Corruption fight should go to APC too - Modu Sheriff

The acting National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Ali Modu Sheriff, during his recent visit to Ekiti State, entertained a couple of questions from journalists, especially as they have to do with the fortune of his party. Deputy Editor, SAM NWAOKO, brings excerpts from the brief interaction.

What are you doing about the critical condition your party is currently in?

What do you mean by ‘critical condition’?

A lot of people believe that the PDP is crippled and is in a serious crisis?

Ali Modu Sheriff

I don’t think that statement is true. Since the time I came into the party, we have participated in about four elections and we have won in each of the elections. We won two senatorial seats in Kogi State. We won in Benue State. We won in Akwa Ibom State and we won fully in Bayelsa State. So, I don’t understand where the notion came from. A party that is crippled does not win elections. Our party is standing and that is the reason we are winning in all the elections we have participated in.

However, we are repositioning the party. That has to be stated. We lost elections. That is normal. When you go through life without any form of challenge or problem, you will be wondering if you would not just die one day. But when you are having problems on the way and getting up, you will be getting stronger, learning and getting better. So, what is happening to the PDP today is that it is getting even better than in 1999. We are in the opposition and we are winning in every election. We have won in five different elections and in some of them, we won all. So, I can’t agree that our party is getting crippled. No. Our party had a problem and the problem was losing the presidential election. But since that election, we have bounced back and won elections again.

What is your view on the Federal Government’s anti-corruption war that has been alleged to be selective and one-sided?

The PDP as a party supports all forms of anti-corruption crusade. However, we believe that it should be all the way through. We support the fight against corruption but it should not be one-sided. Corruption in all ramifications is evil. We don’t support corruption. But that corruption fight must be for every party and no exception…PDP, APC, APGA, all the political parties, because our party is a law-abiding party. Our party was in government for 16 years and the anti-corruption law itself was made by the PDP. In 1999, the law that set up the anti-corruption agencies was passed when I was a leader in the Senate.

Prominent members of your party are leaving and joining the All Progressives Congress (APC) less than one year after your party lost elections. Some others are said to be planning to leave. What message do you have for such politicians?

The answer is very simple: anybody leaving a political party because it lost elections is not a politician. True politicians don’t leave their parties. So, does it mean that when we win, they would again run back to the PDP? See what a person like Ayo Fayose went through in the PDP. He was detained and made to experience all forms of persecution at the hands of the leaders of his own party and yet he stood firm. In the end, the judiciary said he was free and vindicated him as having not committed any crime just as the people of Ekiti State re-elected him as their governor. If he was the kind of person that is jumping up and down political parties or something like that, he wouldn’t have the courage to face the people and all of them shouting ‘Oshoko’ everywhere he went. That is because he has remained steadfast and that is the hallmark of a good politician.

A number of people reacted negatively to your emergence as the national chairman of the PDP. How do you see this?

That is normal in every society or group of people. Not everyone would accept you. What is a democracy? It is a government of the people by the people and for the people. There is no way in a democracy that you won’t have opposition. Even as my brother, Ayo Fayose, is being loved by everybody, including children, there are still those who do not like him. So, it is normal in a democracy. People will have to air their views but the bottom line is that the minority will always have their say and the majority will have their way.

Corruption fight should go to APC too - Modu Sheriff