PDP crisis: If Sheriff wins at Supreme Court I will resign from politics – George

Chief Olabode George is the former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). In this interview with journalists, he speaks on the recent celebration of Lagos at 50, the second anniversary of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, the alleged encouragement being given to the military to take over power and the crisis in the PDP among other issues of national importance. PATRICK OKOHUE reports.

What is your assessment of Lagos at 50 because we understand that some huge amount of money was spent on the celebration?
I don’t know how much the government has spent to mark the anniversary, but as a human being 50 years is golden in a person’s life.

So, it is worth the celebration and looking back, I was a young man then just entering the University of Lagos when the state was created. General Mobolaji Johnson became the governor as soon as it was created.

Before then; we used to have Federal Minister of Lagos Affairs. Lagos then comprised of the Lagos Island, part of Apapa, Victoria Island and Mainland. Its boundary was at Idi-Oro, Fadeyi was the boundary of Ikorodu.

Places like Lekki, Epe, Ikorodu, Badagry, Mushin, Ajegunle and Ikeja were part of the Western Region. That is why you still see the impact of what Papa Obafemi Awolowo did in places like Ikeja which include the Ikeja Industrial Estate, the Ikeja GRA. They are very outstanding parts of the Western Region.

We used to look at people living in those areas as far away people. That reminds of how the evolving Lagos conducted its affairs. I remember when I and four of my classmates then studying engineering at the University of Lagos: myself, Femi Anibaba, Alex Oni and the others decided to go to government house to demand for scholarship.

We agreed to go and see the governor on the issue. Lagos had just been created. We left UNILAG and moved to the office of the governor then at Onikan, where we used to have the Prime Minister’s office.

We decided among ourselves that in case the governor locked us up, we would mention the names of our parents and they would come to rescue us. So, when we reached the governor’s office, the security men asked us why we came.

We told them that we wanted to see the governor. They asked us from where; we told them we were from UNILAG. In a nutshell, they asked us to bring our names to be presented before the governor for his approval for us to see him.

We told them that the Western Region had just given out scholarship to its students, now that Lagos had been created, we needed scholarship for ourselves.

I must tell you, that was what led to the establishment of the Lagos State Scholarship Board and we got the scholarship from the government.

You can see the concern showed by the then leadership, they could have driven us away but, that was not the case. Though, we did not see the governor but that efforts yielded result and we were satisfied.

Today, General Johnson is still alive, that impact he made on us cannot be forgotten. Today who gives scholarship to students? Who care whether you can pay your way to school anymore?

What will you say is responsible for the decadence?
We have gone back to the Stone Age. I am really worried and the worst was what happened in some schools in Keffi, Lagos, where students who just finished their Senior School Certificate Examination raped some female students to celebrate their passing out of school. This is condemnable, it amounts to decadence in our system.

But, I want to appeal to the governor, who was so mad about what the students did that he should not send them to jail. He should get them and give them Koboko on their bare buttocks. They should be given 100 lashes, forever they will remember the mark on their bodies. He should not send them to prison because of the rottenness in our prison system.

Rather than send them there and condemn them, they should be given 100 lashes in their bare buttocks publicly. If you say human rights because some people will come and talk of their human rights, what about the rights of the children they violated? What are these children going to grow up to be?

It is not only about these children committing atrocities, what about some personalities and corporate institutions in our society. Each time you hook up with CNN, you see Nigerian organisations sponsoring events internationally, but have done nothing to promote local development.

What they are doing make no sense, when those who need them at home are not enjoying their attention. If government decides not to give scholarship, you think the organisations cannot do that with the kind of money in their possession?

The other criminality is that you have an international call, the calls land on your phone, it reads a Nigerian number and it is manipulated to drain money from Nigerians. What is the National Security Adviser doing about that?

That is the number one security sabotage by these organisations. The system is so bad that Nigerians are being shortchanged on the charges they get from the services they never enjoyed.

We celebrated democracy day recently, what are we celebrating? Are we where we should be? Do we see ourselves as Nigerians? And not as a Yoruba, Hausa or Igbo man?

That is the way we see ourselves, so how can there be progress? What are we doing, where are we going? Recently, a Supreme Court Judge was docked, there is nowhere in the civilised world, such a thing will happen, no matter the level of crime involved. We have three equal branches of government, the executive, legislature and judiciary.

