ANAYO EZUGWU 
Chief Bode George is a former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). In this interview, he speaks on members of the party endorsing President Bola Tinubu for a second term, preparations for the party’s national convention and rebuilding the PDP ahead of the 2027 elections, among other issues, ANAYO EZUGWU writes
We’re hearing that sanctions will be taken and what actions will the party be taking against members who openly work against the PDP by endorsing a rival party’s candidate?
In any organisation, there must be rules and there are also red lines. You should not cross the red line. You cannot serve two masters. If a slave has two masters, he will honour one and dishonour the other one. And in the holy book, the almighty God told us, you cannot serve the devil and serve the Lord God.
So, if you want to be a responsible and respectable member of an organisation, you must obey its laws. If you can’t stand the heat, get the hell out of the kitchen. It is getting so unacceptable that you will have people who will tell you, they will work for the party here, and at the same time, they will go and work for the presidential candidate of the opposition party.
It’s absolutely laughable. If you want to be with us, be with us, if you want to go to the other side, good riddance to bad rubbish. It’s time we did something and it will be discussed. We had given them the last National Executive Council (NEC) meeting. They would have taken very serious decisions on these characters.
But they said, look, let’s give them some leeway where the party will explain to them, let them have a rethink, and a reassurance, and this and that. That’s why it’s delayed. But rather than abating, it is getting totally unacceptable. I have never seen anything like this in this country. Now, you watch it.
Those who are in the All Progressives Congress (APC), have you ever heard even the smallest being there talking about supporting our party as against their own? So, let’s call a spade a spade. The rules are there. If you can’t stand the rules, will you please gracefully get out.
And if anybody has done it, they must come in to NEC, to come and tender an apology, or the punishment will be meted out to them. Enough is enough because the public is watching. The public is listening. We want to present our party to them as a party that is respectable, responsible, and will manage the resources of the land for the benefit of the people.
If you are then not showing that attitude, how do we convince them to vote for us? Look at the economic indices in this country today; look at the suffering that is going on in this country today. What do we tell the people? We have a record of proper management of the resources of the land for the benefit of the people.
In the last almost 12 years; what has been the impact on the people? We have a lot of governors who are rushing down there. Let them have a rethink. I have said this several times, and I will say it again. The only political party in this country that is well-structured and organised is the PDP.
We have rules. We have areas where we say, don’t do that. And if you commit that offence, they will ship you out. So, it’s time because the next meeting, we will get the report from the zoning committee. Once that is done and the NEC approves it at national convention, we will have new managers or some of the old ones who want to return.
Whatever it is, anybody who cannot obey the rules and regulations as laid down in our constitution, we will show them the exit. No individual owns this party. No individual can control this party. We are not APC.
What are your key expectations from the upcoming national convention and how crucial is it to get the zoning formula right this time in order to rebuild the confidence amidst the crisis that the party seems to be enduring?
The way it’s done is that the founding fathers created six geopolitical zones. It’s not in our national constitution but because of the permanent disorder of the nation, we have refused to move from being just an existing country to a real nation. There is a hell of a depth of difference between being a country and a nation. So, we are trying to create a nation.
The First Republic collapsed because of tribalism and religious bigotry; the same thing with the Second Republic as majority tribes controlled everything, while the minority tribes were mere onlookers. That was what led them to say, let’s sit down, and I must give credence to Chief Alex Ekwueme.
He was the convener; he invited people from across the country and they came up with this concept of six geopolitical zones – North-West, North-East, North Central, South-West, South-East and South-South. All majority tribes and minority tribes fall into one of these zones and they created six top positions in the land.
Because some people manipulated the process, we almost landed at the bottom of the sea. But we have gone through the crisis, we’ve learnt lessons… it will never happen again
So, there are six geopolitical zones, six top positions and every zone will go home with something – the president, vice president, Senate president, speaker of House of Representatives, secretary to the government and national chairman of the party. Now, what we did the last time was that the zoning committee wrote its report and only handled the party positions, which is not what is in the constitution.
Those two must be simultaneously treated. Section 7 of our constitution (subsection 3c) states unequivocally that there will be zoning and rotation of elective offices and party offices for purposes of justice, fairness and equity.
But they said they forgot to zone the elective offices. How would you do that? That was against the constitution. We have learnt lessons from that experience, so we agreed it will never happen again. Once you zone those positions – party positions and elective positions – every position that had gone to the North must remain there for eight years.
Also, those in the South will remain there for eight years. We are not saying that an individual, who wants to contest cannot contest. But what the party is saying, by our law, is that if the presidential candidate has been from the North for eight years, it must come to the South for eight years. Unfortunately, because some people manipulated the process, we almost landed at the bottom of the sea.
But we have gone through the crisis, we’ve learnt lessons and I want to assure Nigerians that it will never happen again. We are ready; we are set. Members of the zoning committee have been appointed. They’ve started work; they will report to us what they want to do because it’s not yet eight years that the positions of elective positions will just be rotated within the zones. North-South issue will not come in.
So, we are ready for that. Once that is brought before the NEC for approval, we are ready for the national convention. You know, it’s an internal dynamic, we don’t expect to find the chairmanship of the party being zoned to the South. No, the presidential candidature must come from the South. And it’s going to be a day of liberty and a day of joy because this will be the first time, we will be having a national convention in the South-West and we are ready to bring out our cultural values and the cultural attributes.
