FROM KENNY ASHAKA, JOS
Sir Fidelis Tapgun, former governor of Plateau State, erstwhile Nigeria’s Ambassador to Kenya, one-time Minister of Industry during former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration and one of the founding fathers of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP is angry with the party he once prided as the largest party in
Africa. In fact, when he spoke with Sunday Sun last week, the basic element of his language was laced with extremely harsh criticism of the PDP and the governors running the affairs of states ruled by the party.
Execerpts
In this question and answer session in his house in Jos,Sunday Sun first asked him why he has not been speaking before now as one of the founding fathers of the ruling People’s Democratic Party, the PDP?
“I thought you said you covered our primaries here. We’ve been doing politics here. It’s just that we are not the talking type, so to speak. And I have been a PDP man all along. I was governor here;; yes, during the military. After it, I was posted to Kenya when politics came back as an Ambassador. I was there for three years and I came back and served in the Obasanjo and Atiku Presidential campaign in 2003.
After it, I became the Minister of Industry. While serving as Minister, I was asked to come back home and deliver Jang in Plateau State. The instruction was clear: to deliver, Jang. Let me put it properly so that you know what I am talking about. I was asked to come and deliver him because Obasanjo wanted PDP to win the elections in Plateau State and left alone, he (Jang) would not win.
You mean Jang will not win?
Yes.
How?
There are so many things, but if you ask them at the party headquarters, they will tell you what they told him at that time. So, I had to leave my job and start the campaign here. What happened was that at the primaries of 2007, himself and… they went for the primary but nobody got 50 percent. So, the two of them that scored the highest votes had to go for a re-run. And the party was not too comfortable with the re-run because if there is a re-run, the others will gang up against him. For some reasons, the party wanted him to be the governor. There are reasons which I know myself but I don’t want to talk about them now. There was this agitation that the northern zone has never done it. Then, the Beroms have never done it. All those things were there. But
he turned out to be one of the candidates of the PDP at that time. So, if they went for a re-run, it was not
going to be possible for him to win. For that reason I explained the party said there was not going to be a re-run because if there was a re-run, he was not going to get it. They said we should go and reconcile the two of them with a view to making one of them to step down for the other. We tried to reconcile the two of them, it wasn’t possible. It was Jang and Damishi Sango. When there was that stalemate, the party told me, Senator Mantu, Slvanus Lot, that was the Chairman of the party here and the Governor here, Botman who was governor at that time should try and reconcile them. We met in Abuja to try and reconcile the two of them, it wasn’t possible.
But because it was getting too long, the hierarchy of the party then called us to a meeting in the villa.
We went for the meeting in the villa, Obasanjo was there, Chief Anenih was there, Ojo Madueke was there as the Secretary of the party at that time and Dr. Ahmadu Ali was there. Four of us came from
outside who were the leaders in the state, and then the four party stalwarts were there. Then Obasanjo
surfaced in the villa. So, they asked us whether we had been able to reconcile them, we said no, and
they said okay, the party has taken a decision. That was Obasanjo’s statement. Well, the party has taken a decision, Jang is going to be the candidate of the party. He said Sango, you have to be patient. Go and
work for the party. You are a party man, bla, blabla, bla. So, that was it. But Obasanjo went further to say Jang, you alone cannot win this election because…there are so many reasons he gave. He said people don’t like you…and so on. He said so many things. So, for that reason, I am going to release my
Minister to go and do that campaign for you. I am saying this for the first time so that people can began to hear this story. He will lead that campaign otherwise, you are not going to win. All the people I have mentioned are all alive. That was the decision eight of us in the room took. Jang and Sango were sitting outside. Obasanjo specifically told Jang that he would not win the election if he went it alone and therefore, he will release his Minister because he is on ground.
That Minister Obasanjo referred to was myself. So, he asked Ahmadu Ali and Chief Anenih who were there their opinions on the decision he had taken and they said it was okay. Botman and
Mantu also said it was a good idea. So, Obasanjo turned to me and asked: Tapgun, will you lead the campaign for him? I said sir, anything you ask me to do I will do. He said okay you are going to lead that campaign because I want PDP to win in Plateau State otherwise we are not going to win. There was a serious opposition, not only from the opposition party but also from within. So, Obasanjo then called them in to announce the decision to them.
He said Jang you have been chosen, but you are not going to win the election because of this, this and this. First, you are a tribalist;; secondly, you are arrogant…all sorts of things he told him and people don’t like you.
He now told him that for that reason I am going to release my Minister to run your campaign for you.
Are you okay with that? He knelt down in front of Obasanjo and said thank you sir and turned to me
to say thank you sir because I accepted to run his campaign. Then he stood up to say that he is not like that and that all the things they have said about him are not true and so on. That’s how we came out to do the campaign. This house was the campaign headquarters;; this place you are sitting. So we came here.
