NEARLY two weeks after former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, ordered his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) membership card to be publicly shredded, the national leadership has hinted that the version of the card torn by the former president had already been earmarked for destruction.
According to the national secretary of the party, Professor Adewale Oladipo, who spoke while receiving some student union leaders who came to express their support for President Goodluck Jonathan, at the national secretariat of the party in Abuja, on Tuesday, the card was signed by former acting national chairman of the party, Alhaji Abubakar Baraje.
The current PDP party membership card, according to Professor Oladipo, has the signatures of the current national chairman of the party, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu and the national secretary, Professor Oladipo.
He indicated that there were plans to destroy the old version held by Obasanjo, bearing the signature of Baraje, who had since defected to the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC).
“Baba is over 80 and my mother is around Obasanjo’s age. When you reach that age, you do things that only you can explain.
“Secondly, you will see that Baba did not tear our card. He asked somebody ostensibly to do the tearing and I am assuring you that the card that was torn was not the current PDP card.
“The current PDP card is signed by Mu’azu and Professor Oladipo. So the card he tore was a Baraje card, which we were going to destroy anyway. So I think Baba started it.
“Lastly, Baba is a very intelligent man. When Baba was helping us, he knew that a lot of people could have complained that they could have voted for PDP but Baba was there. You know when a big tree exists in a big forest, smaller trees cannot grow. If that big tree leaves, 10 to 20 smaller trees will grow.
“In politics, one big tree has a vote, while 20 small trees have 20 votes. If you do the arithmetic, I am a scientist, I know that head or tail, it is a win win situation for PDP,” the national secretary said.
Professor Oladipo observed that the promise by APC presidential candidate, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, to bring Boko Haram terrorists under control showed that he was not willing to crush them if elected.
He pointed out that President Jonathan, on the other hand, was intent on crushing the group and bringing its menace to an end, even as he had maintained focus on fundamental human rights in the midst of insurgency.
Noting that APC was only offering “a nebulous change,” he added that “you don’t give what you don’t have.”
While advising Nigerian youths to stick with President Jonathan, he recalled Buhari’s era as military head of state, during which he observed that Nigerians were forced to queue for days to get essential commodities.
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