 Former governor of a number of state, Peter Albi, has dumped the People's Democratic Party PDP and his presidential ambition. He explained that recent developments within the party were responsible for his resignation from the opposition party and withdrawal from its presidential primary slated for the end of May. Albi was one of the 15 PDP presidential aspirants cleared by Senator David Marke led presidential screening committee last month. The party had recently thrown its presidential ticket open, attracting rebuke from social cultural organizations like Ohane's in Dibu which maintained that political parties like the PDP and the APC should zone their tickets to the southeast geopolitical zones. We're joining us to discuss these are Opponabo Incotario, a political analyst, and Izigal Nyaito, who's a politician. Thank you so much gentlemen for joining us. Thanks for having us. Great. Mr Nyaito, I'll start with you because you have been a PDP member before. And I remember the last time we had a conversation you talked about some of the things that happened within the People's Democratic Party, you know, internal democracies wise. With the message that was put out on Pete Albi's social media handle and of course the letter headed statement and the abrupt, you know, resignation from the party. Does it seem like something that was done in a haste or something that had been in the works? Yes, I have been a member of the PDP for a very long time. And in the year 2010, I woke up one morning called a press conference and resigned my membership of the PDP. It was at a time that I was enjoying everything that could be enjoyed in the PDP relationship from the presidency to my state, to my governor. And everything was going well for me by way of being a party man. As a matter of fact, if you look in the social media, you'll see my son, my first son Aniekan, having a handshake with Mr President then in his office. Not a one-on-one with Mr President while I had a one-on-one with my governor. So everything was going well. But I asked myself, is this really what I want as a person? And the answer was obviously no. PDP had all the opportunities, everything that was needed for it to be in power for the next 60 years. But they lost the vision. They lost the focus. It became not longer that vehicle of governance, but a kind of, you know, game of thrones, the powers. It was about the paraphernalia of the office, the powers of the office. It was not about governance anymore. And I couldn't stand it. Fast forward. What happened? They lost five governors and they said, oh, it doesn't matter. It couldn't be bothered. If nothing will happen, we'll still be in power. I called them and said there's something really wrong fundamentally. Think about it. Oh, you are being intellectual. Forget it. Bottom line, they lost election. Now today, the two most viable candidates, three, let me say three, three most viable courted candidates are from the PDP. Who are they? Juan Cueso today, due by any rating, is the man that controls enough. Mr. Peter Obi, by any and in fact, is one of the biggest news and there was no news if you were not something from the PDP. And third, even former president Jonathan, who is being courted for more reasons than one, is from the PDP and PDP has let the three of them go without thinking. So I think that Mr. Peter Obi is a friend and he's a very intellectual person. He's a very calculating person. And he's wanted to show himself, prove himself. So he got to the Nigerian public and he showed himself. Nigerians bought him and he was expecting that PDP will think for the first time in a long time. But and he pushed it till when the window was about to close and he said, guy, I can't take this anymore. But always, I think he knew that there was a plan B. It's like a discussion that I had with Mr. Juan Cueso, who is my very good friend as well. And he told me something, which I mean, there's nothing to hide. He said, look, I'm a politician. I've been into politics. If I go into primaries, he said, this guy, he called four, two, three, four names, big names. He said, each of them will beat him in the primaries. Each of them will beat him silly in the primaries. Oh, I think that we lost that connection with Mr. Nyaito. Mr. Nyaito, can you hear me? I think that we lost that connection. Okay, open up. I'm going to toss to you until we get him back. A lot of people have called out former governor, Peter, I'll be saying that this is a huge mistake and that he probably didn't think it over before making this move. But do you think this was a huge mistake on his part, leaving the PDP? Well, I don't think so. I mean, Peter will be probably one of the definitely two that have committed on the actions, on the steps it was to take, would have weighed the pros and cons and probably convinced that, yes, this was the best option for him. Obviously, he wasn't quite as explicit in his letter, no doubt about that. But the truth is, Peter will be, it's from a zone where you have more candidates with less delegates, that is one. And there is the possibility that definitely he wasn't going to win the primaries. And so he felt there are no points continuing with it because you have how many candidates from the South East. And when you look at the delegates, how many delegates do they have, although the South East has? So obviously, it's a blind alley. And also, he felt that his chances in the PDP had quite been because of the number of candidates there. So let him go to a party where he's going to be the only China in life. So that he has the cloud, he has the acceptability, the legitimacy and so