matter, but nothing like that was done.

  There are governors who have come in facing opposition in their houses of assembly, yet they were able to manage it and some overnight they turned the number in their favour, those who were against them became part of them, it happens because the executive actually has the carrot. Even by doing projects in their constituencies, you can win them over not to talk about your own party men. So when I hear that the plan is that they will come in and impeach, I asked when they have not even been inaugurated? How is that possible? If they impeach you is your deputy is with you that they will put there or they plan to impeach the two of you? And if they do, who are they planning to put there? Is the Speaker who cannot remain there, would they have gone for another election? So it doesn’t add up. Commonsense would have said look, these are stories. Those who want to make money will blow up the crisis; the governor who is well grounded should be able to separate facts from fiction. I really believe that we need to do a lot of reflection.

The only luck is that the opposition parties are themselves not organised because if it was a situation where we really had strong opposition, we cannot afford the luxury of this internal crisis lingering for too long, because you will know that you stand the risk of being replaced.

*********The opposition PDP has said the crisis in APC will make its taking over the state easy. Do you share this view?

Under normal circumstances, if the party in government is enmeshed in so much crisis that it cannot solve, the beneficiary is the opposition. But if the opposition itself is also disorganised, it cannot be a beneficiary.

I know why I left the PDP. With due respect, the PDP has not been able to put their acts together.  It is not enough to be pointing to the speck in your neighbour’s eyes when you cannot see the log in your own eyes.

There are already discordant tunes coming out of the PDP with respect to the congresses they want to do. Some of their gubernatorial aspirants are already crying foul, even before INEC releases the timetable for the elections; they can already see a pattern emerging and at the end of the day, when you build a house on deceit, it will collapse.

These comments are just grandstanding to give an impression that all is well. For me it is even better to admit that you have problems and solve it than to pretend it is well, because at the most critical time, the problem manifests and you will collapse.

The APC has not hidden the fact that it has crisis. For me APC will solve its crisis, and I have no doubt that this will be before the elections. I pity those who pretend that all is well, by the time we move into elections, you will see even more mass decamping from the PDP.

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But I can tell you that I really believed the governor did not handle the situation well, because if you play back now, you will find out that for the past one year all we are hearing about is crisis and crisis I have not seen any project being commissioned, I have not seen anything serious being done. In any meeting, everything that is being talked about is about the problems that they have.