They are three equal branches. It is out of place to dock a Supreme Court judge because you found money in his home. Where is the sanctity of the judiciary, the third arm of government who should balance the gap between the executive and legislature? The Judiciary is the only bastion for the poor man.

It is like you grab an Oba, the symbol of the peoples’ culture in that village, you remove his cap, disgrace him before his people. It is the sign of evil.

I don’t want to go to the depth of what he committed and I am not saying he is above the law, but due process should be followed. I don’t know where the man comes from, but he is a Nigerian and to have seen him risen to the level of the Justice of the Supreme Court he had served this nation and should be treated with dignity.

His case could be referred to the National Judicial Council (NJC) and he would have a right of reply. The old man was sitting in the dock, looking at the judge, a Judge who probably had not even been to law school when he became a judge. Can you imagine a Sub-Lieutenant trying a Rear Admiral? It is as bad as that.

General Buratai recently said the military was being encouraged to stage a comeback, what do you make of that allegation?
I will advise my constituency, to steer clear of politics. It is very murky and uncertain. Of course, President Buhari left his military toga and took to politics knowing that is the best way to get to governance but, the essence of camaraderie is about the love you have for your comrade.

In the force, it does not matter who is your neighbour, all you care is that, he is an officer and a gentleman. When you are on course or official duty, your neighbour or colleague, no matter where they come from take good care of your family. There is no tribalism or ethnicity.

The issue of Yoruba, Hausa or Igbo does not arise. In my own days, it worked when I was in the force. The officer who took good care of my family when I was not around is from the North and up till now he is still my best friend. When he was away on course, his wife called me and I rushed there to see them and equally do the needful.

That was the time you were your brother’s keeper. Today, there are too many ‘politricians’ not politicians. Politics is defined as the management of the resources of the land.

You don’t discriminate; you have to support your neighbours or comrade. You must defend your people. You should not allow politicians to trick you or encourage you to take over because they will mess you up. The world is no longer interested in military rule. I am saying this because I have seen both sides of the divide.

We are bound to make mistakes as a country but, that is not enough to get the military interested in politics. My concern is that when you make mistakes, you must learn from the mistakes.

That means the study of history should be made compulsory in schools. If you don’t learn from history, you are consigned to the dustbin of rubbish because you will not avoid the mistakes of the past. My constituency, the military should face its job squarely and not allowed itself to be lured into politics.

The North is probably trying to guide against what happened in the case of Umaru Yar’Adua?
That is what I am saying, since 1914 we have been together, from that time till now we still see ourselves as North, South, East and West.

As a Christian, I am taught by the letter of Paul to the Romans which urged the people to pray for their leaders, so that their policies and programmes would remove the sufferings of the people.

And who knows tomorrow? Let me quickly come back to what happened to Baba Awolowo, when they grabbed Baba, they said they were planning to overthrow the Tafawa Balewa’s government.

They said they went to Ghana to train to take over and those charged with him include people like Ikoku, Jakande and Rewane. The situation was not properly addressed and eventually it was from one coup to the other and finally it ended in a civil war.

At the end of the war, General Yakubu Gowon made a proclamation, there is no victor, no vanquish. The three Rs which he brought tried to return the country to stability and development.

Again, I must say no matter what happen in the country, the constitution is clear on how thing will be done, how succession to each position can come about. God gave this nation so much resources, that every nook and crannies of this country if you don’t have the mineral resources, you have agriculture which make each part useful at every point.

I still want to dwell more on this coup alert , now there is a funny dimension to it, there are some people who are saying that there might not be any coup attempt but that what we are seeing now may be an attempt by a particular group in the North to round up top Southern military officers just to use an excuse to dismiss them, do you think that is possible?
That is what I am saying, don’t start war that you cannot finish .The decimation of the Action Group, Chief Awolowo was in jail, they went for an election in the Western Region but Akintola and Chief Fani Kayode said they won the election as Premier and Deputy Premier and the Agbekoyas came out, the people’s revolution started, Adegbenro contested, there was problem. Then they sent Baba Majekodunmi there as an administrator because nobody could sit in the Western House of Assembly, what happened, military coup.

By the time the dust settled, they said ah, the Western people killed the Northern leaders. They said what is going on, you killed Sardauna, where is Dr Nnamdi Azikwe, where is Opara.

