Politics

PDP, APC need to work hard to ensure survival of democracy – Obasanjo

Published

9 years ago

November 12, 2017

By Boluwatife Ezekiel Olaleye

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo believes both the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) need to rejuvenate for Nigeria’s democracy to be strong.

Obasanjo made the observation when he received one of the PDP national chairmanship aspirants, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, on Saturday in Abeokuta.

The former president remarked that both the ruling and opposition parties need to be strengthened for the country’s democracy to be salient and strong.

“I have also said that the two parties that are there, the one in government and the one in opposition are both wobbling parties.

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“I still believe that the two wobbling parties can still be made strong. They can,’’ Obasanjo said.

He re-emphasised that he was no longer interested in partisan politics in Nigeria.

He said that he left PDP when he discovered that the party had been destroyed beyond what he could be associated with at that point.

Obasanjo said there was no reason PDP should not have ruled Nigeria for 50 years as believed by some people, but that the party caused its own problem.

“That has happened in some other countries like Germany, where a party runs the affairs of the county for decades, but of course, that is not the history in our own case.’’

Obasanjo said that those who destroyed the PDP were still in it and that they would not leave until the running of the party was taken over by determined, selfless, upright, and honest people.