on. But definitely that would have been quite difficult to achieve in the PDP. We had the spaces to a very large extent constricted. And I think that's why he defected. He withdrew from the PDP and also from the primaries and also defected. You said that he left because you think it's the number of delegates that he had from his zone and he saw... The chances, in some other day chances, no less delegates, more aspirants. But, I mean, if it was just that, couldn't he have just stepped down and thrown his support behind someone else? As he did the last time when he supported former Vice President Atikua Bubaka. And I'm not insinuating that he should support him this time. But I'm saying, could he have not supported somebody else, maybe, from the South? You know, that definitely is not an option. But I don't forget that there is a ten warning from the leaders of the South that they should never play the second thing over. That is number one. And number two, he's not ready. He wants to be depressive. So he's not ready to be the Vice President to anybody. If not even to his fellow equal brother. He doesn't believe that they are better. He believes he's better. But probably he's not going to achieve that dream, realize that dream on the platform of the PDP. And if there are chances that he's going to realize that dream, that dream will go to crucial, on the platform of any other political party, then why not he? Why not defect? There's nothing wrong with that. There's actually nothing wrong with that. Well, as we all know, and those of us who've been watching social media, we could see that that same evening where he posted his resignation from the People's Democratic Party, he was seen shaking hands and meeting with the presidential candidate of the NNPP, which is former governor, which also has raised the eyebrows. Now, you just mentioned that the South and the leaders have also, you know, sternly warned candidates or rather aspirants not to play second fiddle. If he's going to a political party where, and I'm saying this because I have interviewed the leadership of that party and they had said succinctly to me that they have an unopposed presidential candidate. If this be true, what is former governor Peter will be doing courting the NNPP leader, or rather presidential aspirants? Well, these are mere conjectures that we have to extrapolate from what we see. No doubt about that. Not that we are quite sure of the facts. You might see him with Kwakwa and so on, but that does not mean that he's going to be the vice president, running me to Kwakwa, not necessarily. We are not central. We are also here that he might probably get to help you. We are also here at the NNPP, my family also gets help. These are mere conjectures also. We are not subtle. I don't think that Peter of you will deflect from the Philippine to any other party to be the vice presidential candidate of that party. Then it really makes no sense because I really want to part from the use-nobleness and such an act. You can as well be the vice presidential candidate and imagine a candidate rather than defend. But again, probably he's done his own homework to realize who is going to imagine a presidential candidate and is not comfortable or that person already has his own vice presidential candidate. You know, these are all things that, that's why I said the letter is not explicit enough, you know. So these are things that you have considered and did not bring to public knowledge because it did not actually give any cogent reason for deflecting from the Philippine. So he must have taken all these issues of advisement. Is it am I going to be a presidential candidate or these other presidential candidates? We don't already have a presidential candidate. They want to lie to them in the Philippine. Let it deflect from the Philippine to a party where I might likely be the presidential candidate or a running candidate to the presidential candidate. So these are all the connotations. These are all the considerations that he must have, that must have informed his decision to move from the Philippine to another political party that he has to be disclosed to public. Alright, Ms. Nyaituk, I think we have you back. We lost you, you know, due to connection. But I'm going to quickly pose this question. Many have also criticised the former governor of being a serial defector that he moved from ACA to the PDP and now he's defecting again, who knows where he's going to and that this might not necessarily play, you know, in his favour. But then again, my other question is, what does this do to the ambition of the South East being that within the APC, I mean, aside from the abhorning state governor who is interested in running for the presidency, we had Rochester, the senator and of course, Governor Peter Obey in the PDP. What happens to that South East presidential ticket call? I think that what Mr. Peter Obey has done is probably one of the best chances that the South East has to produce a president. How so? You know, yes, I'll tell you this. The very first thing is that within the two main political parties, the chances of any of the people from the South East getting the ticket is as slim as it can be. But what Mr, I bring it back, what Kwan Kwanso did of staying out and showing he's a force is what Mr. Peter Obey will do by stepping out and showing there's a force. One of the things we've not taken into consideration is understanding the current electoral act and in this current electoral act, we are going to have six to eight months of campaigning. So what Mr. Peter Obey is going to do is take a party, run and gather momentum. Mr. Kwan