Umar Sani is a leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). In this interview, he speaks on the fate of the party and the comment by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, on the party’s financial strength to sponsor a candidate for the 2027 presidential election and other issues, ANAYO EZUGWU reports

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, in a recent interview made it clear that the PDP does not have the capacity to field any presidential candidate in the 2027 elections. Where is the party with the reconciliation and is it certain that PDP is not going to field any candidate or is your faction going back to court?

Let me start by telling you that reconciliation has broken down. There is no more reconciliation and this is because when we started the issue of reconciliation, the idea was that everybody would return back to status quo ante, which is of course, the question that has now been agitating the minds of Nigerians.

Now, going back, we were supposed to hold our National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting and our caucus meeting. We suspended them in good faith to ensure that we do not take certain decisions that will go against our reconciliation efforts.

They, on their part, were supposed to suspend the convention that they slated, so that we would sit down on a roundtable and agree on certain steps to take. Now, the efforts started with the discussions between Governor Bala Mohammed and Nyesom Wike. Wike came out openly to say that after having that discussion, that Bala said he was going back to tell his people and that at the end of the day, he didn’t see Bala again.

He didn’t hear from us again, which was just a strategy to now try to put the matter forward, so that Nigerians would begin to see that we are the ones that don’t want reconciliation. So, when Bala decided to open up, he said that he met Wike and they had a discussion and Wike told him that there is no reconciliation, he is going ahead with the convention and that no position will be sacrificed.

He will take everything because he’s the conqueror. So, we were wondering which conqueror. Is he a conqueror of political parties, a conqueror of a Rivers State, or is he a conqueror of the Nigerian judiciary? Which conqueror is he? But that notwithstanding, we said okay, he said we will continue, but how can we continue when you have already taken everything? So, we decided to file papers.

The court that he felt that gave him that mandate, that recognised a caretaker committee which is unconstitutional, which is not within the constitution of our party and which was not sought for by either parties in the Federal High Court Ibadan, is what we have challenged.

It has gone to the Court of Appeal in Ibadan and the Court of Appeal gave an advice that we should go and reconcile. We have now gone back to them to tell them that the reconciliation has failed and that the matter should be determined on its own merit. That is the situation as it is today.

Even though Wike has denied that there is a faction in the PDP, what is the way forward for your faction of the party and do you agree with him that the PDP has not worked enough to gain grassroots support in the last few months, so should just leave the presidential election and focus on elections as the sub-nationals?

I have repeatedly said it that the agenda of Wike is that he is standing on the mandate of President Bola Tinubu. And if he is standing on the mandate of Tinubu, he said in 2027, he will support Tinubu.

So, all his efforts are geared towards that direction and any statement he makes with regards to that is intended to create that illusion that the party cannot bring or cannot sponsor a presidential candidate. And in the history of our party, it is not the PDP that normally gives presidential candidate money to run his campaign.

First and foremost, all members of the party, governors and everybody, could contribute towards that. Apart from the governors, the person who is coming must also have sufficient war-chest. When Wike was campaigning for presidency in 2022, when he goes around to every state, he would tell them, just give me the ticket and I will do the rest.

With what will you do the rest? Is it not because he thinks he has sufficient money to be able to run for the presidency? Our party has all the structures intact across the state. It is a party that has not changed name. It has not changed logo. It is still the party that it is. It is just being bastardized. It is just being fragmented, trouble here and there, otherwise the PDP is capable of presenting a presidential candidate.

You say you have the structures, so which structure does Wike have, which he says is the PDP’s, and then which structures does your faction still control?

Well, the Wike’s faction of the PDP is an extension of the All Progressives Congress (APC). You can see that after the APC held their convention, the next convention was a department in the APC, which is the Wike faction that held their own convention immediately after that, and that it was immediately recognised by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

After the immediate recognition by INEC, again, the judge of Federal High Court whom we asked to recuse herself immediately gave judgment that the party office should be opened. You can see that is well-structured, predetermined, and arranged in such a manner as to give them undue advantage.

But we are not bothered because we believe in the efficacy of justice, and we believe that justice will reign. All attempts to create chaos within the party will fail because our PDP is one that has an existing structure of the Board of Trustees (BoT) led by Adolphus Wabara, and we have the NEC led by Kabiru Turaki. INEC’s recognition is different, because INEC chooses who to recognise.

In the Social Democratic Party (SDP) versus INEC, the commission chose to recognise Shehu Gabam as the chairman, but the Supreme Court said it doesn’t have the power to recognise anybody. It is the party that has the power to recognise who it wants to recognise. So, we are very confident that when these legal issues are settled, it is the party that will now determine how it goes forward, and not Wike or any member of his faction.

In terms of political strategy and the time that you have, do you think your faction of the PDP should collapse its structure to work in alliance with the African Democratic Congress (ADC) for a stronger showing in 20027?

We are not even saying we cannot participate. What we are saying is that we trust in the capacity of the courts. We believe that the courts will naturally do justice to this matter. And when in doing justice to it, the court will compel INEC to give us extension of time to be able to put our house in order and put our candidates forward. So, we are not even removing ourselves from the contest.

If you are removing yourself from the contest; that is when you begin to think of an alliance with another political party, and with which party are we going into alliance? The ADC is now enmeshed in a legal tussle. The definition of what is status quo ante is still bedeviling them. Are we now going to join them and all of us will perish. No, that is not the way forward. The way forward is to remain as a party.

If you lose out in this legal tussle, will you say INEC has been complicit in destruction of opposition structures in the country?

This is something that is before the court. It’s pregnant. We know that government hand is in it, but again, it is left for the Supreme Court or other courts to determine for themselves whether they want to fall into the hands of government or whether they want to do the right thing.

In the case of Rotimi Amaechi versus the PDP, the Supreme Court decided to do the right thing, and Amaechi became the governor of Rivers State. So, we are hopeful that the Supreme Court, based on its utterances and based on its recent decisions will do the right thing. But if it chooses not to do the right thing, of course, there must be a way forward and that is our secret, and we will not reveal it.