2015: We will surprise those predicting crisis in APC – Edebiri

By BILESANMI OLALEKAN
Solomon Edebiri contested the 2012 governorship election on the
platform of All Nigerian Peoples Party, ANPP, in Edo State. His party
is teaming up with other parties to form the now All Progressives
Congress, APC, for the forthcoming elections. In this interview, he
says the emergence of APC is good for Nigeria, democracy and the
Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, controlled Federal Government even as
he returns to the drawing board for the 2016 governorship election in
Edo State. Excerpt:
Do you think the APC experiment can work?
Yes, it will work. Let everybody, the Federal Government, PDP support
it because it is only by doing so that theycan help the polity . it is
going to stimulate the polity in a positive direction, it is going to
create healthy competition in the polity, it is a complete exercise of
domination where one party tends to dominate the others. If you look
at the polity today, you will see that it is one national party which
is the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. Other parties are regional.
ACN is merely a regional party, known in the West. If you look at
ANPP, it only won election in the North-east and West of the North.
And you know certainly well that if you go to APGA, it is a mere
eastern party. The CPC only won election in the North. What the
merger has come to do is to put these regional parties together, so
that we can have a true national party so that while you are saying
PDP is a true national party, you can be saying the same of APC. Of
course other parties like Labour, Accord and the rest will still be
around.
Secondly, having multi-national parties would make the ruling party to
be on its toes so that it can sit up, because once you know there are
other parties which can remove you in the next election, you will
work hard. This is a positive development, we should pray for its
success, and we should allow it to work.
Your party appears not to see any tangible merit in the emergency rule
in some parts of the North. Do you agree?
I don't think there is any time too late to impose emergency rule in
these troubled states. It is better to act late than not acting at
all. The decision of the president is well taken. We cannot have two
governments in a nation. Youcannot have two military authorities ina
country. When a group tries to make the nation ungovernable, of course
thecommander-in-chief of the armed forces rose to the occasion. I
believe he should have taken the decision earlier, but, as I said
earlier, every government has its style.
The style of the president may be to explore all options until when
all options seem not to be working, he can now take the inevitable one
whichwas the emergency rule. And I hope it corrects the situation at
the end of the day. But, beyond that, I think we should look for a
permanent solution to insecurity in the country, I believe it should
be addressed permanently. People cannot just wake up one day and start
taking the people for a ride just because they feel they have arms and
become lords unto themselves. It is like those who are kidnapping
people for a million naira and above which has suddenly become
free-for-all trade. I think the president must rise up to these
challenges.
Solomon Edebiri
You contested under the ANPP platform during the last election, though
some have argued that it was agood man contesting on the platform of a
wrong party?
One problem we have in politics is thatwhen you lose election, you go
back tosleep. I think that is immaturity. As soon as the election was
over, I called my people that we should go back to the drawing board
and start strategizing for 2016; so we have started on the road to
2016. That the platform I sought to govern Edo State was faulty was
not correct. Two things worked against us. First, the mentality of the
people. We have not completelytaken away the personality rather
thanparty away from our electoral system,but we are gradually getting
to that. Second is the incumbency factor.
The performance of the governor aided the election in favour of the
governor. Knowing fully well that fromwhere Edo was before coming to
officeafter about 10 years of PDP administration, of course Oshiomole
was making the difference and it was even a visible difference. People
will naturally say, 'oh, this man has done this, let us vote for him
again'. But a lotof people called us at the end of the election
saying, 'don't worry' Edebiri, you are the best candidate in this
contest but please let us allow this man to finish his second term so
that he can conclude all that he has started'.I know that you can
never conclude anything in governance. The only thing is that one
must sustain that continuity factor, so that somebody must be able to
continue from where the immediate person stops. That was another
factor that didn't help our case. And if you look at it, they are
germane factors because nobody would have done otherwise in the faceof
these factors. Now we are going to 2016, there will be no incumbency
factor as everybody is going to be coming on a level playing ground
and a lot of us will go into the primaries as APC, not ANPP against
ACN or CPC. All ofus are going into the same house to vie for one
ticket.
