The Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State, Hon. Philip Aivoji, has expressed optimism that the party will soon reclaim its strength despite its current challenges. Aivoji, who lamented that the core values once upheld by Nigerian politicians have been eroded, stated that insecurity in the country would only end when security agencies act sincerely and those in power become genuinely committed to the welfare of the masses. He stated these in an exclusive interview with OLADIPUPO AWOJOBI. Excerpts:
What is the situation of things in Lagos PDP at the moment, it’s like the party has been silent?
I said it at a press conference in November, when some group of people purportedly organised a state congress that it cannot stand. You know what is happening at the national, it is also affecting the states. I have laboured for the party, and sacrificed for the party without support from anywhere.
Immediately I won election as the state party chairman, my opposition took me to court, I won, the candidate they imposed on us took me to court, I won, some people also did the same and I won. It has been an experience, but I believe that no matter what, I will not compromise on my integrity and honesty.
There is no point discussing the issue now because everybody knows what is happening in the party. The whole thing started at the national level and it got to the state level, my tenure ends in March, 2026, how many months is left for me. I will not bother myself with all these things.
There are factions at the national level of the PDP; one has organised a convention and there is another one that said there has been no convention, which one is Lagos State PDP aligning with?
As far as I know, we all agreed that we would have a convention in Ibadan, Oyo State, but suddenly some people backed out. The likes of Senator Sam Anyanwu, backed out. Anyone that has integrity would stand by what he believes in and attend the Ibadan convention.
I was not actually treated well with my executive members, but I will not jettison what I believe in. I stand with the majority, we had a meeting in Abuja recently. A majority of the people and the stakeholders in the party stand by what we did.
At this stage of my life in politics, I can’t be running around. I had been a council chairman even before the advent of the PDP, I had been a commissioner before the PDP came around. So if I cannot speak the truth now, I don’t know what I am doing in politics. I don’t believe in politics without sacrificing for the interest of the people. With what obtains now, some of us would have taken the back seat and see how the young ones will do it.
Don’t you think that the balkanisation of the party is the cause of its crisis? This week alone, the party lost two governors to other parties, and many of your governors have gone to the APC, will this not affect the party in the next elections?
If it is governors that are causing the problems in the PDP, let all of them leave, and let those who are in the party stand by the party and rebuild it. When we were building the party, we didn’t start with president, governors, local governments chairmen or councillors.
They built the party and later we won the presidency and some states. So, you don’t look at the governors, you look at the people, and what we have for the people. We should look at how we fared in the party, and ask if we have we been able to show justice, fairness and integrity. Like the Rotary will say, did we pass the four way test? If you cannot think of these, you will just sit down and be deceiving yourself. If you want to win an evil person, you must be righteous.
If we want to take on the APC, we must have internal democracy in place, we must build our institutions and follow the right way. If that is not done and we think that we will defeat the ruling party, then we are deceiving ourselves.
Why I am asking this is that some of these governors have supporters and people are wondering that who is going to work for or finance the party, when election comes in 2027…
Since I became state chairman of the party, I have never collected money from anybody; whether serving or retired government officials. When I came in, we raised money and we got our secretariat. We raise money to even pay our workers.
It is only those who can persevere that will be ready to hold on to the party and restructure it. Let me see how many people will stay with the party without running after money and little things here and there. I have the belief that we will get over the problem, it might not be immediately, it may take time, but the PDP will be back.
What do you think the government should do urgently to address the issues of insecurity in the country, is it that we need state police, constitutional amendment or restructuring of our security forces?
I think this has been discussed by several experts on security. My own take is that anybody that serves in the government; either civil service, the military or whatever is from the society and if we cannot go back to the principle of loving ourselves and doing what is right, what is fair, building our integrity and hoping for the best, we will end up getting problems with the economy, the presidency and everywhere.
That is what is playing out in the country. When we were growing up, the military had confidence in themselves, your course mate would protect you, stand by you and do everything for you.
But what is happening now, they compromise because they get money from the terrorists. They kill their colleagues through that, this is terrible. I believe that if we re-organise ourselves and do the right thing, it would be better. All these information that we get from the United States of America (USA) are facts, some of these politicians are aiding and abetting these people.
There are some international concerns that the people that are mining our gold and natural resources have been compromised. It is not out of place for a government that is serious to tackle the issue of insecurity headlong and fish out these people and before long the problem would be over.
If they cannot end this, the issue of America coming today or tomorrow would not end. I don’t even care about who would become the president in 2027, but let there be peace. If there is no peace, then what are we talking about government?
Some people say may be we need state police…
The people who will operate state police, are they not from the society, what is their background that is different from what we have in place now? If their background is different from the policemen that we have in place, then that will be a different thing. We may not move forward except if our leaders are ready to change.
It’s like what happened in 2023, when the opposition went their separate ways will repeat itself in 2027 as the political players have been moving to different political parties; what should the opposition do in 2027 to take over power?
Number one, we don’t have party men in Nigeria anymore, we have self-serving people, we have people who believe that they can spend money during electioneering period and will win. As a party man, I remain in my party. I am not concerned about people moving. If the parties can come together, there can be collaboration. See how everything is tough, the government is not engaging the people.
When we were growing up, we saw how parties dealt with their members and gave them some contracts, it looks as if the whole thing is now one sided. That is why I decided to keep quiet, people are not faithful to themselves. Look at the kind of people they are giving appointments these days, people who don’t have integrity.
What kind of people are we dealing with? That is why for someone like me, I have decided to do what is right, I will not say something and do something else. But unfortunately, some others are not showing good examples.
