TVC E. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has sympathized with Sheriff on the PDP crisis, saying he was carrying a dying baby (PDP) on his laps. This was after a closed-door meeting with ousted PDP chairman, Ali Modu Sheriff in his hilltop mansion in Abeokuta yesterday, September 3.
Narrating to newsmen, the former president said: “He called me yesterday and said ‘where are you’ and I said, ‘I am in the country’ and he said, ‘May I come and see you?’ and I said ‘my house is open to all Nigerians of goodwill and even non-Nigerians of goodwill.
And I said, he can come’. “I have said to my brother that I wish him well with the dying baby they have put on his laps because PDP is comatose and he was of course not in PDP, he has never been in PDP until now. “When I was in PDP, I tried and encouraged him to come and join PDP, but he did not come, but the PDP they have given him now is a dying PDP, a dying baby, it needs to be in intensive care, otherwise, he will just be an undertaker”.
Obasanjo however made it clear that he has become apolitical, saying his decision not to belong to any political party has not been rescinded. His words: “Let me make it absolutely clear once and again, I have not renounced partisan politics, I don’t belong to any political party, not to talk of his own faction of PDP or any other faction of PDP.
“But he came and I am very very happy to receive him and I said ‘look, for my own education, for my own knowledge, tell me what exactly is happening’, and he briefed me.” Addressing the journalists, Sheriff said he visited Obasanjo to help solve a problem within the crisis-ridden party. His words: “Baba has spoken everything, Baba said the PDP given to me is a dying PDP, he built the PDP that everybody cherished; Baba, whether today in politics or outside politics, he has a role in Nigeria nation and every one of us that is looking up to him.
“If we have a problem, we must come to him for solution, therefore, since we are looking for solution whether he is inside, he has said he’s not going to play any partisan politics, we agree but he is our father, father of the Nigeria nation and the grandfather of PDP, therefore, the soul that has gone, he has to bring it back to us and through his advice, we will get through. “You know, Baba is very correct, so many things have gone wrong and it will be alright Insha Allah. Making it right is a matter of concentration and talking to the right people.
“Baba told you already, Nigeria needs a strong party in government and outside government and he also told you that both are needed for democracy to survive, he keeps saying this as a practical experience as a two-time president of Nigeria, every wisdom that we want to lead our party, he has it and that is why we come to consult him.”
