ABEOKUTA—Former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, yesterday, said that he can never sacrifice his life for the Peoples Democratic Party, but, will be ready to die for the country.
Chief Olusegun Obasanjo
Obasanjo who was a former Chairman, Board of Trustees of the PDP, insisted that though he remains a card carrying member of the PDP, but the first thing is Nigeria and party comes second
Obasanjo stated this yesterday during a visit to his Hilltop residence in Abeokuta by the presidential candidate of the National Conscience Party, Dr. Martins Onovo.
He said his pre-occupation after leaving office was to work for the interest of Nigeria, saying, it would be foolish for anyone to say Nigeria did not belong to anybody.
Obasanjo said: “Let me hasten to wish you every success in your endeavour and also pay tribute, as I have done in my recent book, to the founder of your party, Gani Fawehinmi. I believe he was a genuine social critic. You may not agree with all he said or how he went about it but he was definately a genuine social critic.
“Because in this part of the world we have a saying that if people sleep and they put their heads on the same pillow, they are in danger and that means there should be some people that should be critically looking and watching and also able to speak up when they should speak up, no matter what others may say.
“Because people may come up and say Nigeria doesn’t belong to anybody, I believe that is a stupid saying. Nigeria belong to all of us because anything that doesn’t belong to anybody, anything can happen to it. For me Nigerian belong to all of us and we are stakeholders in this country.
“Let me make my own position clear, I am a card carrying member of PDP because that is the party on which platform I became the President of this country.
“My first pre-occupation is what is best for Nigeria. Nigeria first, party second and any other thing third. Nigeria first, mean I’ll sacrifice anything for the interest of Nigeria and I can sacrifice my own life for the interest of Nigeria. I can’t sacrifice my life for the interest of a party. I’ll sacrifice my life for the interest of Nigeria.
“If what you’re trying to do is in the best interest of Nigeria and Nigerians accepted and vote for you, who I am not to accept you as President of Nigeria. But what can I do in this your campaign to inform, woo and to convince the electorate. But whatever may be the outcome of the election after you have done all that, once the election is free and fear and undisturbed, uninterrupted, then you have to accept the verdict of the people.”
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