Posted by By ABDULFATAH OLADEINDE and CHIDI OBINECHE on
An aspirant to the office of National Secretary of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) in next month's National Convention, Senator Tunde Ogbeha has declared his willingness to dump his ambition if he failed to secure the blessings of President Umaru Yar'Adua.
An aspirant to the office of National Secretary of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) in next month's National Convention, Senator Tunde Ogbeha has declared his willingness to dump his ambition if he failed to secure the blessings of President Umaru Yar'Adua.
Fielding questions from newsmen at the weekend, Ogbeha, who was a two-term Senator between 1999 and 2007, premised his decision on expected frustration that may arise with a president working at cross-purposes with his party officials.
'You cannot have a President fighting his party officials. He'll be in a mess. I think that people who think he should just stay aloof are mistaken.
'I've always maintained that for me, if the establishment does not want me to be Secretary, those signals will be very clear. I will not proceed one day with my ambition, because I don't want to work in an environment where there'll be loads and loads of problems.
'I want to work in an environment that is peaceful and make Nigerians to benefit, and what will make Nigerians to benefit is for the government to be problem free. Government cannot progress if it has loads and loads of problems to solve," he explained.
Ogbeha was enthusiastic about his clinching the PDP national scribe post zoned, to his North Central geo-political zone, while dismissing as irrelevant reports that the party caucus from the zone had zoned the post to another state other than Kogi where he hails from.
On the morality of former president and chairman of the party's Board of Trustees, (BOT) Chief Olusegun Obasanjo publicly supporting some of the PDP national office aspirants, the ex-general said, he (Obasanjo) was only exercising his right and freedom as a citizen.
He urged aspirants for public offices to imbibe and practise the virtues of compromise and consensus building.
He spoke further on the agitation by a group within the party known a s G21, which is calling for an amendment of the party's constitution before the convention.
Ogbeha described the call as too late and untidy.
He said, 'That's settled. The position of the law and Constitution is settled. It's just like saying you won't accept the verdict of the elections Tribunal and the Court of Appeal. I think we have the constitution to guide us."
He took on a former governor of his home state of Kogi, Alhaji Abubakar Audu, who recently accused the elite in the state of greed and overbearing pressure on him to share the resources of the states with them while in office.
Ogbeha challenged him to name those who piled the pressure on him, even as he exonerated himself from the allegation.
He, however, accused Audu of mindlessly plundering the resources of the state, an offence, he said, landed the former governor in the grilling offices of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Offences Commission, (ICPC).
'I challenge him to name one elite he has given money to, in the course of his governance. The guy eats alone," he concluded.