PDP Chief Berates Obasanjo’s Critics
PDP Chief Berates Obasanjo’s Critics
From Tunde Sanni in Ibadan, 10.03.2008, Thisday
National Vice Chairman, (South-west) of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Taju Oladipo, yesterday described Yoruba critics of former president Olusegun Obasanjo as cowards
His outburst came on a day the five South-west governors on the platform of the party stormed Ota farm of the former president, to broker peace between their Ogun State Governor, Gbenga Daniel and Obasanjo, over the lingering intra-PDP crisis in the state.
The governors, according to a source, decided to visit Obasanjo, following the irreconcilable political differences over the control of the party in the gateway state.
It would be recalled that Oladipo, at the South-west Staff Forum of the party in Ibadan, lamented that Obasanjo’s kinsmen are the arrowhead of criticism against his presidency, which he said was being fuelled by rival opposition politicians to pull him down at all costs. All the governors were, however, absent at the staff forum.
Prof. Femi Otubanjo who represented Deputy Chairman {South-west} of the party, Chief Bode George, at the forum attributed electoral success of the party in the Yoruba speaking zone in the 2007 general poll to the prowess of Obasanjo, and stated that no governor could have won without the input of the former president.
PDP National Vice Chairman stated that Obasanjo deserved commendation for his leadership qualities, being the first Nigerian military head of state to formally relinquish power to an elected government in 1979, which earned him the nod to lead a democratic government in 1999.
He saluted the former president for mainstreaming the Yoruba nation into national politics, stating that the gains have started manifesting with the appointments of Yoruba politicians into critical public offices.
He clarified that the party swept the Yoruba polls in both the 2003 and the 2007 general polls, stating that the confidence reposed in the Obasanjo presidency in his first term led to the Alliance for Democracy {AD} governors rallying support for the then president.
