Without restructuring, Nigeria would soon collapse -Ekanem

Chief Sunday Ekanem is a member of the Lagos State executive of the Sen. Ahmed Markafi led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He is also a leader of the South South caucus of the party. In this interview with INIOBONG IWOK, Ekanem speaks about the state of the PDP, the call for restructuring of Nigeria among other national issues.

******Has the Sen Ahmed Markafi faction of the PDP accepted Ali Modu sherrif as the party chairman?
No, he came to complete the tenure of the North; he was never elected by the national executive committee of the party. Even the people that brought him have regretted and they have apologized, which we have accepted. Gov. Ayo Fayose said recently that if you marry a wife and later you realise she has a disease you would divorce her. Even Gov. Nyesom Wike said it was his greatest political mistake. Off course with his financially strength they wanted him to help reposition the party, but they never knew he was a snake. The court of appea’sl judgement was very clear on that, you can go and read the judgement.

******There are insinuations that the Markafi faction is encouraging members to decamp and some party leaders have also promised to decamp after the Supreme Court judgment, if it doesn’t go the way they want?.
That is not true Wike, Fayose and some party leaders met recently and agreed that the party is supreme. You cannot stop anybody from decamping, but I can tell you we are still in PDP, they met us here, off course alot of people who benefitted from the party have left and l want to talk of several state governors, even Saraki, they all benefited from the party. Sheriff is a mole in PDP, he belongs to APC; have you seen him criticise the APC government before. He went and picked a strange fellow in Delta as his deputy just to destroy the PDP. If he is not a destroyer why can’t he step down like previous chairmen of the party? That is not even the issue, imagine Sheriff insulting Jonathan, a man he use to call my leader, his tenure would finish next month irrespective of the Supreme Court judgement, we would see where he would go from there .

*******Your faction formed an alliance with the labour party in Lagos for the local government election, why?
Yes we formed an alliance with the Labour Party for this election, because we can’t work with the Sheriff faction. That means we would support and work for their candidates. Our members can’t contest in Labour Party because the laws of both parties are clear you have to belong and be a member of the party for some time to be able to contest election.
Yes, Tinubu said that this time around the PDP would not win any local government area in the state; that means the election would not be free and fair, Tinubu would make sure LASIEC favours the APC and they win at all cost.
LASIEC has presently constituted cannot conduct a free and fair election, they have members of APC as part of the commission and they cleared them.
Some of the electoral laws in Lagos State would not allow for free and fair election, but we have gone to court to challenge that.

***** There have been increased call for restructuring of the country; do you think that is the solution to Nigeria’s problems?
If we don’t restructure now this country would collapse. The states are becoming lazy; they just sit and wait for allocation from the federal. The country would collapse, this government must look at the recommendations of the last confab report, especially in the areas of devolution of powers. The confab report if implemented would solve our problems.

***** But former President Goodluck Jonathan who initiated the confab could have start its implementation, but he didn’t, so why not expect another to do that?
No, Jonathan could not have implemented the report of the confab because it was not approved by the National Assembly, there was no time to do that , you would remember the report was submitted when he was about to leave office and he submitted the report to Buhari when he was leaving office, but they left it in the dustbin. They said Jonathan handpicked the delegates; that is not true, what he did was for there to be representation from interest groups in all part of the country. The APC government does not see anything good in Jonathan; they are trying to vilify Jonathan.

****** Nnamdi Kanu recently put Nigeria’s problems on Jonathan, how do you react to that?
Nnamdi kanu does not know the history of Nigeria. He was not in the country when Jonathan was in power, he is calling for boycott of elections that is wrong, the Yorubas tried it some time ago and they regretted it.
What the South East people may have meant that they want restructuring of the country, this government expanded the problems by marginalising the Igbos. This has given rise to the current agitation. Off course in the last administration the Igbo’s held positions they have not held before.
What we in the South want is restructuring, because we believe in the unity of Nigeria.

****** How do you react to the call for Igbos to leave the North?
The call for the Igbos to leave the North is uncalled for and unfounded, it is done in bad faith and those making the call should be arrested. We condemned such statement, the Arewa Youths are implementing agenda of their fathers, the house where that press conference was held belongs to the Northern Governors. Why it is that none of them have been arrested? If you have any love for this country such call should be condemned.

****** How do assess the current anti corruption fight?
Is Buhari fighting corruption? What Buhari is doing is to decimating the opposition in Nigeria. Buhari himself is an epitome of corruption. How many people have they jailed? Dasuki’s trial is discretionary; Jonathan said he did not spend such amount on the Army. The continuous keeping of Dasuki in prison is because they are afraid.
This government is clueless, Look at the school fees in universities in the country, look at the price of food, how much have they added to the foreign reserve, this government is clueless, it all an attempt to decimate the opposition.