Many people think the primaries could actually be the beginning of the
end ofAPC eventually?
Contest is contest, it has nothing to do with unity of the party. The
party is one but when one, two, three, four begin to have an interest
in a particular position, of course the party will be divided along
that line. The party would be split into four interest groups, in fact
into five because there is going to be a group that is neither here
nor there. Once the contest is over and one person emerges as the
candidate, everybody will rally together to give him total support.
Are you sure they will?
Of course, there is no reason why they should not.
You talk confidently about a party that is not fully on ground?
Yes I am confident of the party becauseI have been part of the
process, all through. And the way we arrived at thename of the party
,the logo, constitution, manifestoes, the way decisions have been
taken so far by the committee, shows that it is a party that is
united. I have been part of the internal machinery right from the very
day the idea of the merger was mooted. I was and still part of the
merger committee, sub-committees, part of my own party committee, I
was the vice deputy chairman, South–southof my party.
So I am equipped enough to know what is going on. The way we have come
along in the last six months fromFebruary when we said we should form
the merger shows that, yes, therewould be political divide when the
time comes, particularly during internal election, but as soon as it
is over, we shall put it behind us. Like when we were coming up with
the logo, we were divided, may be four different camps, but, as soon
as decision was taken on the type of logo we wanted, everybody came
together and accepted it.
But we have seen how ambitions of members divide parties…
For APC, ambitions should be put aside until we have fully
consummated. A lotof the leaders who are ambitious have said they are
willing to say yes and no;.they are willing to step aside for the
party to carry on. What the people want is what they will take. That
is oneof the decisions that have been taken by a lot of the leaders.
So I don't see a situation where at the end of the day ifyou are given
a position, you will decamp, decamp to where? PDP? You won't go to
PDP.
A political party must have people withambitions, but all of them
cannot be in one office. If 10 people are interested in being a
governor, of course we all know that it is only one person that will
emerge eventually. We must learnto develop accepting favourable
results so that if you win, to God be theglory and if you lose, all
the same, you just move closer to them in order to move the state
forward.
So it is not a do-or-die for you?
No, no. If the people say they don't want me, fine. We will rally
round whoever emerges for the good of the state. The people is the
issue here, notme or the other person contesting. Wemust do everything
in our power to continue to protect their interest. I have my work. I
don't live on politics to survive. I am a professional. If they give
me the opportunity to help my people, fine, if it turns out the other
way, fine, I return to my office, just as I did in 2007 and just as I
have done now.
You contested the last election, and you intend to contest the 2016
election, is it compulsory you contest for the office of governor?
I need a position where I can help my people and the only position
where you can effectively help your people is the executive position.
I have been around many countries of the world and I have seen a lot
of things and I know that there are lot of things still lacking in Edo
State and the only way I can be of help is to go for an elective
position; without that, it will be difficult to achieve all those
things. Yes, as senator, you can have impact but not as immediate as
that of the office of the governor.Do you have the war chest to
execute this ambition?
No, I don't. But it does not end there because politics is changing.
You must not have all the funds to execute the project. We are working
and we are earning money and we are sure that between now and 2016, we
would be able to put in a lot of resources to execute the project.
Because of the way the people have accepted us, we are not going to
spend that kind of money others will be spending for the same project
at the end of the day. We are going to ride on the good will of the
people because they have already seen us, they know our capability and
they know that their money will be safer after Oshiomhole in the hands
of Edebiri; so they will be willing to give us their support. Already
we have grassroots support.
Can you objectively assess governancein Edo State?
I have said it before that this government's performance is a good
departure of the previous. And the governor has done quite a lot but,
given what is on ground, I think he stillhas a lot to cover. But I can
say that the good work he has laid as foundation will help subsequent
governments coming. He has done very well, no doubt about that. As a
matter of fact, his performance is now going to be used as benchmark
for the in-coming government because you must perform better than him
if you must betaken seriously at the end of the day.