Wednesday, 27 August 2014

Oshiomhole’s Time Is Passing Away......................

Edo 2015 – Oshiomhole’s Time Is Passing Away – - Ugbomhe


| August 27, 2014 | 0 Comments
interview
By GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE
Pascal Ugbomhe is Director of Organization/Operations of the Edo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. He was a two-time member of the State House of Assembly, and before then, a local government council chairman and former vice-chairman of the party in the state. Ugbomhe is now in the race for the Edo North Senatorial ticket of his party and in this interview he speaks on reinventing the party in the state and how it is poised to challenge the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC. Excerpts:
You have been in political hibernation since 2007 after serving as a member of the Edo State House of Assembly and a local government chairman. Why your interests in the Senate come 2015?
I was not on political hibernation since 2007 as you said; I have been involved in other areas of the polity. Although I have not held elective positions as it were, I have been involved in the management of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo State. You will recall that after I left office as council chairman, I became the State Vice-Chairman of the PDP in the state and with the advent of the Chief Dan Orbih led leadership of the party, I was appointed the Director of Organization/Operations of the party so that I can bring my experience and technical knowledge to assist the leadership in the running of the party. To the glory of God, today, the PDP in Edo state has become a beautiful brand, it has become the most attractive brand; it has become a viable vehicle through which people are now aspiring to occupy one political position or the other. That is what I have been doing. It is not political hibernation as you said.
What are your chances of winning your party’s nomination?
I believe that my chances are as bright as others that are contesting with me, if not even brighter because I am not alien to the party. I have been involved in the building and sustenance of the party’s platform more than every other person who now wants to use it to sustain their political interests. The people know me, the party knows and had tried me, tested me both in elective responsibility and in the management of the party. With all sense of humility, I have been proven to be credible, loyal, dependable, disciplined and one with principles. These are some of the qualities which I believe that at the end of the day, perhaps; make the party to see me at this point in time as a square peg in a square hole.
There is this belief that the conduct of the PDP primaries to elect candidates into elective political positions may make or mar the fortunes of the party in the forth coming general elections. What is your take on this?
Well, for those who may be expecting this, they don’t have better democratic credentials than those of us in the PDP. I believe that the PDP will learn from the mistakes of the past, I believe that we have evolved; I am a democrat and those running the party are democrats and if not for democracy, perhaps; we would all have been in the APC if we were to be playing politics just for the stomach case. I and those managing the affairs of the party in the state are not enemies to Governor Adams Oshiomhole or to the people in the APC. I am not sure that given what we have gone though in the past seven years or so that we would be in hurry to allow the party to crumble.
What are the chances of the PDP wining elections in Edo North Senatorial zone considering the fact Governor Adams Oshiomhole hails from there?
You know many things come to play in an election; I don’t even see it that way. We are not strangers to our people in Edo North. The governor has had his time and his time is gradually fading away, coming to an end, so, it is going to be a new dawn for Edo North; Afemai does not revolve round Governor Oshiomhole and will not end with him. So, to me, I think it will be wrong to say that elections in Edo North would be between Oshiomhole and the PDP .No. We all have own pedigrees and history in Afemai land and when it comes to the general election, it will be on issues.
As a former member of the Edo State House of Assembly, what is your take on the crisis rocking the Assembly?
My brother, I weep for Edo State, I weep for the State legislature.
I need to advise my colleagues who are there now that history is looking at them.
Culled from :Here

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