I am getting tired of politics - OBJ •Says PDP lacks discipline

| Print | E-mail
Written by Dapo Falade
Sunday, 28 October 2012

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, yesterday, stated that he might not be actively involved in politics any longer, saying “If I am not told, I know that I’m getting older.”

Obasanjo, the immediate past chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT), who made the declaration in Ibadan on Saturday while speaking at the first full South-West caucus meeting of the party, also attributed the downward trend in the fortunes of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to what he described as lack of sufficient discipline, just as he said the activities of the party in the last 14 years should be subjected to a review.

Speaking earlier in his welcome address, the PDP National Vice Chairman, South-West, Chief Segun Oni, said the essence of the meeting was to widen the consultation and participation base of the party to ensure that PDP in the zone became an all-inclusive party in line with its Reconciliation, Reformation and Rebuilding (3Rs) agenda of the Alhaji Bamanga Tukur leadership.

Oni, who said that the challenge before the party in the zone was to strengthen itself to meet the yearnings of the people for a change, asserted that “our people in the South-West have tested alternatives and are unhappy with the performance of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in all the five states remaining.”

Alluding to the failure of the party in the recent Ondo State governorship election, the former president said PDP was not disgraced in the election, adding that the party was rather successful in view of the plan by the opposition.

Stating that one cannot win always, Obasanjo said: “We cannot win always. We have voted in Ondo and the first important lesson we learnt from the exercise is that we must learn from our collective mistakes. We must do a post-mortem to know where our strength and our failure lie for the sake of the future. There is no perfect election, but since what happened in Ondo State cannot be changed, we must accept the outcome of the election,” he said.

On the issue of discipline, the former president said the idea of seeking for reconciliation after grave destruction was not acceptable, adding that “there must be discipline in this party. In any human organisation or association, there must be discipline.

“PDP needed to be reviewed as a way forward. Both at the national, zonal and state levels, we should look at what we have done in the last 13 years or thereabout. Where are we coming from? Where are we and where are we going and who knows the road?”

He said discipline in the party hierarchy must start at the local level and not Abuja, urging all members to work collectively to ensure the correction of noticeable anomaly in the party.

Clearing the air on the speculation that he was dumping PDP for another party, Obasanjo said it was not true that he was leaving, declaring that the party took him to all political attainments.

“I still remain a PDP member but based on principle and morality. If and when we decide to rubbish principle and morality, I’ll decide to stand alone. We should not be found in a place where there is no principle, moral and spirit of service,” he said.

In that wise, he advised that estranged members of the party should be invited back into the fold, but cautioned that such people must be thoroughly screened as, according to him, some had gone to the extreme to damage and spoil the image of the party.

He also charged all party leaders across the zone to be more alive to their responsibilities in ensuring the sustenance and success of the party, charging the PDP leaders to work actively for the restructuring of the party.

“Nobody can do anything or attain any level purely on his/her own. When the dust is finally settled, there will be re-appraisal and re-assessment. Some people have to be there and you happened to be one of those people to be there but remember the home front,” he said.

http://tribune.com.ng/sun/front-page-articles/9003-i-am-getting-tired-of-politics-obj-says-pdp-lacks-discipline