Why Ribadu will win- Ogidigbo

`PDP has outlived its  usefulness,   it should just step aside like IBB did’ - Sunday Ogidigbo ,  national coordinator Team Ribadu

Sunday Ogidigbo, national coordinator, Team Ribadu says the Peoples Democratic Party PDP has outlived its usefulness and it should step aside for the Action Congress of Nigeria CAN.Though the estate surveyor who is a product of Obafemi Awolowo University is not an ACN member ,he believes Fashola’s achievements in Lagos show that the party can transform  Nigeria positively.He speaks about Team Ribadu, the need to mobilize the youth and  why Ribadu is the best candidate for Nigeria in an interview with Danlami Nmodu,publisher/editor in chief, Newsdiaryonline.com in Abuja.Excerpts:

Q:You are  such a young looking man, being at  the head of a campaign team is quite interesting .How do you feel about that?

A:Yes, it’s good, I feel good about it. Beyond all that, I like challenges .Iam cut out for things that challenge you to want to be the best and considering the fact that this is a noble cause, age should not be an issue…I am not even bothered as to how old or how young I am,but it is the vision that is ahead of me that is driving me and I think that is what I think more about, not how I feel about this.It is not about feeling but about the ideology,what this whole movement stands for and the principles that underpin it.

Q: What does the Team Ribadu stand for?

A: Team Ribadu ,of course with the name Ribadu in it clearly suggests that it is team of young Nigerians that support the ideology and the philosophy that Mallam Nuhu Ribadu represents.

Q:Like what?

A: Of course, while he was the Chairman of the EFCC…, himself and his friends, while they had the opportunity of formulating policy for this country when he was chairman of EFCC and also at the Economic Team in the last  tenure of President of President Olusegun Obasanjo, you could see that these were people that were deliberate in their actions .They wanted to bring change in the way government is run.Nasir el Rufai was here in Abuja FCT restoring the Master plan, the city was growing like there  was no plan and Nuhu Ribadu too at EFCC was trying in his own little way to right the wrongs ,arresting those that had stolen money from innocent people like the case of those boys that defrauded the Brazilian Bank that became an international sensation .He went all out to arrest these people that were walking as kings and prince in our streets ,arresting them and bringing them to justice. These were very wrong negative role models…. And seeing him come all out to do this was what made me and a lot of Nigerians like me fall in love with him in the first place .It is not that I knew him from anywhere. When he became chairman in 2003, I was in the university and we were looking at things that they were doing and their efforts  to address the problems that Nigeria was facing as country .And that is the philosophy that we stand for.

Q: Team Ribadu, the major drive now is to sell Ribadu as a presidential candidate

A: Selling is not the right word to use .It is to get people to rally round him.Because the truth of the matter is  that it is not that Nigerians don’t know what they want, it is the  level  of apathy, The average Nigerian voter is apathetic.He is psychologically traumatized due to the experience of rigging and all that, so people don’t believe anymore in the process. So the first job we have to do as Team Ribadu is to get Nigerians, young Nigerians, the average electorate to believe in the system first, because if they don’t even believe in the system ,if they don’t go out to register when INEC asks them to come and register, they can’t even vote.Alot of people that have stayed away from the polls.So it is not a question of trying to sell Ribadu,because if somebody buys Ribadu and he doesn’t go and vote,it doesn’t make any difference.So the first job that we have ahead of us as Team Ribadu is to sensitize Nigerians that our best bet is democracy and that yea, maybe the PDP government and people that held sway for the last eleven years have not really represented what democracy really is but all hope is not lost because in Ribadu and his like, we can redress the wrongs that befell this country with our return to democracy.So the first job as Team Ribadu is to get as many young Nigerians as possible to go and register then they can vote and  hopefully  vote for Nuhu Ribadu.

Q: Do you think Ribadu really stands any chance in the light of , let me use the Nigerian expression’heavyweight contestants in the race’, and the fact that he is joining the race rather late?

A:Yea,the first thing you must appreciate is that there is no political party in Nigeria that has enough members to win any election at the ward level ,at the presidential level, there is none. The PDP might have offices everywhere, that does not translate to membership.They might have an office here in Abuja ,it doesn’t mean that everybody here in Abuja is PD P. So there is no political party that has enough member to win any election .Yes, the advantage that the have with PDP is that they have been in government for a long time and they have more money to open offices in all the wards and all that, but it doesn’t  mean that…I belong to a ward, Iam not a member, Iam not going to vote for PDP .The average Nigerian here , they want to vote for the truth.They want to vote for hope .They want to vote. And if the chips are down once he declares  soon and the debate starts and the issues are thrashed out, just like it happened in 1993, Nigerians are going to vote beyond.They are going to vote for what they believe can translate into something concrete and productive and that is what Nuhu Ribadu represents.

Q:You are sure Nigerians will vote for Ribadu?

