Former President Olusegun Obasanjo is
known for not letting people go scot free
if he feels insulted by their words or
actions. A show of his person came again
on Saturday in Abeokuta, the Ogun State
capital when he described Imo State
Governor, Rochas Okorocha as a failure.
Obasanjo said this just as the Chairman of
the Peoples’ Democratic Party, Alhaji
Bamanga Tukur, likened the current crisis
rocking the ruling party as a “surgery”
which must bring some pain to members.
Obasanjo who was responding to guests
who spoke during the grand finale of a
civic reception organised in his honour by
the South West Zone of the PDP said
there was no way he could associate with
Okorocha who had jokingly referred to
the former President as his “colleague.”
The Imo governor had earlier in his
speech talked about his days as Special
Adviser on Inter-Party Affairs to
Obasanjo, saying he gave the ex-President
advice that resulted in the good decisions
that Obasanjo took while in office.
“Obasanjo is indeed PDP. But in the actual
sense, he’s a national leader. He does not
belong to the PDP alone but a national
leader of Nigeria. If I have another
opportunity to advise him, I will tell him
to be the national leader of the country
and not the national leader of the party.
“We are here to give honour to whom
honour is due. Obasanjo will remain
immovable and unshakable. He is a man
that is very difficult to describe. He
represents different things to different
people. But for me, he represents a
former colleague. We both ran for the
office of the President of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria. And later when he
appointed me as his adviser, I gave him
all the good advice.
“All the good things he did for those eight
years, I advised him but all the bad ones
he did, I travelled out of the country. I
want to join Nigerians to celebrate this
icon — this great and steadfast Nigerian,
who is not afraid of fighting any battle.
But when he starts fighting he doesn’t
stop until he finishes fighting. He’s a
general’s general and a soldier’s soldier,”
Okorocha said.
In his message, Governor of Akwa Ibom,
Godswill Akpabio, in his message
immediately came to Obasanjo’s defence
and told Okorocha that, “I was not as lucky
as Governor Okorocha to work with him
Obasanjo. So I did not give him advice.
I’m very sure that even the few things
that he did were actually taken out of the
bad advice of APGA where Rochas
Okorocha must have represented. Baba, I
say the good ones are from you, not from
him (Okorocha).”
Obasanjo must have been boiling with
anger or maybe just disgust where he sat.
The former president when he spoke said
he could not be a colleague to Okorocha.
“I met Okorocha a long ago by virtue of
the fact that he was brought up in Jos —
one of the few cities that I found in the
fifties and seventies as a genuine melting
pot in Nigeria. He is a true Nigerian and
when he wants to pull me down, he will
say we are colleagues. How can I be a
colleague of a failure? You are a failure in
contesting the presidency of Nigeria!”
Obasanjo said.
Tukur in his speech said the crisis-ridden
PDP was undergoing a surgery in which
pains must be felt for the ruling party to
get over its current unhealthy state.
He said, “Let us fight and win unity,
peace, development for our dear nation.
The surgery we have started in our party,
the PDP is in line with our vision for a
better society and the aspiration of all
Nigerians. In this surgery we are aware
we must lose some blood, undergo some
pains and challenges but surely the result
will eventually be one sacrifice that we
made for ourselves.”
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