Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Saturday declared that there was no going back on his decision to leave the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and partisan politics.
Obasanjo, who was twice elected President of Nigeria on PDP platform, renounced his membership of the party when he fell out with ex-President Goodluck Jonathan in the buildup to the 2015 election.
After ordering the chairman of his ward to tear his membership card to pieces in public, Obasanjo announced that he had quit partisan politics.
Obasanjo while addressing the National Chairman of the PDP, Iyorchia Ayu, and other stakeholders, who visited him in Abeokuta, Ogun State, on Saturday said he had no intention to return to partisan politics or the PDP.
Ayu led four former governors and members of the party’s National Working Committee to a meeting at the Pent House residence of the former President located within his Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Oke Mosan, Abeokuta, at about 12:25pm.
In the team were the PDP vice presidential candidate in 2019 election, Peter Obi, former governors Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Olusegun Mimiko (Ondo), Liyel Imoke (Cross River) and Donald Duke (Cross River).
Obasanjo and the PDP leaders went into a meeting which lasted for over two hours.
Addressing the larger gathering of the PDP stakeholders after the meeting, Obasanjo admitted that having governed Nigeria twice on the PDP platform, the party would continue to be part of his history.
He said, “I’m no longer in partisan politics and there is nothing that can bring me back. Anybody who wants my advice, I will always be there in the best interest of Nigeria.
“Whatever I do in my own life…because I became president on the platform of PDP, PDP will continue to be part of my life. Since the day I tore my PDP card, that was the day I ceased to be a member of PDP. That day I vowed not to be a member of any political party.
“I will continue to be a statesman.”
Obasanjo told Ayu that he has the problems of PDP and Nigeria on his shoulders, and prayed God give him the wisdom to carry it.
Responding, Ayu told Obasanjo that “if you leave PDP, the blood of PDP will never leave you”.
He said the party would always require his advice regarding governance in Nigeria.