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By Akinwande Soji-Ojo
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, has declared that there is no going back on his decision to quit the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and partisan politics.
Obasanjo, who was twice elected president on PDP platform, renounced his membership of the party, when he fell out with ex-President Goodluck Jonathan in the buildup to the 2015 election.
After ordering his ward chairman to shred the card into pieces in public, Obasanjo announced that he had quit partisan politics.
Obasanjo, while addressing the national chairman of the PDP, Sen. Iyorchia Ayu, and chieftains of the party who visited him in Abeokuta, Ogun State, on Saturday, said he had no intention to return to partisan politics or the PDP.
Ayu led four former governors and members of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) to a meeting at the residence of the former President located within his Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), Oke Mosan, Abeokuta.
In the team which arrived 12:25pm were 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).
Obasanjo and the PDP leaders went into a closed door meeting which lasted for over two hours.
Addressing a larger gathering of stakeholders after the closed door meeting, Obasanjo admitted that having governed Nigeria twice on the party’s platform, PDP would continue to be part of his history.
He said: “I’m no longer in partisan politics and there is nothing that can bring me 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 give him the wisdom to carry it.
Responding, Ayu said “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.
While applauding Obasanjo for being passionate about the progress, unity and development of the country, the PDP national chairman noted that “what we have now falls short of the leadership Nigeria deserves.”