– Says APC, PDP leprous hands
Ahead of the 2019 general elections, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, has said grassroots movements across the country, could garner support to vote out the current All Progressives Congressled government of President Muhammadu Buhari which he described as a failure.
The former president also insisted that both the ruling party and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party are leprous hands with nothing to offer the nation.
Obasanjo leads the over three million member Coalition for Nigeria Movement (CNM).
Speaking at a meeting with two groups – Nigeria Young Professionals Forum (NYPF) and New Nigeria 2019 in Abeokuta, the Ogun state capital, the former president said the only way to get the mission accomplished is to attract the good elements within the two parties into the coalition.
The groups were led by Moses Siasia and China Anyaso respectively.
They came to consult with the former president on the state of the nation, and assured of their readiness to respond to Obasanjo’s clarion call for a popular movement to rescue Nigeria.
According to Obasanjo, to wrest power to succeed in 2019, “all hands must be on deck,” noting that failure to take necessary action would also mean a people willingly falling victims of what they don’t like.
According to the expresident, a strong popular grassroots movement is urgently desirable to bring about the change, sustainability, stability and development in the nation’s democracy.
He said: “The point is this; the way to wrest power is to know that those that are there, you have to carry them along so that they will willingly (yield space). so that they will not be frightened, they will not be intimidated.
“But this time, for us to make it, we need all hands on deck.
You see, I have publicly said and I mean it, that as a party, neither PDP nor APC can get us there as they have been.
“Never mind about reforms and apology and all that, and yet we have to get there.
I asked one of the foundation members of PDP, the PDP when we started, was it a grassroots party? He said it was an elitist party.
“Really, we have never had the so-called grassroots party. Even NEPU which we could say is the nearest, was not grassroots enough. “And I believe strongly that we must have a strong popular grassroots movement to bring about the change, sustainability and stability that we need in our democracy and development. “I am happy to meet with you but don’t take anything for granted. There will be a lot of work that we have to do.” Continuing, the ex-president said, “What those I call power addicts would want to do is to divide you based on gender, age, tribe, religion and region.
You have one commonality – interest of Nigeria. “And it doesn’t matter where you come from. We had that interest.
The truth is this; when you have an ineffective and incompetent government, we are all victims.
“And don’t let anybody deceive you.
Those of you who are in business, your business could have been better today if we have a competent and effective and performing government. “As I said, stop giving excuses; we met challenges.
If there are no challenges, then we wouldn’t need you to come. You come in because you know there are challenges and then giving us excuse that you have many challenges, that is why you haven’t achieved results.
“And then you still want to go. The first lesson I learnt in my military training is never reinforce failure.
What we have now is failure. Never you reinforce failure, let failure be failure.
“And if you do not see what you should see, you will then be a victim of what you don’t like because it’s only when you see what you should see and you do what you should do that you put away what you do not like.
And if you don’t see what you should see and you don’t do what you should do, you will be a victim of what you don’t like.
“But let us bring together all these movements because we are pursuing the same thing.
If we allow ourselves to be taken piecemeal, it is finished.
Now, if we are together… Yes, I said you cannot take PDP as it is and APC as it is; but they are not all made of evil people.
“There are good people.
I said PDP is leprous hand, APC is leprous hand, but there are some clean fingers in them.
So, let’s take those clean fingers in them and graft the clean fingers in our own.
“That is the way to go and if we go that way, we will get there, we will move together, and we will move fast and we will move far.”
