Nigeria’s former Military Head of State, Civilian President and erstwhile Board Of Trustees (BOT) Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has re-emerged with another controversial missive, where he took a swipe at the party’s leadership and President Goodluck Jonathan.
In the new letter, addressed to the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, Obasanjo gave a formal notice of his withdrawal from the activities of the party, pending when all the grave issues are addressed by the party.
The letter which was dated January 7, 2014, accused the PDP leadership of imposing Buruji Kashamu with a questionable character on the party as its South West zonal leader.
The letter, according to dependable sources, was received by Tukur on Wednesday, 8 January, 2014, while President Jonathan received his own copy on Thursday, January 09, 2014.
The three paragraphs letter reads:
“While I believe that a good and truly national political party must be a microcosm of the nation in its membership, made up of all sorts of characters from near-saints to near-satan, I also believe that on no account should a known habitual criminal that is wanted abroad to face criminal charges levelled against him be extolled as a political leader in a respectable and wholesome nation-building political party.
“Buruji Kashamu has been so extolled in PDP in South-West geo-political zone which I personally find unsavoury. Politics played by any national political party must have morality, decency, discipline, principles and leadership examples as cardinal practices of the party. I have attached here recent documents that clearly indicate that your extolled PDP Zonal Leader in the South-West zone of Nigeria and an indigene of Ogun State is, to say the least, not a credit to the party as a member, let alone being a zonal leader.
“Since I stick in my practice of party politics to the hallowed and cherished principles enunciated above, I take this opportunity to let you know that while I continue to remain a card-carrying member of PDP, I cannot and I will not subscribe to a wanted habitual criminal being installed as my zonal leader in the party; a criminal for whom extradition has been requested by the US government. In the meantime, I will consider withdrawing my activity with PDP at local, state, zonal and national levels until the anomalous and shameful situation is corrected.”
Meanwhile, the National chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, has on Saturday, pleaded with former President Olusegun Obasanjo not to leave the party.
Tukur’s letter reads:
“It is an honour that you deemed it fit and proper to intimate me with an issue important to your mind and our party in the South-west zone. It is my wish and prayer that such cordial and positive relationship will continue between your good self; former President and former Chairman of the Board of Trustees of our great party on one hand, and my humble self, the National Chairman of our party on the other hand.
“Buruji Kasamu came to limelight in politics as a result of the role he played in the politics of Ogun state where both of you come from. He later became a rallying point in the South-west following the Courts’ Orders in the series of cases brought about as a result of disagreements among leaders of the party in the South-west, and Ogun State in particular.
“In my opinion, Buruji became a rallying point because of the absence of a zonal executive in the South-west. This vacuum in the South-west has made him the person to whom many members in all the chapters of the party in the zone approach for one form of assistance or the order.
“We came in when we were threatened with contempt of court charges for not obeying the court’s order to dissolve the South-west zonal executive and remove some officers of the party.
“We complied with the court’s orders because of our belief in the rule of law and to avoid consequences of disobeying such orders.”
