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Jigawa State Governor, Sule Lamido has said that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would do all it could to mend fences with former President Olusegun Obasanjo who dumped the party on Monday by tearing his membership card to pieces.
Lamido, who is the North-West Coordinator of Goodluck/Sambo Presidential Campaign, spoke to journalists in abuja on Tuesday after meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan at the presidential villa.
His words: “Baba (Obasanjo) is more than a party man. He is an icon, a national symbol and a leader and an inventor, a creator of all the institutions today in Nigeria from the President to the governors who are his own sons, are all his creations.
“And so, when a father is angry with his own children, we will only say we are sorry to him. But then, we cannot be renounced for whatever it is.
“If you do any political DNA of our blood, you will find his (Obasanjo’s) blood in us. No matter what we are, we may not be able to live up to his expectations.
“We might have made some mistakes, but abandoning us is not the solution because the country is first before anything else. So, he is our Baba even up to the President.
“Baba is our baba no matter what. He is angry with us, but then, what do we do? He gave us the life at a time when Nigerians were fighting us, he stood for us. Since 2011, in 2007, he stood firm for us.
“He is our father. And so, if we made some mistakes, we are only human because we are heading human institutions. And I think by the time he reflects, how could he abandon his own children like that. Wherever we are, we are right in his heart. He feels for us, he cares for us.”
He added that “the bond between us is so strong. I know he is equally pained. I know what he is going through because he is our father, but I will not tell you the strategy because when he was producing us, you were not there, when he was making us, were you there?”
Told that some party chiefs had already said they would not miss Obasanjo, Lamido, who described Jonathan as Obasanjo’s first son, asked: “But then, the first child is the President, did he say so?,” he asked.
He also said: “What I am saying is that all of us have parents. When we were born, they pepped us, gave us their love, gave us everything. By the time they get old, naturally, there is what they call role reversal. We became the parents and they became the children. So, what is wrong if our parents begin to manifest those signs of old age?”
As for the chances of the PDP winning the presidential election, Lamido said: “What is this opposition in Nigeria? You must know Nigerian history. Nigeria cannot be governed by an aggregate of pain, anger and frustration.
Obasanjo has considered many things before tearing is PdPigs membership card. He body, soul and spirit has departed from Pdp. Begging him only make the matter worse.
Jona and his cabinet already said he is the problem PDpigs has.