 Tonight on Civic Education, we take a look at voter education as Ina crew veils that there are 6.7 million PVCs yet to be collected. And we also discuss Orbeez and Dorsalins by PDP chieftains. This is Plus Politics and I am Mary Ina Conn. As the York State Governor, Shea McIngay Six re-election, the G5 Governors of the Opposition People's Democratic Party, also known as the Integrity Group, today stormed Ibadon for the campaign flag off of Governor of the Governor. Now there are insinuations that the grooved PDP Governors may have abandoned their attempt to endorse a single presidential candidate to peculiar political realities in their states. Declaring his support for Mr Orbeez in the New Year message to Nigerian young people, Mr Orbeez said the Labour Party presidential flag bearer was better than any other contenders for the presidency and he was backed by Governor Samuel Orton of Benrey State. The PDP Governors have been insisting that they would not support the party's presidential candidate if Iotcha IU, the party's national chairman, does not step down from his position. Well joining us to discuss this and more is Ose Aneni. He is a PDP chieftain and John Schreiber, who is a member of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council. Thank you so much gentlemen for joining us and happy New Year. Happy New Year Mary, always a pleasure. Great. All right Ose, I'm going to start with you. It's very interesting that first we hear Governor Wike saying in the New Year he's going to let us know who he's going to pick as a president, a preferred presidential candidate. This is for a governor who's a member of the PDP. Now we all know it's no longer news that Governor Wike and of course the other governors of the G5 are not necessarily in a good place with the presidential flag bearer of the People's Democratic Party. There were rumors that they were going to be meeting with the presidential candidates of the APC who had come out also to say that this was not true. But if these men, especially for Governor Orton, who has put his weight or thrown his weight behind the Labour Party presidential candidate, is this not town to mount to anti-party activities? And also Park Lack who's a senior, an elder statement in the PDP who has decided also to put his weight behind the Labour Party. I'm wondering will this not be counted as anti-party? I mean on the face of it is the party is very clear about what it's considered to be anti-party activities. And I think it's not a stretch of the imagination if party members start campaigning for candidates in other political parties. So on the face of it, yes it is. I think the PDP is different from other political parties. Again, I always remind people that we were born in the crucible of the shadow of the military. We were formed in 1998 and then took power from the military in 1999. One of the things we have sort of embedded in our DNA is this ability to resolve conflicts because we are aware that if you don't resolve conflicts, it's sort of a short route to anarchy and chaos. So yes, you are absolutely correct on the face of it and also any other political parties candidate is an anti-party activity. And there are penalties that have been spelled out in our constitution, but I don't think it's anything I want to explore right now. I also don't think it's a crisis we cannot resolve. And I mean that and I want to be very clear. Either we're going to the 2023 elections with the G5 Governors and we defeat the APC or we don't go into the 2020 elections and we also defeat the APC. I'm a member of the presidential campaign council. I'm the deputy director of polling for the campaign. And I can tell you categorically that we have a very clear path to victory that goes around the G5 Governors and their states. Of course, it's a much more difficult path, but at this point we really are not being held hostage or held around so by any one person. I'm happy you mentioned Governor Shea Makin Dejue election bid. I don't know if you saw I'll call it a show of force that PDP members in Oyo State put on yesterday where they had a street rally to show that indeed the PDP is Oyo and Oyo is PDP. So I mean it's not, you know, you see these endorsements coming in and they do they do matter because most of these people do wield some influence. Chief Clark wields some influence, Obasundra wields some influence, but they will not determine the direction of this election. It would have been great if we got those endorsements, but we haven't but the campaign will move on. I want to take you up on that the last bit, you know, for those who say Obasundra, yes, is influential. Many have said that all of the people, the former president of Lusha Gopasundra has endorsed or had endorsed, won the elections. And if for this reason your candidate is, like you said, unperturbed, who's to say that, you know, there's not trouble in the House and the party is not headed to a catastrophic end being that these G5 Governors have said that PDP will definitely win all of the seats in their state, but they never make mention of, you know, the presidential candidate. Does that not mean that whatever they're doing, they're staring their people and their voters in a different direction? So to my mind, and I say this everywhere I go, I think one of the greatest living presidents, living or dead president Nigeria has ever had is President Obasundra. In both iterations, when he was a military head of state, remember, he handed over to Shagari and when he came back in 1999 and served for eight years. So I'm not going to come here and criticize his his pedigree or his character. What I would, however, say just correct you, he endorsed my candidate, his Excellency Attico in 2019. