SAN FRANCISCO, March 03, (THEWILL) – Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has nailed the coffin of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as he insisted that the party is sunk and gone, praying that the fortune of Nigeria should also not sink like that of the PDP.
Obasanjo made the declaration on Friday during an International Symposium titled: “Purpose and Utilitarian Values of Presidential Libraries” at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
The event, organised by the Centre for Human Security (CHS), an arm of OOPL also included the grand opening of the Library to mark the 80th birthday of the ex-President.
Responding to comments by a former National Chairman of the PDP, Alh. Ahmadu Ali, about their past relationship in government, Obasanjo recalled that he brought Ali to lead the party, once powerful and largest party in Africa, because of his truthfulness, saying PDP was controlling 30 out of the 36 states of the federation when Ali and him were leading it but lamented that its fortune sank when the duo left the stage.
“Ahmadu Ali is truthful and that was why I brought him to head the PDP and all went well when Ahmadu Ali was the National chairman. We were controlling 30 out of the 36 states, when Ahmadu and I left, the fortune of the PDP began to sink,” he said.
“Whether you believe it or not, today PDP is sunk and gone. May the fortune of Nigeria never sink like that of the PDP” with the audience responding in a thunderous “Amen.”
“Somebody among the speakers said God has always given me the opportunity to correct my wrongs. I will say God has done that for me not in all cases but in most cases and this Presidential Library is actually an act of God which he has given to me to correct one of my mistakes of the past and I have said this very often.
“I was in the war front, it was very one significant thing in my life and in the life of Nigeria. I was military head of State, it was one significant thing in my life and in the life of Nigeria but I was not as mindful as I should have been about collecting materials that were connected with those events, the war front and civil war both on the vandals’ side, we called them rebels side or if you like the Biafrans side, they called us vandals, we called them rebels.
“But we did collect something, when I was also the Military Head of State I didn’t pay much attention to collect materials, where I should have paid attention to.
“So, by 1988, it occurred to me that these are mistakes, I looked at some of the materials we got from the war fronts, they were in very bad state of neglect so what I did was to try and micro-film what we could micro-film.
“I also learnt a lesson, when you are in a position to keep materials and preserve them for prosterity, you should do so and I never knew there will be another opportunity, so, God created another opportunity for me to correct the mistakes of the past.
“God is the God second chance and for some of us He is not God of second chance but God of many chances and I will be internally grateful to God for the opportunity he has given me but more importantly whatever I might achieved, I take responsibility but whatever I might achieved it would not have been possible without the people who have helped me in life to be able to achieve what I have achieved.
“Take the Presidential Library for example if not for the members of Board of Trustees I will have fallen by the roadside and that will have been another mistake because it got to a stage that things were rough, things were rough and we are just putting heads together, it is God of many chances.”
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