Former President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday took a fresh dig at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over its crashed status, and prayed that may Nigeria’s fortunes never fall like the party’s.
Obasanjo said in Abeokuta that the party, of which he was once its No.1 member, is now dead, sunk and gone.
He was responding to remarks by a former national chairman of the party, Dr.Ahmadu Ali, at an international symposium, ”Purpose and Utilitarian Values of Presidential Libraries,” as part of the activities marking Obasanjo’s 80th birthday and the formal opening of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library(OOPL).
Obasanjo, in a separate interview with a group of journalists in Abeokuta on the occasion of his birthday, fired a broadside at Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka to reignite their long- running standoff.
‘No grudge against Soyinka’
He said although he holds no grudge against the playwright, Soyinka should not be seen as either God or an oracle.
He said there is hope for Nigeria despite the numerous socio-economic challenges currently facing it and that while Nigeria is not exactly where it ought to be , things could have been worse that they are now.
He clarified his statement on an Igbo president in 2019 and parried a question on his relationship with his former deputy, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
“Ahmadu Ali is truthful and that was why I brought him to head the PDP and all went well when Ahmadu Ali was the national chairman,” Obasanjo said at the symposium.
“We were controlling 30 out of the 36 states. When Ahmadu and I left, the fortunes of the PDP began to sink.
“Whether you believe it or not, today’s PDP is sunk and gone. May the fortunes of Nigeria never sink like that of the PDP,” he said to which the audience responded with a thunderous “amen.”
He said the library was established to correct one of his mistakes of the past, especially not collecting and archiving materials during the civil war.
He said: “Somebody among the speakers said God has always given me the opportunity to correct my wrongs. I will say God has done that for me not in all cases, but in most cases and this Presidential Library is actually an act of God which he has given to me to correct one of my mistakes of the past and I have said this very often.
“I was in the war front. It was one very significant thing in my life and in the life of Nigeria.
“ I was military Head of State. It was one significant thing in my life and in the life of Nigeria, but I was not as mindful as I should have been about collecting materials that were connected with those events, the war front and civil war.
“We called them rebels’ side or if you like the Biafran side. They called us vandals, we called them rebels.
“But we did not collect something. When I was also the military Head of State, I didn’t pay much attention to collect materials, where I should have paid attention to.
“So, by 1988, it occurred to me that these were mistakes. I looked at some of the materials we got from the war front, they were in very bad state of neglect, so what I did was to try and micro-film what we could micro-film.
“I also learnt a lesson. When you are in a position to keep materials and preserve them for posterity, you should do so and I never knew there would be another opportunity. So God created another opportunity for me to correct the mistakes of the past.
“God is the God of second chance and for some of us He is not God of second chance, but God of many chances. I will be eternally grateful to God for the opportunity he has given me, but more importantly whatever I might have achieved, I take responsibility.
“But whatever I achieved, it would not have been possible without the people who have helped me in life to be able to achieve what I have achieved.
“Take the Presidential Library, for example. If not for the members of the Board of Trustees, I would have fallen by the roadside and that would have been another mistake because it got to a stage that things were rough, things were rough and we were just putting heads together, it is God of many chances.”
Dignitaries who took turns to speak on the “Purpose of Utilitarian Values of Presidential Library”, hailed Obasanjo for establishing the OOPL, describing him as an “iconic legend.”