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court ruled that we didn't win that particular election. So his endorsements are not prophetic. I just wanted to make that point clear. He also, you know, he didn't say, you know, and his, if you read his letter, letter sort of like falls into two sections. In the first section, he criticizes the APC and sort of like reels out everything that's wrong with their government. And then in the second part, he says there are certain traits he's looking for in candidates shared by most of them. But what sort of like distinguishes or puts Peter will be ahead of other people? It was a curious turn of phrase he used. He said he is a needle with a thread attached to him. And if he strays, he can pull his ears. Personally, I've said I have a problem with that because I don't want a president whose ears you can pull. And he also said that that he had made the man of unimpeachable character. Again, I have a problem with that statement because Dati Ahmed has said several statements publicly that, you know, would ordinarily disqualify him from any democratic conversation. Recall that Dati Ahmed that on the Senate floor said that homosexuals should be killed. Recall that Dati Ahmed has said that the genocide that happened at the lekytogate wasn't that and with the matter of semantics. Recall that Dati Ahmed in 2011, a court ruled that he had actually rigged the election that took him into office in 2011. And then I think that for now that McCarthy of the PDP was the authentic winner of that election. So, when Obasan just says these things, you know, and says these are the reasons why Peter will be ahead of the others, even though I cannot question his character and his pedigree, I might this time question his judgment. Let me come to you, John. Going back to the beginning, the onset of this, you know, problem that led to the, you know, the G5 governors becoming who they are today and standing as a force somewhat against the party leadership. In hindsight, do you think that this could have been avoided? And I'm not talking about if Governor Wike were to be given the vice presidential position. I'm saying, could this matter have been resolved before now? Because as we speak, we have a few weeks before we start talking about the elections and for want of a better way to put it, time is not on anybody's side. Could this have been avoided? And could the PDP would have, could the PDP been on a better footing as we head into this election season? Well, I would like to say this, that it could have been avoided. Right? But then, there's an issue that we all need to know, right? After the primaries, we understand, we all saw how we all met at the core of our candidates, Melvin, Wike and everybody, you know, people that are very important to the party, especially the governors. Now, what happened after the, what we call, the nomination for the vice president, the whole game changed. And we started hearing, oh, let's have a southern chairman, you should step down so we can have equity, we can have justice of fairness. The truth automatizes, from all indications and from the last time, the last count, I took a work out with Wike, who seems to be the leader of the group, about five times. And he said that the gate is still open for them to come in for dialogue. You see, it depends on the mindset or what they had from the beginning, or what they want to do. It's actually, I believe, is the drawback, because the party is open. We want to win the election. No party wants to do away with their governors or such kind of leaders. So, we want to win the election. But, you see, when you go through, when you interrogate what is behind this, I think there is much more that behind why they are with Casaran. The point is this, with G5, I believe, led by Governor Wike, who is also a family member, because Philippine's family, I believe there is something behind it. And that for me is what is actually pushing away the reconciliation as a party. What do you think that something is? Because, you see, a lot of people thought that it was just about the position of the vice presidency. But then it moved to a situation of a southern caucus, which we have discussed over and over again. And there had been, according to those in the camp of the presidential candidates of the PDP, that there had been opportunities for conversations to be had. At some point, your presidential candidate flew to London. But that seemingly looks like that door has been shot. And your presidential candidate is moving on with his campaign. But then, looking at the fact that these governors are holding onto key states in the South, it makes me really wonder if it's just, you know, about Governor Wike. Well, I will tell you what. Why this is Governor Wike? If we remember, he lost the ticket to get the presidential ticket. Now, if every other, before that governors, have one election or the other to run, we're actually marketing who wants to come back for a second term. We have others going for the Senate. So actually, the confidence that he had that was going to get the ticket actually blew at his face. So now it's like a fish outside the water. And you know what it means in the power game. If you're annoyed with any power, you are outside playing the, what is it called, playing the Godfather, you're still not in power. All right. So if they hear his leading the set of people going from London to Spain to Paris, from one place to the other, right, for them to have a series of meetings and for him to have met the candidate of APC, it tells you a lot that there's something far behind it. If he asks me, I will tell you this. And I'm, I'm, I'm saddened to say this. I believe that will be what Wike never intended to work for a candidate because I don't see anything pushing him from war. You see? Go ahead. That's Nigeria for you. Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. That's Nigeria for you. No, Nigeria has happened. So that's why we want to take, recover Nigeria back from APC. Now, what, what are we saying here? So you find that there's an issue in him sitting down to accept the fact that Article of America is a candidate. And the good thing about it is this, everybody's not conscious that the candidates who are on the ballot for Senate, for government, knowing that they are at a crossroad. And to get that crossroad, they are finding difficult to go against their principal, who are called, Governor Wike. So we, we are looking at a situation where they all come back, like I said, is a family affair. That is why there's not a sanction as ought to have been within the constitution for them to sanction them. But they have not actually come aside from autumn, who I believe is playing a mind game with being a people. All right? It's been in my game in the sense that he belongs to a metropolitan area in Benway State. He thinks by pandering towards Wike, because he's the only one that have come out openly to say, okay, look, I'm going for another candidate. Right? He thinks he might be able to use it to get it on Senate ticket. And that for me, you will find out that PDP is quite strong and on ground there in Benway State. So it leaves you four. And we won't happen yesterday, the burden. And today again, we saw what happened. The people were chanting article. So article is there on ground and he's, they know he has the capacity to recover Nigeria. So if they have that understanding that he has the capacity to rescue Nigeria, then it tells you that whether or not they agree to openly support him in all your states. You'll find out that they will vote for Chiku. Okay. And that is it. Yeah. Let me say, recently Governor Wike was quoted to say that he was worried about the fact that the former principal of your presidential candidate is actually going for another person. But then it's an open secret that there's been no love lost between former presidents of Lusia Gwabasanjo and of course, former vice president Atiku Abubaka. I mean, for those of you who've read his book, My Watch, there was detailed information and certain things that he had stated there about your presidential candidates. Now, Governor Wike, I'd like to quote, said that for Abasanjo to pick OB above the PDP candidate Atiku Abubaka, who served him for eight years as vice president, every lover of PDP should be worried. Wike said, I meant, I meant to no bad. I mean that I'm only worried as a prominent PDP member. A man who loves PDP should be worried. I'm not mocking anybody. I was merely worried. My prayer was, look, let's Abasanjo remain quiet and not say anything. That was all my prayer, but the prayer didn't work. So Governor Wike, as much as he's, you know, doing what he's doing seems to still have his heart and soul within the PDP. Now, recently also said, we hear that the party chairman, because of the push from members of the political party to sanction members of the G5, some of the agents who were supposed to man sudden polling units have been removed from the list of agents. Can you comment on this? So I think you talked, you asked a three-prong question. I'll answer the first one. I don't think Governor Wike would get a glowing reference if we approached Governor Mechi, his boss, to write, to give us a reference. And, you know, so it's politics, you know, people fall out at each other and start saying he took over from him. This is different from a man who deputized. Well, Mechi was his boss. Well, he was chairman. He was chairman in the local government. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Even before he became governor. So imagine if we went to Mechi to, you know, Governor Mechi, please tell us about Wike. We can only imagine what Mechi would say. This book I have in front of me, because I love reading. This book is a book of all the cases article has gone to cut over. It includes not just his presidential challenges, but it includes an attempt by Bassinger to remove him as vice president. I don't know if you recall, and to strike him off the ballot. So more than any other, you know, article has not just fought, he didn't just fight for Bassinger to remain vice president. He fought for Bassinger when there was this purported third-term bid. And so for Bassinger writing a book, I don't expect us to, I don't think we should expect him to give him glowing references. Fast forward maybe 12 years to 2019. I actually think it speaks of articles competence. When in 2019, despite their previous bad blood and history, or Bassinger