A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Segun Sowunmi, has stated that his recent visit to President Bola Tinubu, despite still being a member of the opposition party, was well within his rights as a Nigerian citizen.
Sowunmi, who has spent 27 years in the PDP, declared that his departure from the party should not come as a surprise, saying he is ready to move on.
“I’ve given almost three decades of my life to the PDP. At this point, leaving the party should not be an issue,” he said.
The former spokesperson for Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s presidential campaign also commented on the enduring focus on the June 12, 1993, presidential election, stating that it’s time for the country to move beyond it.
On the state of the nation, Sowunmi commended President Tinubu’s administration for its handling of economic and security challenges, likening it to cleaning out the Augean stable.
Sowunmi also weighed in on the proposed political coalition, describing it as a project motivated by selfish interests and personal ambition, rather than the collective good.
He spoke on these and other national issues during an interview with OLAYIWOLA MATTHEW. Excerpts:
Do you think Nigeria has anything to celebrate after 32 years of the annulment of June 12 Presidential Election and 26 years of unbreakable democracy?
Without a doubt, anybody who thinks that Nigeria has nothing to celebrate after the June 12, 1993 Presidential Election has only become a little disorientated by the overdose of the narrative that people push that is against the country. Nations do not arrive at the destination of progress; nations are continually under a work in progress. Democracy itself is not one event, democracy is an idea that must constantly be interrogated to see how each generation is using democracy, living democracy, and playing with the idea of democracy to guarantee their freedom of speech and for nations to also measure the type of developmental strive they have done within their own capacity and capability as well as their God-given resources and the humans that live there.
Coincidentally, this current administration is marking its second anniversary now, and a lot of issues have come up such as economic reforms, removal of fuel subsidy and security, what is your assessment of the government?
I just think that this particular government is under a lot of expectations based on a lot of great aspirations in the past and there is nothing wrong in people being in a hurry and having very high expectations. But more importantly, what we must measure the steps that are being taken in stages. In some areas, you can see good thoughts driving the policies, but we hope those who are on the saddle, who are to do the heavy work of standing in the midst of the people to achieve the objectives of their government would understand that there should not be a disconnect among what they are saying, how they are behaving and what they are telling the people and how they want the people to behave. What I am saying is that leaders must ensure that they are not living too far away from the people that they are leading. The expectations of the people are high naturally, but we must let them understand that expectations being high must also be measured within the contest of how long they have the opportunity to lead, what kind of circumstances they met, what is the global play of the world economy and how do you expect he gestation period to be. Luckily, we have a four-year tenure democracy, and they have enough time such that when they are called upon to come and do the next election, the people would be able to take the kind of informed decisions that would help them to live with the consequences of whatever they decide one way or the other.
As a member of the opposition party, you have criticised the policies of this government and people were surprised to see you visiting President Bola Tinubu recently, we have seen a lot of defections these days, what is really happening?
First of all, anybody that is shocked about the visit does not know me and the president, anybody that knows me would know that the President and I have been having that opportunity of respected conversations since 1994. I will not apologise to people for visiting the President of Nigeria not to talk of coming from the South West and being a Yoruba man. On whether I am jumping ship and things like that, I will just say that political parties must be reviewed overtime. You have to sit down and look at a political party, look at the potentials, what they have done, what they want to do and how they hope to do it. You have to consider if they are in the right direction. I have put it in all of the years that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been in existence. If I told you that I have been a bit engaging with the president since 1994/1995 that would tell you how long I have been on the side of getting us to move this democracy forward. I will not allow anybody to insist that I don’t have any right to change if I want to. In any case, like always say and I am telling you now, in the Bible when his child was sick, David was fasting and begging God, but when the child was announced dead, he changed his clothes and ordered his meal and ate. I pushed and encouraged the PDP, when they wanted to encourage themselves, over the years, I have thought that we need to think of other contraptions to manage this democracy. Ordinarily, I would have been interested in what they are calling the coalition except for the fact that I see a very high dose of selfishness driving them, personal ambition being in the way and the fact they have been serial defectors from one party to another, and I don’t like people who do not have the ability to have state power. Rather than be with a group of people that say they want to be in this party today and after four years they would start looking for another party, I would rather be with a party that I think can last. I gave PDP 27 years and if I remove that from my age, I know how old I would be. If I have to leave, I must be willing to give another party may be about 27 years too. If you add 27 years to my age, I would have been done with public service one way or the other then.
