Gershom Bassey, one of the
founding members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Cross River state and
now a senator representing Cross River south senatorial district, has said that
the PDP misused a lot of opportunities which caused the party to lose the last
general elections.
In a chat with Chinenye Ugonna of naij.com in Abuja,
the PDP senator for Cross Rivers south senatorial district explained his strong
belief in the rejuvenation of his party and its comeback in 2019.
Read excerpts below.
Its alright. I think PDP already had three committees
in the earlier announced committees so when you put all that together we have
about 28 so its okay. And the committees given to the PDP are very strategic
committees and when you also look at the vice chairmanship, its fair.
Comparing House of Rep, PDP is
chairing 46 while APC is chairing 48. What is your take on this?
In the Senate, we also have the deputy Senate
president so we have one or two powerful positions that the House of
Representatives does not have. So all in all, we are not going to quibble about
it. We would have loved more if there was an opening. We are satisfied.
As one of the pioneer founders of
PDP in Cross river state, Where do you see PDP in 2019?
PDP is in very good shape in Cross River. As you know,
we won all our cases in the tribunal and we have 25 out of 25 House of Assembly
men. We have all the local government chairmen; we also have the deputy
governor and all the councilors so Cross River is PDP throughout
and nobody is going anywhere.
The PDP stronghold is only in the
southern part of the country, what do you think is the way forward to reviving
the party at national level?
The PDP is present around the country. Although there
are a lot of places where the All Progressives Congress has won using PDP
people to win, so their strategy was to entise the disgruntle PDP
members and they used them to win. The PDP does have a lot of presence
around the country. In terms of positions, we have more of them in the
south east. We have in Taraba, Yobe, South west like Ekiti, Ondo and in Lagos.
We have three splits like the House of Reps positions. We are scattered all
over the place but going forward, its just to provide credible and strong
opposition that is just critical for the sake of being critical. In an
opposition that holds a ruling party to its promises which is something we did
yesterday. The ruling party had promised us N5000 for unemployed youths and we
tried in the senate to hold them to their promises. Incidentally, its a promise
that we agree with. We think its a laudable policy, we think its very good for
the unemployed. Unfortunately for us, they decided they should not be held
accountable. That’s the type of opposition we want to give, credible
constructive opposition. We supported the motion of the 5000 naira when it was
moved. Anything that will move our country forward is what the PDP stands for.
We were a bit disappointed that when we talked about the 5000 naira, our
opponents turned it into a political issue. They should have said yes and let
us also hold the executive beyond party affairs. With that type of credible
opposition, we will be able to win the hearts and minds of Nigerians.
What other plans do you have for
your constituents?
Well, we want to give them effective representation
and beyond that is to ensure that whatever is their entitlement in this
federation, they get it. So we are bringing motions, bills and proposals on
things like the Bakassi situation. We want the total and comprehensive
settlement of the Bakassi. There is also the compensation issues on Bakassi; we
know that there was no plebiscite on the handing over of Bakassi. The people of
Bakassi were never asked which country they want to belong to. But the federal government
on its own handed over the Bakassi to the Cameroonians. They must be
compensated for that. On the issue of resettlement from the results of the
handover, people who ran away from Cameroon who have not been properly
resettled, they are still living in IDP. We believe they should be properly
rehabilitated and resettled. They probably would have opted not to go to
Cameroon and they would have stayed in their homes. These are some of the
issues that we intend to highlight and put proper input.
Having lost the senatorial
elections in your unit ward, will this affect your input in your constituency?
My opponent won in my own polling unit, Calabar south
but I beat my opponent in his own constituency. So he beat me in my local
government and I beat him in his own so I think it was fair. The Southern
senatorial district in Cross river is a bit cosmopolitan so people can feel
free to move around and vote. We believe that if a man lives in Lagos and is
from Cross River, he should be able to win in Lagos. At the end of the day, it
was the people’s choice.
Your core motive in the Senate is
that you intend to raise issues about your constituencies on the floor of the
Senate. Besides the Bakasi issue and resettlement, are there any other pending
issues?
Well, I think those are the most pressing issues apart
from the regular issues that affect the country like the infrastructural
issues, financial issues etc. Already, we have a motion that all of us in the
senate have co-sponsored on the state of Nigerian roads. It is things like that
that affect the entire country. Of course front and centre to everything is the
economy. So we are going to talk extensively to the economy and other issues
which include infrastructure and things like that so that is where my focus
will be.
You were in a caucus with Donald
Duke and Liyel Imoke in which they have all been governors except you. Do you
have any intentions to run for governorship as well?
I think our aspirations in all of our caucusing was to
move the country forward. That is where my interest is. I don’t have any
personal grinding ambition as long as our state is happy.
So does that translate to why you
believe so much in PDP?
Oh yes I believe so much in PDP because for me, it is
not about personal ambition. I have found out that when people move from party
to party, it is usually personal which is a valid reason for being is politics.
Maybe they want to become ministers or governors and because they cannot
realise something in one party, they go to another party. That is not my reason
for being in politics. My reason is to move my constituency, my state, my
country and I am ready to do whatever it takes legally to hold whatever
position I need to hold in order to move that forward. If tomorrow, they say I
should run for councilor, I will. It’s about moving the country forward through
a group and a family as we call it in Cross River state.
Now that PDP is in opposition,
what are you doing differently?
There is no doubt that the PDP
threw away many of its opportunities and we cant get away from that. I remember
in 1998 when we formed the PDP. By the time we ran the first elections in 1999,
PDP was the darling of the nation because of our stance of the G34 which was
the principle stance and then subsequently, because of the calibre of the
people that decided that they wanted change. In fact, this change mantra was
first started by the PDP but PDP was the change that Nigerians were looking for
in 1999. They did not want the APP because they felt the APP was too close to
the military and they wanted change from the military to a grass root oriented
party which was the PDP. So the PDP has enjoyed the confidence of the people
for so long. Unfortunately, one or two things happened, so we are setting the
pace by being the first ruling party to lose an election, to reside over its
own loss. The first party probably in Africa and then peacefully hand over
without going to the tribunal. I think a lot of people do not give us credit
for that but that alone makes us a great party and will want to see if APC can
emulate us when 2019 comes and its time for them to hand over.
Source: Naij.com
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