Kwanso is going to take a party, he's already got a party, run and gather momentum. As they head into around September, it will be clear who is a principal and who is not. The ADC, you would have, I mentioned this in the morning during the newspaper review, just two days back paraded 12 presidential aspirants. Nigerians couldn't believe the quality of the people, everything. Now what we are starting to have is an animation of a mindset reset. Wow, there is an option, there is an alternative. Yes, they are in their enclaves, but because these people are largely motivated by the fact that APZPVP ideology philosophy has failed and is not okay, they are now pandering to what Nigerians would want to see and hear. To that extent, we are coming and putting the fact that it's about nation first, Nigeria first, where happened to be the DGP. As a result, as each of them gathers momentum individually, the ADC is there, no going to have a presidential candidate that is going to be very strong, NNPP is there, SDP is there, my friend Wale Ade Wale is there doing well as well, so that around September, October, there is going to be a second level of talking about Nigeria, putting Nigeria first, put Nigeria above your personal ego, put Nigeria above your personal concerns, and there is going to be that conversation and convergence, and it is at that point that you now start to forget about your ego, I must be, I must not be, you are willing to put down in the larger interest of the nation and form a government of national unity. I foresee clearly. I love that optimism and where it's coming from, and I don't also want to be a prophet of doom, but looking at our antecedents and how we are when it comes to politicking, we've seen it play out, we've seen it play out cycle in cycle out. How many politicians, even with what is playing out now, how many of them are showing off signs of nationhood as opposed to interest? What has ever happened in Nigeria. Yeah, but you know what they say, the merit that's going to be good, you can tell from the bachelor's eve, so now, right now, can we really see any display of nationhood as opposed to what you're saying that we will begin to see? I don't know when. It's a process that Kwan Kwanso will come out and stand alone that ADC will come out and have 12 presidential candidates and if you profile each of them, they are women and men of substance that Peter Obi will come out. You see, we can't always be victims of our past. We need to be able to open up and smell the coffee. I'll tell you this. PDP thought this way when they said they were being powerful for 60 years because they thought that you cannot defeat an incumbent. Nigerians did that. End cells happened where we thought young people would not be able to organize themselves. It happened. Nigeria is a country that you can never say never. Okay. And finally, let me end on this note. It is for you and I to dare to be optimistic. Okay. We can't go between blind analysis. We must have that second cap of daring to be optimistic. Okay. I could hear you giggle. I asked that question because the mind of the average voter is what we're playing at here. Now, we like the idea that there are more people that are coming up. Political parties are beginning to own their place in the political space. But how do you sway these voters away from the umbrella and the broom? I mean, I like the fact that, as he said, the ADC has 12 political presidential aspirants, something that's never really happened before. But then the voters who we're targeting here, have we gotten to that point where we have outgrown the PDP and the APC and then begin to say, well, I'm not going to vote for the party. I'm going to vote for a person. Let me tell you the question. The question is for Punebo. I was one of those that criticized the Supreme Court that said you vote for the parties that are not the individuals. Because in Nigeria, the political parties are not the others. And in Nigeria, I had a lecture vote for the individuals. They had got for that and so on. They don't vote for parties. Today, your principle is a member of PDP. And it depends to another political party. All his phone has to be fetched into that political party. It has nothing to do with the party. It has to do with your principle. So if Pito B has the cloud, for example, as he's leaving the PDP, just as when the left one looked at that, those who were there, he's left the PDP. Now he's leaving the PDP. They will all leave the PDP. If you do any political party, it's going to. So it has nothing to do with the political party. Because we do all like America where you have ideologies and you believe in the party ideology. And that is why you're a member of that party. In Nigeria, it's all like that. You're a member of that party because your boss is a member, your mentor is a member of that party and that is why you're a member of that party. So when it comes to full ration, it's definitely not going to affect Pito B. Because he's going to leave with those that believe in him and those that see him as a mentor. That is the truth about it. Well, gentlemen, time is not on our side. Well, let's hope upon hope that things would change for the better. Uppunaboyingkotaira is a political analyst. Izikal Nyaituk is a politician. Thank you very much, gentlemen, for speaking with us. Thank you. Good to be here. All right. Well, thank you all for staying with us. We have come to the end of the show tonight. But don't forget, tomorrow is another day. Of course, we will be talking for development at 7 p.m. right here on Plus Politics. I'm Mary Annakul. Have a great evening.