PDP, ANPP and AD will
break-up and fuse into two parties - Bankole, PDP chief
By MUYIWA OYINLOLA
Friday, July 2, 2004
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• Chief Alani
Bankole
Photo:Sun News Publishing |
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Frontline politician and a stalwart of the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP), Chief Alani Bankole, has predicted the dis-integration
of the three major political parties in the country before
the 2007 general elections.
The former National Chairman of the All Nigeria Peoples Party
(ANPP) told Daily Sun recently in Lagos that the eventual
break up of the PDP, All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP)
and Alliance for Democracy (AD) would give way to the emergence
of a new two-party system under which candidates would contest
for the elections.
"I can assure you, its either there’s gong to be
another party that will spring up. This will gather the remains
of AD and those who would be annoyed and move away from PDP.
Or people will move from PDP into ANPP, and AD is going to
be divided into two, and the deserters will go to either of
the two parties. So, we are going to have a different type
of two parties in the next election. The names I’m not
sure, but PDP is going to be one of them," said.
Bankole whose crystal ball did not reveal "whether PDP
is going to win the election after this earthquake,"
also speaks on why he relinquished the exalted position of
the National Chairman of ANPP to pitch tent with the PDP,
prior to the 2003 general elections.
He states that his decision to join the PDP was informed by
his appraisal of the leadership qualities exhibited by President
Olusegun Obasanjo during his first tenure in office, adding
that he was convinced that Obasanjo was the best of all the
candidates contending for the office in 2003, and so he decided
to give his full support.
"When Obasanjo got there, his programmes so much impressed
me, and I was convinced he was the messiah we needed, and
still need in Nigeria as at today. That’s why I supported
him. So, I joined PDP because of Obasanjo, and I decided to
join Obasanjo because of his performance," he stresses.
Bankole, who has now tactically retired into his private business,
also appraises the five years tenure of the current political
dispensation and gives thumb up to the president. Any imperfection
in the administration as far as he is concerned should be
blamed on the president’s advisers and ministers.
Forces that will break PDP
When Obasanjo is not contesting, because he is not supposed
to contest in 2007, you’d see what will happen to the
PDP as a party.
Today, you see a lot of contending forces within the party.
The governors are trying to break the party. The leadership
of the party led by Ogbeh is resisting it, the former ministers
and advisers are trying to get hold of the party. The Vice
President is trying to keep the soul of the party. Babangida
is struggling through his own friends within the party to
get the soul of the party. They are doing this not because
they believe in its ideology but to be able to get a strong
platform to get to power.
We don’t have political parties based on ideology now,
and that’s why I said as late as August 1999, that the
three political parties would not remain the same. Today,
AD is dying, ANPP is fading away. Do we have ANPP anymore
in the South? Today, PDP is in chaos, all because they are
not formed on ideology.
So we are going to have a big shake up within the next few
years in the political structure of this country. I can assure
you, its either there’s going to be another party that
will spring up, that will gather the remains of AD, the present
AD and those who would be annoyed and move away from PDP.
Or people will move from PDP into ANPP, and AD is going to
be divided into two and go to either of the two parties. So
we are going to have a two parties in the next election. The
names, I’m not sure of, but PDP is going to be one of
them.
"But whether PDP is going to win the election after this
earthquake is yet to be seen."
"I’m in support of Obasanjo because of the way
he’s running the country. If ideology is going to come
to play by 2007, I’m going to play the role of a Republican.
That’s where I belong.
I joined PDP because of Obasanjo
"There was no way I would have supported Buhari against
Obasanjo, and the others. I saw them as non-contenders. At
that particular time, PDP, AD and APP were no political parties.
Then the issue was who was better to lead Nigeria among those
who were contending to become president during the second
term elections. And from what I know, I thought that among
all of them Obasanjo was the best. So, I decided to join that
particular team to ensure that Obasanjo won, particularly
in the SouthWest where he lost woefully in 1999.
"I did not support Obasanjo because he’s a fellow
Yoruba. If you follow my antecedents, I was among the 14 people
who started the PDP. I was a forerunner even more than the
Afolabis. We were holding meetings in the house of Jerry Gana
under the chairmanship of Ekwueme and Jerry Gana was the secretary.
So, Bola Ige, Umaru Shinkafi and myself pulled out to form
APP, and when Obasanjo joined PDP to contest the presidency,
I was in APP. I didn’t cross despite the fact that Obasanjo
is not only to me a Yoruba man, he’s more or less a
brother to me. In spite of this, I didn’t cross. I still
believed that we would have a candidate that would be as good
as Obasanjo to contest against him.
We were looking at a situation where Obasanjo would contest
against Bola Ige. But because of the crises within the Afenifere,
we pulled out of APP originally and later on chose Falae,
then we decided to go in alliance with them. The results are
there.
Political relevance today
I disagree with you that my quietness or whatever you call
irrelevance in the political arena has to do with my crossing.
It rather has to do with my functions.
At the moment, I have no political part, either as a party
leader or as a government functionary. I’ve withdrawn
to my personal business and my company is not one of the biggest
as to attract publicity.
Assessment of Obasanjo’s government
As far as I’m concerned, in the circumstances in which
we are, I think Obasanjo is the best thing that has happened
to Nigeria. That does not mean that he’s faultless.
As a human being, naturally he has made some mistakes and
nobody, even Jesus Christ was blamed by some people during
his lifetime. Prophet Mohammed was also blamed by some people.
But I think he has performed creditably well, considering
the circumstances. I believe he has performed creditably well.
"He has kept Nigeria together despite all odds. And I
believe that many Nigerians, especially at that particular
time could not have done it… He has also been able to
keep the military out of politics.
I don’t think any other person from the South could
have done it. Also, the man has been nationalistic in his
approach. He has refused to be an ethnic leader, and these
are the types of qualities we need to move Nigeria forward.
He has tried to be fair to everybody irrespective of where
you come from. He has also been able to change the battered
image of Nigeria.
Obasanjo’s advisers
Obasanjo is a soldier. He has always been a soldier and a
farmer, and he has tried all along to employ the best economists
he could find to run his economic policies. So, if his economic
policies have not worked, then you should hold his advisers,
unless these advisers can now tell us he has refused to listen
to them.
He started with Asiodu and Adamu Ciroma, these are respectable
Nigerians in all respect. He then moved to Okonjo-Iwealla,
to Soludo. These are world-class economists who have performed
in well established international institutions. So why should
we blame Obasanjo for trying to assemble the best brains at
any given time to run his economic policies?
If for any reason his economic policies do not take us to
where we are supposed to be, then we should look at ourselves,
and that is where the environment under which Obasanjo is
operating comes in.
The truth is that an average Nigerian has been corrupted by
the military. An average Nigerian believes in the contract
syndrome to make money the easy way. All production lines
had been killed under the military. What we have in Nigeria
today are traders. No Nigerian company is operating a successful
manufacturing enterprise, a successful mining enterprise.
So when we talk about economic policies, we should talk about
the environment and I think we should hold the advisers, the
Central Bank governor, the Minister of Finance, and other
economic advisers to the government responsible.
The ministers have statutory functions according to the constitution
of Nigeria. The Central Bank governor has statutory functions
as governor of Central Bank, which Obasanjo cannot over rule.
They are the chief executives of their different ministries
and organisations.
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