Politics

I’m done with PDP – Obasanjo tells Makarfi

Published

9 years ago

October 17, 2017

By Idebaneria Cynthia

The National Caretaker Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ahmed Makarfi, on Tuesday held a private meeting with former President Olusegun Obasanjo ostensibly to seek Obasanjo’s help in rebuilding and rejuvenating crisis – ridden PDP.

But indications emerged later that the outcome of the hour – long meeting at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, did not fit into Makarfi’s initial expectations.

Rather than get help, Obasanjo, it was learnt, reminded the former Governor of Kaduna State in clear term that he was long done with PDP and would not want to reverse himself on a decision long taken about the party.

Obasanjo who was elected President of Nigeria twice on the ticket of PDP and later became the Chairman, Board of Trustees of the party, had in the build up to the 2015 general elections, publicly tore his PDP membership card before Television Camera and announced his quitting of partisan politics to become an elder statesman and father of all of Nigerians.

And at the conclusion of the private discussion, this afternoon, the ex – President who barred Makarfi from speaking to journalists, saying he would speak on his behalf, said it was a meeting of two former colleagues, and did tell his guest that he was “no longer of the PDP” having “quitted partisan politics.”

“This is two colleagues meeting, two colleagues before before, when I was the President, Chairman was a Governor, two colleagues before before.

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“I have told the Chairman that I was in PDP before but not now, ‘God forbid, say when a dog vomits, it will go back to eat its vomit, no. I have said no partisan politics for me again and not partisan politics, but Nigeria is my passion until death do us part and anything that concerns Nigeria; the good of Nigeria, you will see my involvement.

“So, the Chairman has come to greet me and ‘I greet am’, and now that we’ve greeted ourselves, Chairman will be going, you gentlemen and ladies of the press, you can now go, leave the Chairman alone.

“I have said that publicly before and I will say it again, for our democracy to thrive and continue to be strong, we need strong party in government and strong party in the opposition.

“It has to be that way, otherwise party in government will get away with impunity and that is not good for democracy,” Obasanjo said.