GOvernor Ibrahim Shehu Shema of Katsina State is a lawyer, former deputy national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and a member of the party’s National Executive Committee, NEC. In this interview, he bares his mind on his developmental agenda in Katsina, completion of projects started by his predecessor, late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, 2015 Presidential bid of President Goodluck Jonathan, the crisis in PDP and the way forward
ON the crisis in PDP, which led to the defection of five governors to the APC
We have our own challenges, that is not to say other parties don’t have challenges. Ours is obvious because of our size. And in politics, size matters.
It is always easy to talk about differences in political parties or even in any organisation, but what people fail to realise is that PDP has succeeded in ruling Nigeria since 1999.
We have our own challenges, that is not to say other parties don’t have challenges. Ours is obvious because of our size. And in politics, size matters.
It is always easy to talk about differences in political parties or even in any organisation, but what people fail to realise is that PDP has succeeded in ruling Nigeria since 1999.
There are so many forces. First of all, in capturing power and retaining power, it has succeeded in the first transition from one civil rule to another and yet another and to another. Since independence, PDP is the first party to do this.
PDP belongs to Nigerians. That is what people don’t understand. That is why everybody talks about PDP, even non-party members who belong to another party talk about PDP because it is a fully Nigerian party, unlike other parties where you can say that Mr. A owns this party or Mr B owns that party. That is why even the opposition talks about PDP.
As for the challenges we have with some members of our party, I am sure you are aware of the spirited efforts made by the President to lift the party, to turn the tide of those who wanted to leave the party. In any family, there is bound to be a quarrel, but to solve it and to resolve it maturely is the way of PDP. Look at the complaints that were lodged against our immediate past chairman, Dr. Bamanga Tukur.
At the end of the day, PDP may be the only party in Nigeria that a chairman can simply resign and another one will step in without a fight.
I don’t know any other party in Nigeria that does this except PDP because we truly have the interest of this nation in our minds. Hope is not lost on the question of reconciliation. We can still reconcile, we can reach out and reconcile. Politics is a voluntary business, I am sure most of the governors who left have reasons don’t want to belong to PDP but as they are leaving,others will be moving in, that is politics.
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