I don’t practice partisan politics anymore – Obasanjo tells PDP
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo told leaders of opposition Peoples Democratic Party on Saturday that he won’t return to the party.
Obasanjo, 84, made this known when a PDP delegation led by the National Chairman of the party, Iyorchia Ayu, four former governors, and members of the party’s National Working Committee visited him at his residence in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
In the team include the PDP Vice-Presidential candidate in the 2019 election, Peter Obi; former Governors, Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Olusegun Mimiko (Ondo), Liyel Imoke (Cross River) and Donald Duke (Cross River).
The Deputy National Chairman of PDP (South), Taofeek Arapaja, and other party officials were part of the entourage.
Addressing the PDP delegation, Obasanjo said, “I’m no longer in partisan politics and there is nothing that can bring back. Anybody who wants my advice, I will always be there in the best interest of Nigeria.
“Whatever I do in my own life…because I became president on the platform of PDP, PDP will continue to be part of my life. Since the day I tore my PDP card, that was the day I ceased to be a member of PDP. That day I vowed not to be a member of any political party.
“I will continue to be a statesman.”
Obasanjo told Ayu that he has the problems of PDP and Nigeria on his shoulders, and prayed God to give him the wisdom to carry it.
Responding, Ayu told Obasanjo that “if you leave PDP, the blood of PDP will never leave you.”
He said the party would always require his fatherly advice towards governance in Nigeria.
Obasanjo was first Head of State from 1976 to 1979. After his prison ordeal, Obasanjo was later elected Nigeria’s President from 1999 to 2007 on the platform of the PDP.
He, however, publicly tore his PDP membership card in February 2015 after a feud with ex-President Goodluck Jonathan.
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