Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has called on the Peoples Democratic Party to immediately suspend the former president Olusegun Obasanjo for alleged anti-party activities.
The Governor described the Thursday visit of five Peoples Democratic Party to Obasanjo as unwarranted, unnecessary and uncalled for, saying “nobody should be treated as being bigger than the party.”
Fayose who spoke with journalists in Ado-Ekiti on Friday through his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, advised the PDP to stop condoning indiscipline.
He urged the party to set up a panel to probe Obasanjo’s anti-party activities for castigating President Goodluck Jonathan and to discourage other members from emulating him. According to him, Obasanjo does not appreciate and deserves no respect, adding that, “no amount of mudslinging from him will stop President Goodluck Jonathan’s reelection.”
The governor said visiting the former president to plead with him to rescind his decision not to participate in the party’s activities was capable of encouraging other members of the party to openly disrespect the office of the President.
He said, “A man who has refused to respect the office of the President of Nigeria that he once occupied does not also deserve respect from anyone.” Fayose, who described Obasanjo as one of the major problems of Nigeria, added that his open castigation of Jonathan was unbecoming of someone who led the country for 11 years and “wasted billions of naira in his attempt to perpetuate himself in office beyond the constitutionally recognised two-term.
“Have you ever heard a former president of the United States of America openly abusing a sitting president of the country? “Does it mean that former USA president, Bill Clinton agrees with all the policies of George W. Bush and the incumbent president, Barack Obama?
Fayose alleged that Obasanjo was already a member of the opposition All Progressives Congress and that he was pushing for one of his loyalists to be the party’s vice presidential candidate. He said, “Obasanjo is a man who can never be pleased.
His principle of life is; if it is not his way, it must not be another person’s way. “Even if President Jonathan gives Obasanjo his blood today, he (Obasanjo) cannot change because he is already neck deep in the APC agenda, with his eyes on the vice presidential ticket of the party. “Therefore, no amount of visits by PDP governors can make him change his mind about President Jonathan, whom he hates not because he has not performed, but because he (Jonathan) did not hand over his presidency to him.”
Five PDP Governors led by the Chairman, PDP Governors Forum and Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Godswill Akpabio, on Thursday reportedly held a closed-door meeting with Obasanjo in Hilltop residence in Abeokuta, Ogun State. It was learnt that the meeting discussed the former president’s relationship with Jonathan and the economy of the nation.
The National Working Committee of the PDP had on Thursday suspended the former National Chairman, Bamanga Tukur, for one month for challenging his removal.
Credit: Punch