came out to endorse articles candidacy in 2019. So I just want to make that point. You know, going into the elections, we've had campaigns, you know, we are now about 50 days to actual elections. And so the nature of these campaigns will change. You start seeing us, you know, knocking on doors, you know, have you got in your PVC? If you do make sure you come out. This is where your polling unit is. It's going to be a lot more of a logistical exercise. I saw in your, in your opener, you talked about INEX 6.7 million, uncollected PVC. That already is a logistical challenge. Parties and voters have to face. And so going into the elections, we, our approach is, is, is, is going to be more logistical. So when you talk about moving agents, and that's, that's, you know, moving, moving pieces on the board, that's what that is. That's the only thing I can, I can, I can say about it. We want to win this election. Director tends to disarm members of, of people who are loyal to the G5 governance. You don't think that this is Senators Ayocha, I use move to also, one way or the other, somewhat cripple, you know, the so-called structures that this G5 governance have. You don't think that that's the case? You are talking about a PDP structure. I don't see how strengthening that PDP structure somehow crippling or weakening any other invading body. You know, the PDP is one organization. Governor Wike is a member of the PDP as the Sheik Makin Day and the other governors. And anything that the PDP needs to do to win the elections, as long as it's within the ambit of the law, I think it's, it's perfectly fine. Again, we are going into elections to win. And I was hoping we would have a conversation of why it's so important that we win this election. It's not just to seek power for the sake of gaining power. It's because things are so bad, you know. Buhari President Buhari just signed almost like the budget, the 2023 budget, that has record levels of a budget deficit on top of a 777 trillion naira debt he's leaving behind. You know, that's why I worry about not just the financial health of this country. It's our insecurity. It's unemployment. It's access to education, it's healthcare. Almost every sector that you want to talk about is failing or has failed. And like my brother, John said, our mission is not just to gain power for power's sake. It's to start to recover everything we have lost under the misrule of the APC. That's why I'm on your station every day. That's why we are campaigning loudly. That's why it matters that, and I keep on saying it, that's why it matters that your position must set aside egos and decide and determine and realize that the problem Nigeria faces is so great that we cannot allow egos or petty grievances to stop us from achieving what we need to achieve. And that is to remove the APC from power. And that is to put into office a candidate that has a plan that can get Nigeria working again. Picking up from where Osir stopped, petty grouses. John, let's talk about the PDP in Lagos. We see that there's also some crack within the party, which is somewhat obvious. The party chifting seems to be also on the side of these G5 governors. And I'm talking about one of the most senior members of the party, Chief Body George, who had at some point also supported the PDP caucus and supported governor weakest position alongside other governors. And then you do have a Lagos stage where it's always been the APC. And for once you now have one person who's, well, according to the PDP is appealing to all. But if we have this type of crack within the Lagos PDP, and then we have it's all over the national with the G5 governors. How do we see the PDP winning the election? Because I see us saying we're going to win the elections. Our duty is to win the election. We want to win our bad governance or misrule. How do you win when your house is on fire? You know, the most interesting thing about this election, let me ask for mayor, is that why do people think we're losing? We're actually gaining more. We're seeing a lot of people coming on board, you know, defecting to into the party. You know, from Kaurau, we saw them in numbers in droves. In Nigeria state, they're from ambassador, deputy governor, deputy governors. In Sokoto state, we have about four aspirants, regulatory aspirants from APC that have just joined us as of yesterday. So we have droves of people coming to join the party. Even in Delta state, when Governor Kaua, who's a vice-president candidate, was going around, in love, thousands of people decided to burn their blooms and come under the umbrella. So we're not catching any fright. The only thing we want is a unity of the party, so that we all enjoy the COVID together. Because the truth of the matter is, minor grossings, you know, comes up in the party because like Governor Rukes said, letting go of his word, he said, how can I live a PDP that only has headache? Why APC has cancer? Now, coming to Lagos, you see, Lagos is very peculiar. Jagavan or Timbu or APC or whatever, they've had sway for about three years. Now, as a time for a fresh breath, which Jandong represents, you know, but he's so, he's so alarming, like I said, he's the gentleman who, but Mia would say it as a tease. You know, I've said it here before that I'm so worried, so that Chief Body George, who ought to be glad that we have someone who also can pivot a new change and a new leadership in