Delta State Governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, yesterday said all former
presidential aspirants that contested for the ticket of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) and all the party’s governors have come together
to push the campaign of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar for the nation’s
presidency up for contest in 2019.
Speaking on the ‘Morning
Show’ programme of Arise News, a broadcast arm of Akelicious Media,
Okowa insisted that contrary to reports, the party has gone beyond the
issues relating to the party’s primaries and is preoccupied with winning
the 2019 elections.
He said, “There is no truth in the words
that former presidential aspirants are not supporting Atiku. All of them
are supporting him. I’m not aware of any aspirant that is not
supporting Atiku. Even though I cannot mention all their names, we have
people like Governor Aminu Tambuwal playing a significant role in the
campaigns; you have Senator Kwankwaso also playing a prominent role in
the campaign. The Governor of Gombe is playing prominent role in the
campaign. These are all former aspirants playing prominent role. Even
Aminu Turaki is playing a prominent role; a whole lot of them.
“For
those you are not seeing visibly, they also have assignments they are
undertaking in the background for the party because it is not possible
to engage all of them in directorates, but because they are presidential
aspirants does not mean that they are not party men.
“Each and
every one of them is on board and each and every one of them has a
special role to play. The fact is that you will begin to see Senate
President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, more because he is the arrow figure as the
Director-General of the campaign. But all others are fully involved in
the campaigns; there are no problems at all.”
Also responding to
the speculations that the governors of the South-east and the
South-south are not fully part of the Atiku project following the
emergence of former governor, Mr. Peter Obi, as the vice presidential
candidate, Okowa described the insinuations as untrue.
According to him, “That is not the reality on the ground.
“People
are over hyping it. The South-south and the South-east caucus met on
Friday in Port Harcourt. In that meeting, we took decisions on what next
to do. We are indeed planning a South-south zonal rally. Committees are
being put in place ahead of the elections under the leadership of
Governor Nyesom Wike. A date is likely going to be taken for the rally
in the early part of January.
“There are actually no problems
within the South-south; I can confirm that to you. In the South-east,
yes, there were some initial hiccups; there is no doubt about that
because there were certain party procedures that was supposed to have
been followed that were not followed. Some of us believe that we were
not taken along before the announcement of the vice presidential
candidate.
“We also understand that the candidate has the right
of choice of who would be the vice presidential candidate. We have moved
beyond that. We have had meetings where we have been able to talk over
all the issues.
“The fact is: some leaders of the party including
all the governors ought to have known before the announcement of the
candidate; not because they want to change the choice but they just
wanted to be briefed formally before the information was given to the
press. But that has been pushed behind us and we are moving forward.
“The
South-east is also meeting. It is a strong PDP zone. In politics, there
are always issues and the issues have to be discussed. The South-east
is fully on board; from the last meeting we had in Rivers State, so is
the South-south. So, I don’t see any challenge in any of the zones at
all, not right now.”
Okowa also spoke on the defection of his
predecessor, former governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, to the All
Progressives Congress (APC) and the implication of this on the cohesion
of the James Ibori political family, which they both belong.
This, he said, was not an issue.
According
to him, “Actually, the Ibori family is still strong. Ibori remains our
national leader. I want to assure you that that family is still intact.”
The
governor, however, declined to speak on why Uduaghan left the PDP but
said that it was the outcome of the election that would determine if it
was a right decision.
He stressed that the defection of Uduaghan from the PDP has not had negative impact on the Ibori family and the party.
The governor was, however, frank that he met an empty treasury and a lot of debt when he took over as governor of the state.
He
said, “Obviously, there was an empty treasury; no doubt about that. I
do not want to look into all the factors, but we met a very challenging
condition. Beyond the empty treasury, there was a lot of debt overhang
and we had to do what we ought to do.
“I’m the kind of person
that will not dissipate my energy looking into the past; and begin to
sorry in it. What I needed to do was to assemble a smart team; and we
were able to think out how best to get out of the problem that we had.
“Unfortunately,
as we moved on, we had the issues of the crisis that came up in the
Niger Delta and the blow up of the Forcados Export line, which also
brought further challenges to our woes as at then.
“But we are able
to work as a team to restructure our debts. We are able to prioritise
the projects to undertake and we are able to move forward. Today, we
have consolidated and moving on.”
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