There was a counter coup in July, Gowon became the Head of State, Ojukwu was the governor for Eastern region. He went to Aburi, he said no we would not agree, in the end civil war started. If the people who conceptualised that Awolowo should be put in jail knew that would have happened, they probably would not have done that .

So the journey you are starting is only God that knows where it would end, especially in the realm of politics. And I am still very worried on this issue of you saying North, South, East, West and all that.

That tribal suspicion and if anybody is thinking in that line, that is dangerous. This is because studying the French revolution, go and study the Russian revolution .What happened in China? We have forgotten History when in 1966, the Northern soldiers said you killed our leaders; you left your own leaders.

Nigeria is endowed as a nation; there is no part of this country that cannot be self sustaining. It is only when there is peace in the land that you can thrive, so nobody should start what he cannot end.

I am a soldier, if you are going on operation, look at it until you get to the bridge end before you cross it, you must be prepared. But if you cannot define it, don’t start it.

My advice to them, as a Septuagenarian now where would I go, which run would I run now. What would I do, I can only advise because I have traversed the length and breadth of this nation, my best friend is still that Fulani man that I met when I was in the military because we are more like a family.

What is it that is driving everybody, is it this power which is ransient.Our founding fathers what they did with this zoning kept democracy unbroken till this time. Turn by turn Nigeria Ltd. Nigeria belong to all of us not any group or any tribe. That is past, it is gone.

Let us come to your party, the PDP, if Sheriff wins, do you see PDP remaining strong as before and will you still remain in PDP?
Let me say this and without prejudice to the expected judgment of the Supreme Court, the issue is what are we fighting for, we are fighting for a constitutional issue, the constitution of our party.

That is what we are fighting for, the rule of law in our party, don’t make it the rule of man. If somebody flout the rule of our party and does otherwise, we said old boy don’t do this, he said he is going to court.

Okay let us go to the highest court of the land. I pray that God will keep the system going in Nigeria. If it goes otherwise that we cannot follow the tenet. I will call you guys, I will resign from politics and I would go home.

That will be the end of my politicking, I will be making comments, you know as time goes on, but for political activities it will be end of story.

I will not continue because when you pick your binocular and you see darkness. As a sailor when you see a storm gathering don’t enter that storm no matter how big your ship is, it will pound it like a yam and you may not survive it.

For me it is a decision point, you want to build a system and the system cannot be built, leave it and go back home. I will never be part of Sheriff’s scheme, never.

Before you travelled out of the country in March this year, you said the crisis in PDP could only be resolved by the Supreme Court. Everybody seems to have realised that now. Having realised that I hope that they are listening to you the elders now and what are the party elders doing to salvage the party?
It is true I said so, but you know Sheriff is a clever person, he is my friend . He called me too but I said my brother let us obey the party rules, he even promised me the party chairmanship, but I insisted we must obey the party rules.

Then Oga, Goodluck Jonathan also called me and he was very concerned, genuinely concerned that we need a reconciliation rather than court. He got to me in London and he said he wanted to have this meeting to reconcile all these people.

I said sir it is not time for reconciliation, let us finish the case at the Supreme Court, we can then come and do reconciliation. I said Sheriff flouted the party’s constitution, not that he disobeyed me as an individual. What put all of us together is this constitution, rule of law, what you should do and what you should not do.

I said the matter is in the court, what are you reconciling. Of course, you saw the outcome of that meeting. He organised the meeting out of genuine love for the party, but we are too old in this game to know when you are politicking or you are politricking. It is a world of difference.

So when Sheriff stormed out of the meeting while Jonathan, the leader of the party was sitting, it is what I will describe using the words of my History teacher as shingly the beard of the king. It was disgraceful.

So everybody now came to the realisation that it has to be court. Let the court settle it either way, if you still want to stay in the party fine, if not good luck.

It is not a secret cult and it is not a compelling association. And what are the leaders doing, everybody is waiting now for the judgement. And I pray to God Almighty that fairness, justice and equity will reign.

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I pray that God will keep the system going in Nigeria. If it goes otherwise that we cannot follow the tenet. I will call you guys, I will resign from politics and I would go home. That will be the end of my politicking, I will be making comments, you know as time goes on, but for political activities it will be end of story.

I will not continue because when you pick your binocular and you see darkness. As a sailor when you see a storm gathering don’t enter that storm no matter how big your ship is