Lagos, is actually going against the tendency of Jandong. Who has turned a new, who has made Lagos, the campaign strategy has, you know, engaged quite, is quite innovative. He has, he has gone to about 120 units of words to know what actually, you know, the problem when people are. And in that, in one of the words, he said they've never seen any Goveteria candidate. That tells you a lot. It means that some people are writing results at the center and presenting and you'll tell me if you have one. But this time, thank God, that President Buari signed into law the amended electoral law in which there'll be use of beavers. So we will see this time where they will write the results from, because Jandong is the momentum, you know, in the first in Lagos. His own kind of campaign is, is crash-muted. Okay. All right. He's going to the grass. I just, I just want to quickly, before you conclude, I want to quickly take you back. Yeah. Chief body judge had been quoted to say that he would not expose who he's voting for during the elections, come the elections. And he did not in any way mention that it would be the PDP presidential candidates. Also, he said that Jandong had been brought as a mode to come and divide the party as this was not the plan. And this is why he's apprehensive. Again, let's not forget that he, you know, migrated from the APC into the PDP. And there seems to be some, you know, there are people, there's a division in the, in the party. There are people who still don't feel safe around Jandong, even though, as you have said, he's the chosen one. But if Chief Tainz as, as big as Chief Body Judge have concerns about, you know, who he is and what he brings to the table, should the people of Lagos not be worried also? No, you see, it's, like I said, I will, I will hit it on the head. Chief Body Judge, listen, he is supporting Vivo of the low party. He actually pushed level. So you're accusing your party chief to have anti-party activities. Is that it? Yes, it's a fact. You see, that is where we are. Do you have proof? Yes. Listen, Vivo himself said it. He said it on an interview. I think it's on a rise. He said, yes, Chief Body Judge knows quite a while. He's going to level. All right? So there's no, there's no gain safe for what is happening there. All right? Me knowing that you're going to a place does not mean that I approve of it or I've given my access. He approves of it. He approves of it. See, there are things we know in politics that you might not just come out to tell people. But I can tell you, he cannot be this hard. He's an elder. He cannot tell us he's not aware or he did not make, what is it called, Vivo to go to level. All right? If not, what is stopping him from supporting a gendon? Who has met him? Who has, he has later, later when I told him his programs. All right? So this is a time in which we need to take Legos back. And I keep saying this. In three years, Chinubu have been holding sway. What has Body Judge brought into the table? We have no one governoria, what is it called? Governorship, election, Legos state. So why now? Why now that we have a chance to do that, that he's going his route? As an elder, he ought to, you know, put the house together and ensure that everything was, look, we're going to say, I cannot because my child hurts me. All right. Just so that we wrap things up, we need to go. We need to go, gentlemen. So Osse, will the PDP ever get past this hurdle because it looks like something that's going to keep raising its ugly head until election day. Do you see this going away anytime soon? I just want to quickly remind my brother, you cannot blame the victim. And she's Body Judge as well as the millions of Legosias are a victim of, I'll call it the neo-fugialism that Tenubu has foisted upon Legos. So if you have a one-party state in Legos and the symptoms of that one-party state, you know, they fall and, you know, you rest squarely at body line. You cannot blame she Body Judge, who might just be exhibiting the symptoms of almost 23 years of misrule under the APC and under one man. And I worry that, you know, if they say they want to do in Legos what they did in Nigeria, what they've done in Legos, you know, we might end up in the one-party nation. You know, these people risk ruining our democracy. And that's what I say, you know, for me, it goes just beyond the partisan conversations. Look at what they've done in Legos, where one man decides who the governor is going to be. Is that the man you want to become, to make president or allow become president of Nigeria? So are we going to get past it? I don't think, Maria, we have a choice. We have to get past it. It literally is almost the cause of a crusade at this point. It's not, it's not just a game. It's not an idle side hobby that we are, we are venturing upon. We are literally wrestling for the soul of this nation. And, you know, I'm hoping maybe at the end of this thing, you will also live here with the endorsement of Marianna plus politics. Possibly. Play your part. Thank you so much for being here. Sayonedi is a PDP chieftain. John Scheiber also a member of the PDP. Thank you so much, gentlemen, for being part of the conversation. I am not endorsing you. We'll take a quick break. And when we return, we'll be talking voter education and, of course, a young man and his platform that is encouraging people and giving them 23 reasons why they should vote. Come 2023.