There was no money. Sometimes I will remove money from my pocket and put fuel in the car before money started coming from the headquarters. I led this campaign against people’s wish. I had to plead because they know what I can do and that I am a man of honour. They then said because of you we are going to do this. Not that it was hidden. They told him to his face.
So, what happened that …Nothing. It’s just that after he won the election, I started advising him on what to do and they decided that nobody brought them. It was God that brought them to power. So, they should alienate everybody. But at the first few months of their administration, I had cause to go to Ota Farm to report them. Baba came to Abuja and called them and me and warned them in front of me. After that, when they started doing it again I had to take them before the Ekwueme Reconciliation Committee. I was a member of that committee. I had to tell them to intervene because we had a strong gulf among our party men on the Plateau. They were all called to the Legacy House and spoken to. They refused t cooperate with anybody in the state. They were just doing their work, all the other stakeholders, including Sango and myself that brought them to power.
He had a clique. They call themselves Jang Organisation or something of that sort.
But this was a long time ago. You mean there has been no healing of the wounds since then?
Jang is not a man of healing. That’s the unfortunate thing. He doesn’t forgive anybody.
You probably did something that he didn’t really like if you just reflect…
No.no.no.no. Nothing. If I did something to him, I wouldn’t have agreed to lead his campaign. The insults I got from the people who accused me of accepting to serve in governor’s campaign whereas I did a Presidential campaign was painful. They were wondering why I should reduce myself to that level. I told them that it is the President that told me to head his campaign. But, that is his life and I think
it is unfortunate.
You were governor of this state in 1992. Nearly 23 years after, you suddenly decided to throw your hat into the ring and now some people, on hearing your name as one of the aspirants are asking if there is
anything you didn’t do then that you now want to do more than 20 years after.
If you say I was governor, I don’t know how long you are talking about. How long was it? I came to be governor because I wanted to do certain things for the state. That was why I came on board.
But the military didn’t allow us. We did only 18 months;; so we had to go.
After leaving office, we had three governors who vied for the position of governor and were in office. So, there was an interim within which you should have contested and…
Okay, Dariye and this one;; yes…this is the point I was trying to make now. That was why I was asked to come and do this. I was the one that was going to contest in 2007 and because of this complaint that I have just told you about (the need for governor from central zone), I am from southern zone…that’s why Obasanjo said I am the one on ground. Do you catch the story? I was the one that was going to contest, but because of this complaint, I said okay there is no problem.
What really went wrong between you and the present governor?
He is not feeling happy. There was no primary.
But they announced results. As announced you got only one vote and the question is that even the Director-General of your campaign didn’t vote for you.
This is the whole thing now. That is why you should be wondering. They sat in their houses and cooked the results. But you know the politics in Nigeria today. You know that. I am not going to tell
you that one. That’s the way we practise politics today in this country, and I think that it is not something anybody should laugh about. It is also not ajoking matter. We are going down the drain.
Is there no hope of taking decision and redressing the matter?
What are you solving again. They have already taken their decisions and they have already started doing what they want to do. The primary was cooked and arranged to get out somebody.
In other words, you have accepted the results from the primary?
I have not accepted, but if they say that is what they want, what do you want me to do? They have imposed the results on people. So what do you want me to do?
So, what is going to happen next? If you have not accepted, what is your next line of action?
Well, the people of Plateau State will decide, not me.
What does this portend for Plateau State?
It is unfortunate. Well, I have told them that if this thing is not corrected the party is going to lose. We have not hidden anything about that. We have told them in very clear terms. We have been in this party, PDP, from the start;; so nobody is going to tell me anything about the PDP. Nobody. But if we continue the way we are going, the party is dying.
It’s not only in Plateau but Nigeria, generally. The party is just dying because of this imposition. If you take a look at the report of the Ekwueme Committee on Reconciliation, that is what is supposed to be the Bible of the party secretariat. But they are not fol- lowing it at all.
There is no internal democracy. The governors are just allowed to do whatever they want to do. They impose everybody from the councillorship;; this is not healthy for the PDP. It was meant to be a people’s party;; that is why it is called People’s party. The people are supposed to decide what hap- pens in the party, not governors. But the governors have hijacked it. In fact, they have hijacked…even the president is being held at ransom by the governors. So, it is not going to help the party or anybody for that matter. The idea of the PDP we formed then was supposed to be an all inclusive movement. That is why we called it the People’s Democratic Party. It is owned by the people and not the governors. The people decide who gets what in it;; not individuals.
As it is now, individuals are those deciding what the people want. PDP has derailed completely from its
original intentions. Internal democracy is the most important. Allow the people to chose who they want. That’s the most important thing. If you allow the people to chose who they want, then you will be fine. But if it it anything you want that you force down the people’s throats, then, the people will resist.
If you look all over the country, you find PDP members jumping to other parties.
To be continued
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