A: I am very sure .Once the message gets out there; Nuhu Ribadu has not declared yet.His declaration is still coming up later in the month.Once he declares…look Jonathan said he doesn’t  have anything to promise Nigerians but he is going to work..It is now for Nigerians to choose.And aIso I believe  that there are a lot of things that have changed with our elections.With(Professor) Jega there, that is not to say that Jega is the panacea to all the electoral problems.But with Jega  as the chairman of INEC and also with Corps members manning the polling booths which they did in the last two elections,the one in Abuja and the one in Anambra ;  at least for once, we didn’t see overbloated results especially the election in Anambra, very interesting.We didn’t see overbloated result.They had three hundred and something total votes cast in Anambra state.So the politicians know that they could  not go and stuff the ballot box in Anambra,so the only thing they could do was to tamper with the voter register in the case of Anambra state because they know that the average corps member would not go and b e thumb printing like they used to do and  for a polling booth that has only 100 registered voters you will turn out with 500 result.So a lot of things have changed in the electoral dynamics.Jega in place and also the fact that corpers will be manning the register, so a lot of things  are changing the dynamics, they know.So it is not going to be easy for them this time around.

Q : Why are you really so confident that Ribadu will win?

A:Well,it is like when your house is on fire and you know Nigeria has been on fire since… when our democracy was rudely interrupted by the military. Nigeria has been on fire.We went through civil war and all of the resources we have earned as a country has not translated into anything concrete. We have little or nothing to show for our existence as an independent country. And the PDP government ,they have had eleven uninterrupted years to restore hope to the average Nigerian .I was thinking this morning and I just suddenly  realized that may be the PDP has had its turn, they should just step aside like IBB did. You know why? Because ,the fouders of the PDP,G39 or  what, the founders, the people that founded it, the movement that later became PDP, their vision was to take power from the military and they have done that.

Q  : You think that the PDP should just go and rest?

A : They should just go and rest because .

Q : Should we disband PDP?

A:Because they don’t have a vision for this country,that is what I think.The vision they had ,their job then was to get the military to go back to the barracks, that was the vision of the founders of PDP.Because every political party would have an ideology and the ideology of the PDP..(the party)  was founded to  get out of governance which they have done.That is why they have not been able to translate the power they have now into something concrete.

Q: That is interesting.Iam  insisting, are you suggesting that we should just disband the PDP and have a fresher set of political parties

A:I am not saying that we should, Iam not in a position to suggest that the  PDP should be disbanded .I am just taking a look at what they have done in the last eleven years.The fact that they have had more money than any government  in the history of this country and they have not delivered anything as far as Iam concerned.Because the hospitals are getting worse, the roads are getting bad by the day.You travel the average road from the North of this country to the South, they are decaying.

Q:PDP has outlived its relevance…

A:Yea, because the  vision.. when a political party doesn’t have a vision , they don’t have a vision.PDP was founded  with the vision of getting the military out of office.

Q: What is the guarantee that ACN will be better?

A: Of course , you can see what Fashola is doing in Lagos. You don’t need anybody to tell you that. That is a party which, I am not a member of the ACN   for your information, Im not.

Q: But you are campaigning for Ribadu.

A:Yea Iam campaigning for Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, not necessarily for the  ACN .But even at that looking at what Fashola has done for the ACN ,looking at what Fashola has done in Lagos, this is someone that in less than three years has done what a lot of people have said cannot happen in Lagos. He is restoring the lost glory of Lagos .The BRTs are working .You Can afford not to drive your car in Lagos if you work in VI and live in Ikorodu  , you jump into a BRT and you are there in 30 minutes. So this is a government that is trying to deliberately solve the problem of the people,the ACN  government, and of course in being a formidable opposition in any political process, when you are in position it will give you time to want to fine tune your strategy so that when you get into office, you will do what the other people are not doing.

Q:When you said you don’t belong to the ACN  and that Mallam has not declared yet.It reminded me of something.You know  we had a presidential candidate in the past, General Buhari who had his own The Buhari Organization which was distinct from the ANPP.Are we likely going to have that kind of set up?Are you not going to  fuse into ACN?

A: Team Ribadu is the volunteer hub of the bid.Team Ribadu is not Ribadu campaign organization unlike The Buhari Organization.They are not the same.It is not synonymous with the Buhari Organization  .Team is the volunteer hub of the Nuhu Ribadu presidential bid.So  what we do as Team Ribadu is to help coordinate anyone that wants to give his time, his resources, his energy towards actualizing this vision of his.So we have  nothing with the day to day running of the political party and the core campaign organization that he has in place.Ours is very simple, we are going out, we want to reach out to young people,we want to reach out to people that want to volunteer their time to help us knock on doors, to help us arrange rallies, to organize house parties and any private or collective effort by any Nigerian anwhere that we  can support and we can encourage.That is what we do at Team Ribadu……

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