Gabriel Suswam served as governor of Benue State before he later represented Benue North-East Senatorial District at the National Assembly. In this interview monitored on Arise Television, he speaks on the crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the rumoured merger talks between the party and other opposition parties, among other issues, ANAYO EZUGWU writes

Some people believe that PDP will have to merge with other opposition parties at some point if it wants to make any impact in the 2027 elections but the governors of the party recently ruled that out. Is the 2027 election not over for PDP already?

The PDP is about the only legacy party that we have in this country. Ordinarily, the resolutions of the governor would have been something that would have resonated very well with a lot of PDP followers but as it were now, I don’t think that statement is absolute.

Yes, people have suddenly realised that they should fix the PDP but there are a lot of questions that go with it. Is it not too late in the day? The expectations from the followers of PDP were that the governors would have taken the step they had taken a long time ago.

But because of insufficient interest across the length and breadth of PDP, that wasn’t done. So, some may feel that they sounded so obsolete in rejecting merger talks. Merger talks do not necessarily mean that there will be a merger.

But given the circumstances that we found ourselves in now. If I were part of those who took that position or passed part of that resolution, I wouldn’t be that obsolete because, you know, there’s no consultation among the stakeholders of PDP. People have waited all this time. There are very fundamental problems in PDP. Those problems have not been sorted out. So, a lot of people and stakeholders are no longer in PDP with their minds.

Because of the failure of leadership in PDP, a lot of people feel that as politicians they should begin to engage other stakeholders across other parties. This would not have been the case if the PDP is being run well and if the governors were up and doing before now. You would notice that they have postponed the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting up to five times, and people are just disgruntled and disenchanted with the whole thing.

So, if you hear people talking about merger or engaging in merger talks, it arose from the disenchantment among the fellowship of PDP. They include fundamental is sues in the states where congresses were not held but results were announced, and nothing has been done about it. How can you expect such people to remain and just sit down and wait?

Atiku Abubakar’s son recently accused Governor Bala Mohammed of working against his father in the 2023 elections. How would you react to that?

I’m usually very hesitant to comment on speculations in the social media. If Governor Bala Mohammed, as a major stakeholder and one of the governors and the chairman of PDP Governors Forum, is the one talking, I will say that I’ll be competent to comment on that. But I can’t talk about what our children are talking about among themselves. These are young men who have their issues.

So, I don’t think what Bala’s son or Atiku’s son are talking among themselves really matters. For all you know, they might even be friends.

So, those things to me are mere speculations and rumours. If Bala makes a statement, it means that Bala himself, who is involved, is making a statement, not about their children. I don’t think that we should reduce the issues of governance in this country to our family members.

Once we have transparent leadership, it will engender confidence because people have lost confidence completely in the PDP

So, I don’t want to comment on that. As far as I’m concerned, that’s no issue. If Bala makes a statement or Atiku makes a statement, then we know that the people involved, the major stakeholders, are saying something and not about their children. I don’t think we should pay attention to what our children are saying as far as governance issues are concerned because I don’t think what Bala’s son or Atiku’s son says will necessarily influence their parents.

Do you think Governor Bala Mohammed worked against the PDP in the last election?

I’m not competent to comment on that. Bala won the election under PDP. I doubt very much whether he worked against the party because he was a candidate in the election. And the danger would have been that if he worked against the PDP in Bauchi State, he wouldn’t have been the governor by now because that would have affected or impacted negatively on his election too. In states where PDP worked against PDP, we lost those elections, in Edo State, for instance.

Is the PDP’s issue more of a candidate that can inspire votes than a merger?

Two basic factors can enhance the chances of PDP in the next election. First, like you rightly alluded to, PDP has structures across the length and breadth of this country. In every ward you go, there’s PDP. What we need in PDP, first and foremost, is transparent leadership at a national level, which we now translate into state leadership.

We don’t have that. It’s all about deceit. People are not sure any longer. When you fix NEC today, NEC tomorrow, NEC the next day and all of that, every time, people are not even sure the next NEC will hold. A lot of people are disgruntled, so transparent leadership will enhance the chances of PDP in the next elections.

Once we have transparent leadership, it will engender confidence because people have lost confidence completely in the PDP. This is a party that has structure, like you said, all over the country. But because of lack of good leadership, that has diminished substantially.

The second issue is the candidate. When we talk about the candidate; let us have people, who have interest. It’s not just about somebody sitting and saying that I want to be the presidential candidate of the PDP. That will not suffice. It is that you present yourself and then talk to people. If those people are satisfied, they will decide on the candidate. But people want to be anointed. People just don’t want to contest.

They say that it is because this one wants to contest. We don’t want that. Why don’t you put yourself up there? Let people put themselves up. I’ve contested elections, and I assess myself in any election that I want to contest. If I want to be president, for instance, I will first of all assess myself, do I have what it takes now to contest for president?

By that, I mean, will I have the support? If I assess myself and I feel that I will not have the support, I will not present myself. But because some people have a little change here and there; people have little money in their bank accounts, everyone of them wants to run for president. That is what is happening. When they put themselves up, we will be able to assess them and say this is the candidate. So let not people just be afraid and begin to assume that, well, this one wants to contest, so if they want to contest, they will not be supported. That is not the way party politics is run or done.

Who is the national secretary of the PDP as we speak?

That is a tricky question. You should ask the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court threw more confusion into the crisis. We expect the Supreme Court to be very expressive. That is the last court in the land. If there’s confusion and the people move to court, but the court ended up throwing the thing back to them, that they should come back and decide on that, there would be more problem.

The Court of Appeal gave the secretaryship to Sunday Ude-Okoye. Now, they went to the Supreme Court and apex court said, well, you can go back, it’s internal affairs. That shouldn’t have been the case. They should have been explicit. So, having listened to the governor’s resolution, one expects that decision will be taken at NEC if NEC at all is going to take place.

The South-East has decided that it is Udeh Okoye, but Samuel Anyanwu went to court, and then it went to the Supreme Court. We had expected that the Supreme Court would have been more definite than they were because it was not definite. There’s more confusion. So, we’ll go back to PDP. If at all, NEC would take place, you will have the secretary of the PDP