Posted by From AKEEB ALARAPE and SEYE OJO, Ibadan on
Immediate past governor of Oyo State, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, has faulted the clamour in some quarters for former President Olusegun Obasanjo to be leader of the Yoruba nation and a rallying point for the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the South West, saying he lacks the requisite qualities of past leaders of the race.
Immediate past governor of Oyo State, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, has faulted the clamour in some quarters for former President Olusegun Obasanjo to be leader of the Yoruba nation and a rallying point for the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the South West, saying he lacks the requisite qualities of past leaders of the race.
At a recent event organized by the South West forum of the National Secretariat of the PDP in Ibadan, Professor Femi Otubanjo had on behalf of the former National Deputy Chairman of PDP, Chief Olabode George, criticized PDP governors in the zone for creating individual empires rather making Obasanjo the rallying point of the party, saying no living Yoruba is bigger than Obasanjo as at present.
Reacting to Otubanjo's position on Saturday during an interactive session with select media houses in Ibadan, Ladoja, who was also a victim of Obasanjo's executive recklessness while presiding over the affairs of the country, berated the former president for distorting the genuine vision of the founding fathers of the PDP and chasing many of them out of the party.
"If Obasanjo were to be the rallying point of PDP in the South-west, nobody in the zone would be in PDP again. Let me tell you this straight away, even after the internal reconciliation of PDP in the zone, PDP has to go and reconcile itself with the people of South-west. They were traumatized. They were trampled upon. Their votes were stolen. They were not permitted to choose their leaders. So, what is there?
"I can understand Otubanjo; he is playing the role that he likes to do. Maybe, he feels that if he says that he will get more appointment. But I don't think he believes in such a situation. Otubanjo is a very intelligent person. At the same time, you know he (Otubanjo) was a consultant to Olabode George. So, maybe it is in that circle that they decided that they need to continue to promote Obasanjo so that he (Obasanjo) will continue to promote Bode George and in the process they will be able to promote themselves.
"But if Obasanjo were to go on being in PDP, there will be nobody in PDP again, not only in the South-west but in the whole of Nigeria. After what he had done! I have never seen a single person who had that type of opportunity in his life and misused it. He had everything for him to write his name in gold," Ladoja stated.
The former governor said for the party to get a good reckoning and acceptance in the South-west, it has to go back to the ideals of its founding fathers and see how many reparation it could do for Obasanjo's wasted years.
Ladoja observed with regret that because of the selfish agenda of the former president, he (Obasanjo) intentionally created internal crises within PDP in all the states in the South-west, all in a bid to perpetuate himself in power.
Asked whether he had forgiven the former president for his illegal impeachment, Ladoja said it was not for him to forgive or forget the trauma he went through during the impeachment and on his return after the judgment of the Supreme Court that nullified the impeachment, but for the people of the state to decide whether Obasanjo ‘discharged the responsibility of a real statesman'.
"There is nothing to forgive. What is there to forgive? I see that the wrong he did to me is not a wrong he did to me per se; it was a wrong he did to the people of Oyo State. He turned everything upside down. We have not been able to recover from it. He has sent back the state to about 20 years. So it is not I, but the people of Oyo State.
"Can they forgive him? Can the people of Anambra State forgive him? Can the people of South-south forgive him? Can the people of Adamawa forgive him? Can the people of Plateau State forgive him? Can the people of Lagos State forgive him? So, what are we talking about? It is not me," the former governor stated.