What will you say about the way this government has been fighting insecurity?
The fact is that insecurity has its roots in the habit and the character of those who encourage it in their areas. Nobody should blame another person for the carelessness of the stakeholders in places where insecurity is most pervasive. You can’t tell me and I do not accept that without collaboration of the people there that the thing would have dragged on for so long. When it started, they thought it was a joke, now it has become a big elephant in the room. Will you now say that it is President Tinubu that started insecurity in those places? If former president Muhammadu Buhari served for eight years and the thing did not go, how do you expect President Tinubu to curb it in just two years? Therefore, I would say that all the stakeholders must collaborate to go all the way that we have had enough. I have begged and I have spoken that we have had enough. I am grieved anytime I speak that we are so helpless. I do not accept that the President is responsible for all these after spending two years in office. Do you expect him to go in there and kill everybody, both the state and non-state actors, when the locals are collaborating with these people? Who is giving them food, who is giving them money, and who is giving them fuel? These are the questions to ask, but we are all afraid to ask them. But you want to blame the president.
The National Assembly has been criticised as being rubber stamp, would you have expected them to behave in another way?
As far as the National Assembly is concerned, I do not know whether they are rubber stamp or not, what I know about them, especially the senate, is that they can be a little bit more serious in their outlook. I guess that people want to relax the atmosphere, they want to throw a little bit of joke, but I do not think that when the mood of the country is the way it is, the leaders should be too much of a clown. That you have an assembly does not mean that you have to be rancorous, it not must be a place where the government cannot move things forward, that is not the duty of an assembly. Their job is to do oversight, and I have recommended the scrapping of constituency projects because I have looked at things and I thought that it is a hindrance for them to be able to do the oversight properly. If you remove constituency projects, the National Assembly would be stricter and the country would be better served, then the budgeting project would be better done.
How soon do we see you announcing if you would still be in the PDP or move to the All Progressives Congress (APC)?
The PDP would have to make its mind for us to know. Where is the party, where is the party’s organisation, who is the Chairman, who is the National Secretary, we are not even sure. How long is it possible for them to tell us that, especially as they have been jumping up and down like most of them that are saying rubbish now. Where were they in 1996,/1998, where were they in 2003, when the conversation that the west should not accept democracy because of the issues there? Where were they in 2007, when the president was saying that maybe I should come and be the junior minister of information and take over from Frank Nweke Jnr, and I thought that there was more works to be done in my state? Where were they in 2007, when I was the Director General of Jonathan/Sambo Campaign in Ogun State? Where were they in 2015, when the party lost and nobody even agree to stand up and speak for the party and I was clearly the only one running up and down and pushing for the party. I have never had a contract in this country, I have never asked anybody to give me anything or say ‘let me supply toilet roll.’ If I want to leave now, I think I have the right and I would call you, if you want to come you can come or stay in your house.
Will you say the Nigerian government has done enough for the family of the late Chief MKO Abiola based on the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election?
I will say that we have done enough on the June !2 episode in terms of recognizing them, keeping a date for them and all of the things that we have done. June 12 cannot be an albatross that would stop the pace of Nigeria. Originally it is not a south western agenda alone. It may have been the result of a south western man and incarceration of a man from the south west. All what we are doing now cannot wake the dead and I think it’s time for Nigeria to move further, take lessons of June 12 and not turning June 12 to reason for not making progress. May be the late Abiola himself was saved from the embarrassment that would have come if he had led the country. Probably the structure would have prevented him from being the hero that he has become now. Sometimes, when they become martyrs they would have been better than to be leaders. Imagine if Buhari had not been president, may be people would have said he was the best president Nigeria never had, but he was president for eight years and we all saw what happened. I pray that President Bola Tinubu does not have that as his epitaph when he would have been done with his presidency.