In this interview, a former Deputy President of the Senate and a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, Senate Ibrahim Mantu, says the PDP lost the 2015 presidential election because it allowed impunity to grow within its ranks. Blaming former President Olusegun Obasanjo for starting the impunity in the former ruling party, Mantu also speaks on the anti corruption war of the APC- led government and the chances of the PDP in 2019. Excerpts.
Ibrahim Mantu
How do you explain the events that led to the Peoples Democratic Party losing power after 16 years in government?
Every serious Nigerian politician should thank God that, for the first time in the political history of this country, the military has allowed democracy to survive for 16 years, uninterrupted. There has never been a time in the history of Nigeria that the military allowed democracy to survive beyond one term. The first republic lasted only one term, the second republic lasted another one term and three months, the third republic was dead on arrival before this fourth republic came on stream.
Many people will say we have not achieved much but, honestly, we should not only be counting our woes. We should also be counting our blessings. Almost 17 years of democratic rule has given us an opportunity to establish some democratic institutions that can promote and deepen democracy. For instance, the National Assembly has been able to establish the National Assembly Service Commission which hires and fires its staff. Before then, the National Assembly was dependent totally on civil servants deployed by the executive to work for it. When we came in in 1999, we had lots of problems with President Obasanjo because many of the assembly staff were loyal to the executive arm of government; so any time we were to do anything that would put a search light on the executive, the staff would tip the executive off. But now the National Assembly Service Commission has the power to hire and fire its staff; so the question of double loyalty no longer arises.
Secondly, from 1999 to 2007, once the National Assembly embarked on an action that the President found not palatable to him, he would direct the Accountant General not to release the money ear-marked for the National Assembly. That was a way of forcing us to abandon some of the things we were trying to do. So many times, people like me, who happened to be close to Mr President then, would have to go and beg the President to change his mind. This went on till we were able to put the National Assembly on first line charge like the judiciary.
The anti-corruption agencies like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Offences Commission were the creation of the National Assembly. Today, people don’t look at things holistically. They are only looking at the down side of events in the polity.
I am saying all these to let you know that because the military did not interrupt the polity, we were able to achieve some of these things. Of course we have amended the Constitution successfully twice; new laws have been introduced into the system. We still have a long way to go, but, gradually and steadily, we will get there. Democracy is certainly deepening and I know that we will get there one day.
All these that you have enumerated were achieved when the Peoples Democratic Party was in government. But when PDP is mentioned today, what comes to mind is how the party introduced impunity, fraud and corruption into governance. How did the party get to that level?
If you go back to history, the founding fathers of the PDP meant well for this nation. If you recall, the PDP was founded by people who were political antagonists. There was no way, before the formation of PDP, that you could have someone like Abubakar Rimi and Adamu Chiroma in the same party. Adamu Chiroma was in the defunct NPN while Rimi was in the NPP and the NPP people called themselves progressives.