A former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, on Tuesday said he
adjusted his itinerary to suit and honour the presidential
candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC,
Muhammadu Buhari, who was in Ogun State for his
campaign ahead of the February poll.
Mr. Obasanjo made this known when Mr. Buhari led
chieftains of the party on a courtesy call to him at his
private residence in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
“But let me in a special way welcome Muhammadu,” Mr.
Obasanjo said. “Our paths have crossed on a number of
occasions and when I was told you are going to be coming
to Ogun State, I wasn’t sure whether you will come here or
not. But I told my boys -I said well, whatever programme
we have outside Ogun State for today, let us shelve it just
in case Muhammadu and his party and his team decide to
call here.
“You will remember when you decided to contest you
wrote me a letter this time around. And I replied your
letter. When you became the flag bearer of your party, you
wrote me another letter. And I replied your second letter
because I believe that you have honoured me by writing
and I should of course reciprocate by also responding to
your letter.”
The former president said what was paramount to him was
who would make Nigeria better irrespective of the party
the candidate belongs to.
Mr. Obasanjo, however, declared that he remained a
member of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
“I have always said that party or no party, what is
paramount for me is Nigeria. And that will remain
paramount as far as I am concerned. There is no political
party in the world that is made up of saints and our own
political parties in Nigeria will be no exception. All the
political parties have saints and devils among them. But
because what you are campaigning for is the votes of saints
and devils to be able to win an election, and I wish you
well,” Mr. Obasanjo said.
Mr. Obasanjo added that politicians should do away with
trivialities and face issues, to tell Nigeria what would be
done to better their lots.
“I thought that I should say it today. I will just beg all of
you who are contesting to add one to it; you mentioned
economy, you mentioned corruption, and you mentioned
security. All of you, I will beg of you, to add infrastructure.
It’s very important. You may take it as part of economy
but I will take infrastructure as special and give it special
attention.
“For all political parties that are trying to woo us to vote
for them in the coming election; let’s go away from red-
herring, let’s go away from trivialities, let’s face issues and
tell the people of this country what we will do to deal with
these crying problems of our country. Having said that, I
will also say that while a party must be microcosm of a
nation – and in a nation you will have near saints, devils,
rapists, armed robbers and a good party must have all this
in them.
“But what matters is that when that party has to go into
government, it must look for men and women of character.
And we have them in all parties; we have them
throughout the nooks and crannies of this country. Again, I
wish you well as you go around. I thank you for this visit. I
cannot end without reminding you, even though I saw
some old faces, but some of us will remain firm at least at
the ward level where I am very active in my party.”
In his speech, Mr. Buhari said he came to appreciate the
roles Mr. Obasanjo played in his career. He said he needed
to further solicit for his support.
“When I set about the programme of going round the
states, it was decided that we should be taking two states
per day. I think we have so far succeeded in doing the
South-South and the South East. Whether we can maintain
that success I don’t know. But somebody had the temerity
to ask me that when I come, shall I call on Chief Olusegun
Obasanjo? I don’t think I answered the man. I just looked
the other side. I think that I should not come here in
whatever capacity without calling to pay my respect.
“Sir, it’s a fact that you know more than all we know
about the problem that we are in. But what we’ll do is try
to convince you to believe us that we are going to do better.
We expect your understanding and support, although you
insist in remaining in PDP. I have reached a certain degree
of frustration in my attempt for you to try to shift a bit but
you have refused.
“Briefly, we have been going around three fundamental
issues: security, economy, corruption. This vicious circle is
what the APC is determined to break. Because without
security, there is no way the country can settle down not
to talk of living in it. So many people, educated and
uneducated, some said up to 60 per cent, will say Nigeria is
sitting on a keg of gun powder.
“And then corruption; we believe that if we are able to stop
corruption, a lot of resources will be available to invest in
infrastructure, get the factories to reopen, get jobs, and get
goods and services. So security, economy, in terms of
employment, production, manufacturing, goods and
services, and then agriculture will again give impetus to
employment. We have to be systematic and work to make
sure that the vast land we have is cultivated not only to
produce food, but to produce raw materials for agro-allied
industries, which used to be very viable but which we
allowed to die because everybody has concentrated on
getting oil money.
“Now the oil money is dwindling rapidly; I think we better
come back to our senses. Sir, briefly, this is what we intend
to do and this is contained in our manifesto. We are not
going to be inflexible the way some people accused us of
doing it. We are going to be dynamic as we go along and
that’s why I said we are here to seek for your
understanding, for your support, in spite of the political
card you hold.”
After the visit, Mr. Buhari led his political train to the
campaign ground at Moshood Abiola International Stadium,
where he and other chieftains of the party emphasised the
need for voters to cast their votes for the party at both
states and national levels.

http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/174846-nigeria2015-ill-support-best-candidate-irrespective-party-obasanjo-tells-buhari.html

He is right where he wanted to be. Since GEJ refused making him a Godfather, he devised a means by which the two parties ll keep patronizing him. Cheap one though.
All I know ...GEJ till 2019!!!

Baba have spoken!
No endorsement for anybody!

Buhari is the right candidate...Goodluck is a disgrace.

Obasanjo rie nshi. Rigbu-e onwe gi na nshi!:

surely God is the greatest! He is better than the best!