How do you see the recent purported removal of the Board of Trustees (BoT) Chairman, Adolphus Wabara?

The warfare situation in PDP is not helping matters. What you wit­ness is warfare propaganda from both sides and in the end, the aim of each side of the impasse is to outwit and out propagate the other. The BoT Chairman happened to be an issue of the propaganda and the other side blew up his removal as a way to shake the table, but it is all known to be propaganda.

With the continued crisis in the PDP and its inability to hold its National Con­vention and Congresses, do you think the BoT, as presently constituted, is still relevant?

The BoT and all other organs of the party are very relevant and shall soon resurface to play their roles. You see, the crises in the party have dealt a lot of blow to the party’s cohesion. Worse is the external influence to the crises, especially from the ruling APC government. Another dimension of the crises is coming from those who exited from the party, but have no political base till date. They are added steam to the raging fire. So, you cannot achieve peace in a bat­tle field, except a roundtable is set to thrash out the issues at dispute. We are looking forward to rekin­dled activities in the party in a short while from now.

How do you think genuine peace and unity can return to PDP to be able to play its role and return to power in the country?

The Supreme Court ruling ex­pected soon is one way of achiev­ing stability in the party. There will be genuine course of recon­ciliation in the party. There will be compromises and we shall bring an end to the entitlement claims by certain politicians. If possible, emphasis will drift to green horns and less on the old stock. There are few reconciliatory mechanisms that will be put in place to achieve a forward moving and focused PDP.

Would you say that coalition or alliance of major opposition parties is neces­sary to defeat the APC in 2027? Which parties do you think should be in such an arrangement?

I don’t see any coalition work­ing out, but rather the return of former PDP stalwarts to the party. I think only PDP, as a party and a platform, can beat the incumbent APC and take over power. I advise Peter Obi and Kwankwaso to re­join PDP and team up with Atiku Abubakar, Saraki, Tambuwal, Sen Ahmed Makarfi and the rest of PDP heavyweights to reclaim government at all levels. Coalition cannot work, and if power must be regained by PDP, certain self-cen­tred ambitions should give way to the key interest of the generality of Nigerians to vote in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

The influence of the Obidient Move­ment seems to be waning not only in the South East, but across the country. Why do you think this is so?

This is the reason I don’t ap­prove of any coalition because what you call Obidients Movement is an individual structure, which is not surviving the hardship of the present regime of APC. It is not in Nigeria that individuals can sustain their personal structures because they are not ready to fund the structures for a long time. How­ever, Peter Obi will bounce back to reckoning if he rejoins PDP and all his followers who left PDP and scattered across various parties will return with him to PDP.

Why is it that you are no longer with your close associate and former boss, Emeka Ihedioha? Why did you leave him?

In sincerity, I did not leave Ihe­dioha. I have remained in PDP but he exited from the party before the last Governorship election in Imo State. To this extent, I will say that my boss and associate left me (laughter). However, I have called for his return to PDP to join us and return the party to power.