Former President Olusegun Obasanjo who on February 16, 2015, publicly tore his membership card of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to severe his 17-year relationship with the party, on Thursday hosted the National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP led by the party’s National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Ota, Ogun State.
The former President, on the occasion, asked the leadership of the PDP to consider the pedigree of those aspiring to lead the country in 2023 before picking its Presidential candidate, adding that the party should also look at the way the President of the United States of America emerges from the two dominant political parties.
Last July, Obasanjo insisted that he was done with politics, denying claims that he was planning to float a new political party.
A reliable source, who was part of the Thursday meeting , said the PDP leaders had told the former President not to “siddon look” during this “critical time.”
“We went to him and told him not to ‘siddon look’ as things are getting worse in the country. We also reminded him that the PDP gave him the platform that made him the President and also served as its chairman of BoT. Therefore, we asked him not to be unbothered about happenings in the party and the polity.”
Though the former President was said to have reiterated his earlier position of no interest in belonging to any political party for now, he however counselled his guests on the need to settle their rifts and focus on the task of producing a nationally-accepted Presidential candidate in 2023.
He told the PDP leaders to go and study how Presidents emerge in the United States of America, and that they should not pick anyone just because such a person has money.
The former President expressed worry about the way the country had been busy accruing debts by borrowing money all over the world, explaining that while he was in office, governors always informed him about how much they had been able to attract as foreign direct investments into their states.
When it was time to discuss the crisis rocking the party over moves by some party leaders and governors led by the Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, to either shorten the tenure of the Secondus-led NWC or deny the members opportunity of contesting for second term, the former President reportedly asked all his guests to excuse him as he met with Secondus.
