Peoples Democratic Party’s Matthew Iduoriyekemwen, is the Edo South senatorial district candidate and a commissioner representing Edo State on the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NNDC). He spoke on the chances of his party in Edo State and the 2023 presidential election in relation to current political state in the country at large. He shares his views with Ben Ogbemudia.

You are given a chance to contest for a seat in the senate next year. What does it portend to you and your party?

The Supreme Court ruling was a confirmation of the position the appeal court has always taken. The issues of party primaries, especially that of delegates, is within the domestic affairs of the political party, therefore no court in Nigeria has the jurisdiction to entertain the issues of delegates, being that it is an internal affair of the political party. You will recall that the party set up various committees to conduct congresses in the 36 states of the federation, and some persons on their own chose to ignore the committee set up by the party, and after which tried to use the instrumentalities of the law to circumvent the whole exercise by misleading the judiciary to procure court orders which were embarrassing to democratic practice.
The political parties are the ones who conduct primaries after informing INEC. If the dates and venues of where they intend to hold their primaries which PDP actually did. The day our primaries held, everyone was there, including the security agencies, civil defence, police. INEC was present, while some persons went to a venue different from the venue the party communicated to INEC.

What do you think can be done to bring everybody together because you need PDP members working together to win as a party?

As we speak right now, we have put up different committees to reach out to our other members to work together. For us in the PDP, the task of rescuing Nigeria is something that we take seriously, and we cannot leave any stone unturned.

This is a good move, but how effective has this move been so far?

I’ve reached out to many peopl and a lot of people have equally reached out to me about their willingness to work for us to win the election.

But information in the public domain is that after the Supreme Court judgment, Governor Godwin Obaseiki became vindictive persecuting the other group. And some have said the government is not ready for peace.

I don’t agree with that. Who are those that their businesses were shut down? If you are doing business with the government or not, I believe that good leadership shows example. I, for instance, I am in business and as much as possible I try not to be found wanting. I meet up with my obligations to the federal, state and local governments as the case may be. If some people feel like, oh! because we are in politics together, therefore, what you know the government stands against you’re out rightly violating it, I think that the government will be hypocritical if they choose not to take the right decisions.

2023: SERAP asks Atiku, Tinubu, Obi, others to publish sources of their campaign funding

Is it true a former deputy director in INEC said none of the sides should campaign if they are not going to have contempt of court?

First of all, you should ask yourself how much of the law does the man know? The issues of law are straightforward rules. The law is something that once a competent jurisdiction issues an order, every law abiding person is bound to obey until that order is vacated or upturned by a superior law order.

Just to put the record straight, we went to court to seek judicial intervention on the matter of the primaries conducted by our group(PDP) saying having won the primaries and complied with the in-house regulations; and candidates now emerged through the processes, why shouldn’t our candidates’ names be uploaded by INEC?

And INEC should show us cause why they will not accept our names after winning the primaries as uploaded by the PDP. And we ran to court, but before this matter was dispensed with, they procured an order from another high court. Mind you, this case was never uploaded but remained in the high court in Abuja.
But the judgment was given, and it was very clear that those people were not candidates of the party because it was not the state chapter of the party that conducts primaries but the national. We are the candidates uploaded by INEC. And that the issues of delegates is an internal affair of the political party and they went to the Supreme Court challenging the issues. Primaries were conducted on the 23rd of May, and this order was given on 26th May. Mind you, this Supreme Court they went to already agreed with the court of appeal that the issues of delegates are within the domestic affairs of a political party.

But the Supreme Court didn’t give a declarative judgment…
Did you read the court of appeal judgment? The court of appeal judgment is clear, what the Supreme Court did was to uphold the court of appeal judgment, so if you want to get the full details of the judgment, you now go to the court of appeal judgment. And it is the court of appeal judgment that set aside the so-called judgment of Justice Ekwo.

Security alert: Buhari summons emergency security meeting today

APC is trying to reclaim the states; are you not afraid that with what is happening in your party, things can work against you?

I can assure you that we will reconcile the members of the PDP before the election. I have been in this party since 1998, so I know those that are genuine members of the party. I know those that have good political strength, I know those that will now come and play the devil’s advocate. I know those that will come and pretend they are friends while they are enemies. But for the genuine members, we will keep reaching out to them.

When Peter Obi came out, people didn’t take him seriously, but with the way things are going, we see the Obedient movement organising marches. Don’t you think his emergence will work against your party in the South-East and South-South?

I do not see the Obi movement as a political movement. Rather, I see it as an expression of the discontent of the way things are for the Nigerian citizens. It is a political agitation against what has been happening. Prices of foodstuff are unbearable. The problem of Nigeria is something that everyone knows, and now the forthcoming election is about bringing solutions to the problem, and not what you will do. You and I know that the economic strength lies on what you produce and export against what you import and consume. Anambra State where Obi was governor…how do you rate his stewardship in Anambra State? Schools were not opened for close to two years; there was no local government election. He issued cheques that were more than the physical cash he left in office. So, you now ask yourself if I want to support Tinubu, Obi, Atiku. You’ll look at their antecedents, place of experience, and what the man has brought to the table before you mak your choice.

How will you rate this government?

In my adult life, this is the worst government I have seen in Nigeria. It is a government that has not shown capacity in any form in the area of economy, education, security or power. Under Obasanjo, Nigeria was the fastest growing economy, and it extended to the YarAd’ua era. Jonathan and his people were growing Nigeria’s economy, but what is happening now? Any slight opportunity people are relocating out of the country. Nigerians are just waiting because there’s nothing that can be done. This government has just about 6-7months to leave. Would you ever think it was possible to buy diesel for ₦800, or to exchange Dollar to Naira for ₦700? Under Jonathan, for six years, the exchange of dollars was kept at 149-152 naira, and people were complaining, why will it go to ₦152 naira? Today, it is ₦700.

We must look at someone who has capacity, who has experience and not by mouth but by action.