By Soni Daniel, Regional Editor, North Prof. Jerry Gana, orator, politician and member of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party’s Board of Trustees, is one who does not shy away from matters relating to politics. He served for many years under military and civilian administrations. In this interview, he disagrees with those in the North opposed to President Goodluck Jonathan’s second term bid and insists that the region should reciprocate the support it had been getting from the people from Jonathan’s South-south over the years. Is the current PDP meeting the dream of its founding fathers? Certainly, in a social transformation, there are deviations from the norms and vision and because we are not God, it is not possible to have one’s dreams perfectly realised. So, I must say that there are deviations from the original vision, but they are not deviations that have completely ruined the vision. There are certain imperfections, but I must confess that in the main, the PDP is on course. Why do I say so? The fundamental objective or vision of the founding fathers, starting from the G9, to G18, to G34, is being realised. By the way, the G9 really refers to the few of us, who gathered under the Institute of Civil Society (we had to actually incorporate it during the Abacha days) to be able to have a legitimate basis for meetings). The original members under G9 included Dr. Alex Ekwueme, Chief Solomon Lar, Mallam Adamu Ciroma, Chief Francis Ella, Alhaji Sule Lamido, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, Chief Bola Ige and myself. The major objective of the G9 was restoration of civilian rule in Nigeria because the military had been in power for many years and Nigerians were getting fed up with military dictatorship. So we wanted to have a credible and genuine democracy. The battle initially was not ideological and that is why we formed the PDP. The PDP was a party of democracy and our objective was that when we have election, the party should be in control of Nigeria definitely so that nobody could toy with the government formed by a party like that. And it has worked and if that is the only thing we have achieved in the last 15 years, we have done tremendously well. Democracy has stabilised because, at a time, the party was in control of 28 states and we were in control of the National Assembly and did not have to refer to any other party in making laws for the nation. The party has done three things for Nigeria: Apart from respect for democracy, there was respect for civilian authority by the military; for the first time, we were actually, as it were, (pardon me for the use of the word) ‘sacking’ military officers for the first time and there was no coup. It was just because they knew of the power of the party and the fact that the civilian government was solid and then we have been delivering development. Whatever anybody may say, the Nigeria of 2014 is certainly far beyond what we were in 1998. So, what do you think is the cause of frequent crises in the party? Ambition! It is inordinate ambition. It is unfortunate people are too ambitious; people don’t want the system to settle down; people are looking for election all the time. Democracy is not all about election. Democracy is also about development. To me, there must be a very powerful link between democracy, good governance and development. Anyone who has been elected into office should note that his duty is not to win the next election, but how to use the mandate to give the people good life. Better economy and social security should be uppermost on the minds of those who are given the mandate to manage the system. Let people see that the mandate we give to leaders bring about a change in their lives. But, unfortunately, in Nigeria, you win election today and tomorrow you are already thinking about the next election. For goodness sake, we did not elect you to just go and win the next election. We want you to show results that you can govern and give people hope. This government was only elected in 2011 and, by 2012, people were already talking about 2015. It was not even up to a year when Nigerians started talking about 2015. They should allow the President to do his work and serve Nigeria well. So, ambition has been the single most dangerous factor ruining the party. People have been too ambitious, too selfish and don’t want to cater for the ordinary people on the streets. Who cares about your winning elections? We want you to deliver good governance before anything else.
Posted on: Sun, 02 Feb 2014 13:34:40 +0000
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