From Uchenna Inya, Abakaliki
A legal practitioner and former Secretary of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Enugu State, Steve Oruruo, was recently appointed Caretaker Committee Chairman of the party in Ebonyi State. He spoke on his perceived strange appointment by the National Working Committee of the party to head Ebonyi State, the skirmishes, discord and rancour in the party and how he intends to salvage the party to become a credible alternative for the people of the state among other issues.
You are just settling down for the assignment that was given to you by the National Working Committee of the PDP as the Caretaker Committee Chairman of the party in Ebonyi State. How has it been?
Well, it has been going on well. Of course, when you have been appointed to work in a volatile environment, environment of seeming restiveness, environment of discord, you know, where there is trust deficit, environment where there is obvious divergent opinions and a lot of doubts, you expect that the terrain will be a little bit difficult. But having known this foundation, I have come with a very strong element of amicable solutions. I have come with the accessibilities and temperament to manage different characters and different circumstances. So, I see the state of affairs as a normal circumstance. There is nothing strange, nothing unusual. What is up to me now is to find a way to reactivate, to reinvigorate, to rejuvenate the mood of the people so that various factions within the PDP will begin to trust themselves that they can be one again. I am an adherent of peace and I have been given an assignment to restore peace. So, that I have come to do. I will continue with the advocacy of one love, plurality of opinion, rationalism at every step, understanding, consensus, concessions where there should be need and of course trust in humanity. Anything we are doing that we don’t put Ebonyi first, it is bound to fail from the blast of the whistle. So, if you are running party business, it is to enthrone good leadership, it is to bring qualitative characters capable of being trusted or holding things in trust for God and man. We need to find the leadership equipment mentality. That’s the only thing that can guarantee that trusted hands can be given this position to man for PDP so that PDP becomes a very clear alternative for the Ebonyi people so that there shouldn’t be anarchy or tyranny in Ebonyi. So, what PDP offers is a contrary opinion, is a contrary opportunity to showcase different models of government and you can only do that when you win elections and you can only win elections when you stand together as a team.
You are from Enugu State and you are heading Ebonyi PDP. Don’t you think that it is strange?
The appointment in itself is not a regular appointment. It is act of persistent cases of discord latest in the series of animosity that enthroned me as a chairman in a different state. So, I said having known renaissances and challenges and the situation in Ebonyi, it shouldn’t be strange to me. If I see bickering, if I see restiveness, if I see discord, I should understand that this should be a normal thing, I should prepare to meet it because I know that if it had been normal, I wouldn’t have been invited to be in this place. So, we are ready, we are prepared to contain the problems.
Reviving the party won’t be easy for you. What is your take on this?
Well, I agree it is a challenge. When you see a big party that is nose-diving, it is normally a challenge but we are in comfort zone, that’s why I am putting calls across all stakeholders and even those who have joined APC and other parties are enjoined to come back to their original party, PDP, because original party in Ebonyi is PDP, without which any other party cannot even exist here. Those in other parties are from PDP in Ebonyi. So, PDP is the mother party here. Our prayer, our constant persuasion is that people even in other parties should come back and not people threatening to leave PDP. Those ones are of course going to remain in our party. We are persuading them to remain in our party. So, that’s the conversation that we should woo our people back and those people in the party should be given reasons to stay back and I must also concede to the fact that it is difficult to stay when you don’t have a government, government gives employment and government brings money. So, these are contending issues but those who are real party people should remain in the party for core party interest and they will benefit more when the party is enthroned.
At the centre, PDP is also engulfed in crisis. Do you think the crisis will be resolved?
I don’t understand what you mean by crisis. The party is not in crisis at the national level, I will beg to differ. I have not seen any crisis in the party at the national level. Sometimes, in the party because it’s party business, you are dealing with mankind and where you have confluence of human beings, you are bound to find divergent opinions, skirmishes, different kinds of characters. Some people are more persuasive in making their points, some are a bit more subtle and modest and when you look at that situation, you may be misinterpreted to mean a problem or skirmish of some sort but indeed, it is not. If you go to APC for instance, you will have barrage of problems that people are seriously complaining and they are even ready to resign, they have their own problems. Party has problems, if you go to Labour Party, you will know they have serious problem, you can’t say what we have in PDP is a problem. We hold NEC meetings and everything is going on properly, PDP governors are meeting and are churning out measures to ensure that our party bounces back.
What role is PDP playing as the main opposition party in the country because it appears that the party is not doing much in checkmating the excesses of the ruling All Progressives Congress?
On a general term, the essence of a party calling meetings, galvanizing the spirit of party, creating very vibrant committees when necessary, is only to call back the people, win the sense of party members, give them reasons to believe-look, this party is not suffering, this party is not dwindling in terms of fortunes, this party has a lifeline and this party is still being blessed by certain persons with the rationalism and sense of justice to drive the cause of the party and that is exactly why I have come to Ebonyi, courtesy of the national body of the party. So, it’s an opportunity to keep calling our people, the people of Ebonyi to go back to the party they belong and also make sure that they follow through all the processes of congresses and make sure that at least we have a very good functional party. If I tell you that the only party that will be in Ebonyi is PDP, that will be an elitist deceit, that will be obvious sign of when you see the elders being dysfunctional, it is not a path I want to toe, I want to focus on reality to operate from the known to the unknown. It is not going to be an easy task, it is going to be a tall order but if we put our legs to the pedal, if we keep on pushing, I can see the destination, at the end of the tunnel, there will be light.
Some stakeholders of the party in the state are protesting the constitution of the caretaker committee. They alleged that some of the members of the committee are APC members. What is your take on this?
Well, I was appointed the day those members alleged to be in another party were appointed. So, I am here to unravel all issues and find a way to bring peace and those of them who are in the other parties, I called them to come back to PDP. We don’t want to lose people; we want to bring more people into PDP. We are not the sitting government, so, we need more people, the masses should be with us. I don’t believe in name calling, I believe in resolving issues amicably and I believe in wooing people to my side. I build more bridges than fences. So, we have come here to build bridges and not fences. We had also had trend of accusations and counter accusations before my coming. So, it’s not new to me, I have spoken to most of those stakeholders who are not happy and I have given them some reasons to also relax that everything will be done noble.
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