NIGERIA: Former president Olusegun Obasanjo has endorsed Atiku Abubakar, his former VP for President
Atiku, who clinched the PDP Presidential ticket last Sunday, visited Obasanjo at his Abeokuta home alongside popular Islamic preacher, Dr Ahmad Abubakar Gumi; Bishop David Oyedepo of the Living Faith Church Worldwide; and Most Reverend Matthew Kukah, Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, among other PDP leaders, according to Sahara Reporters.
See Obasanjo’s statement at the meeting below:
“Let me start by congratulating President-to-be, Atiku Abubakar, for his success at the recent PDP Primary and I took note of his gracious remarks in his acceptance speech that it all started here.
“Yes, when it started, it was meant for Atiku to succeed Obasanjo. In the presence of these distinguished leaders of goodwill today, let me say it openly that we have reviewed what went wrong on the side of Atiku. And in all honesty, my former Vice-President has re-discovered and re-positioned himself. As I have repeatedly said, it is not so much what you did against me that was the issue but what you did against the Party, the Government and the country.
I took the stand I had taken based on the character and attributes you exhibited in the position you found yourself. I strongly believe that I was right. It was in the overall interest of everyone and everything to take such a position.
From what transpired in the last couple of hours or so, you have shown remorse; you have asked for forgiveness and you have indicated that you have learnt some good lessons and you will mend fences and make amends as necessary and as desirable.
Whenever or wherever you might have offended me, as a Christian who asks for God’s forgiveness of my sins and inadequacies on daily basis, I forgive and I sincerely advise you to learn from the past and do what is right and it will be well with you. Obviously, you have mended fences with the Party and fully reconciled with the Party. That’s why today, you are the Presidential Candidate of the Party.
In addition to appreciating all that the Party has done for you, may I advise you to work together with all those who contested for the Party’s flag with you as a team for your campaign.
There are still areas, nationally and internationally, where you have to mend fences and make amends. You will know how to handle what is already out and what may yet be put out by the opposition. But, I am convinced that if you continue with the attitude that brought you here with these distinguished leaders of goodwill, with remorse and contrite heart, the rest of the coast within and outside the country can be cleared. And if there is anything I can do and you want me to do in that respect, I will do.
I am sure with the right attitude for change where necessary, and by putting lessons learned by you to work, you will get the understanding, cooperation, support and mandate – all at the national level.
With Nigerians voting for you, it will mean that you secure their forgiveness and regain their confidence. It will be with the hope or assurance of a Paul on the road to Damascus Conversion. After all, change and conversion are of man. I believe that with a contrite heart, change is possible in everybody’s life and situation.
For me, relatively and of all the aspirants in the PDP, you have the widest and greatest exposure, experience, outreach and possibly the best machinery and preparation for seeing the tough and likely dirty campaign ahead through. From what I personally know of you, you have capacity to perform better than the incumbent. You surely understand the economy better; you have business experience, which can make your administration business-friendly and boost the economy and provide jobs.
You have better outreach nationally and internationally and that can translate to better management of foreign affairs. You are more accessible and less inflexible and more open to all parts of the country in many ways. As Pastor Bakare, one-time running mate of the incumbent President said, “You are a wazobia man.” And that should help you in confronting the confrontable and shunning nepotism.
As you know, along the road to where you are today, many leaders and ordinary people cooperated and overtly and covertly worked hard. On your behalf, I thank them all. May their coast continue to be expanded. And when you become Nigerian President which, insha-Allah, you will be, remember what we did together in government – we ran an administration by Nigerians for all Nigerians where merit and performance count more than blood relationship, friendship or kith and kin. Although some time and ground have been lost, you should endeavour to start from where we stopped and recover some lost ground, if not time.
“Please uphold truth, integrity, principles, morality and fight corruption, crimes and insurgency. The fundamental law of the land, our constitution must be scrupulously defended. I make one demand and one demand on you today, I need you to say before God and man that you will always remain irrevocably committed to upholding ALL the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the whole country will remain your single indivisible constituency.
“Constitutionalism, popular participation and inclusiveness are pre-conditions for reversing the deficits of the past three and half years. They will ensure abiding faith in our indivisibility, oneness and faith in the survival of all against none.
“The fundamentals for our development, economic growth and progress are hard and soft infrastructure. Remember to always give adequate places in your administration to our youth and women.
“All the authorities involved with the preparation, all processes and conduct of the election must ensure that the election is free, fair and credible.
“Once again, congratulations and I wish you well. My distinguished brothers and leaders of goodwill, thank you for making this happen. I will now count on you to encourage all hands to be on the deck to take Nigeria to the level God has created it to be – autopilot level.”
Source: bellanaija.com
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. |
Where is Goodluck Jonathan the immediate past president of PDP? it's only a f000**00l who doesn't learn a lesson. I respect Nigga people papaapa! you have sense and you can reason for yourselves,you ain't de*ad go*ats! in fact ,giving some people too much chance is taking our country Ghana too far back, where in the world is a president assessment by the people proved very pooor and voted out in a very humiliating and disgraceful way, will turn back and proclaim himself a by force candidate to the party which gave him the chance and he blew away when so many people including his own appointees are contesting for the flagbearership position of the party and instead of this man talking to the delegates he has rather started his national campaign when he us mot even a candidate of that party, only Bole Bamboi and Gonja land will such a miserable and ridiculous story come from ! eeeeeiii ndc mo wo asem bo ne po! Goodluck Jonathan has giving way to another face and look at what mahama is doing to your party courting insults and disaffection for your party! Listen , not everyone talking bad about John mahama and the ndc are NPP but those who will choose NPP over the ndc,so if you keep on saying they are NPP you market the NPP more to Ghanaians to love and to increase their votes. Ndc has no good strategists ! aaah! but if you have a party and you leave it to a failure and a person rejected by the people to manage what do you get? mahama is a spent force and has no market, agoro beso a efiri anopa! the vote dificit in the last elections should send a signal to the ndc that John mahama shouldn't be their last bet. Do you think John mahama can convince e the Ghanaian people to even wipe off 500,000 of his dificit? with such people like Akamba, Inusah Fuseini and co. who are spewing sh**it? Politics is not by physical strength or who can insult the most but who has wisdom, sense,intelligence,policies,visions,dreams and who the people can trust and believe but how these people have started their dirty campaign will let ndc lose more votes in 2020 than they can think of! You've allowed them to take in charge of that party with insults and lies, propaganda and archaic soviet inferior tactics. They've forgotten the Ghanaian who voted against them are still waiting to vote but mahama is not their option.Mahama has started with very unc*ultured and unco*uth manners which is driving away a lot of people from the ndc! Remember, Nana Addo was loved by Ghanaians and they promised to give him power because of his manners, because of the way he handled the election petition, that I don't agree with the court but I've accepted the verdict and it was 5-4 against him, any other person wouldn't take it but he took it in good faith. It shows Ghanaians are fir cultured and mannered people not the mahama and his Fuseini and Akamba type.
Atleast he was able to help produce the likesof Adenuga, Dangote etc. Who else has Ghana produced... dont mention that guy with our money in Dubai the Gridy and myopic small boy called RLG. his matter dey pain GHanaian pass
OBASAJO MUST LEAVE NIGERIA PEOPLE ALONE AFTER HIM AND HIS LOOTERS ***barred word*** NIGERIA MONIES AND DESTROYING THAT COUNTRY, FROM AFRICA PEOPLE