By Taiwo Amodu
Former deputy national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George has expressed hope that God and Nigerians will give the erstwhile ruling party another opportunity to rule the country, again, in 2019.
George said this, yesterday, at his Ikoyi, Lagos office, when he hosted the South-West zonal executive of the party, led by Eddy Olafeso, which paid him a working visit.
George premised his declaration on what he called the poor performance of the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government.
“Nigerians have seen the two sides of the coin and they have an opportunity to decide, based on your performance, based on the trust that they have in you. God is a God of second chance,” he said and dismissed President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration as “lacking the capacity to put smiles on the faces of Nigerians.
“I have been advising my oga (boss), Mr. President, what does he want to be remembered for? I am talking now as a general, not as a politician. If anybody is telling him, all is well; all is not well. Whatever he will do to alleviate the despondency in the land, he must do.”
He said for the main opposition party to launch itself back to reckoning, it must do away with imposition of candidates which he noted was its undoing.
“If we want to win, we must tell ourselves some home truths and go back to our drawing board. We must be just, we must be fair and we must be equitable.
“We should learn from the mistakes of the past. The penchant that ‘I am in charge, I can do and undo,’ it must end. So, let us learn that there must be justice, fairness and equity. It is a tripod: if we remove any of these three legs, we are going nowhere. If we don’t do that, we are wasting our time.
“So, all we need to do is gather ourselves together and let us give the best hands to manage us through this storm. We need experienced captains to take us to our destination. I wish them well.”
Speaking on the intractable leadership tussle rocking the party, the former deputy national chairman of the party accused the former Borno State governor and factional national chairman, Senator Ali Modu-Sheriff of doing the bidding of certain forces outside the PDP, whom he claimed were determined to run the party aground.
“I will just appeal to Senator Ali Modu Sheriff: enough is enough. The political rascality, judicial rascality must stop for posterity. All these unnecessary litigations.
“There is an adage in Yoruba that when you see a bush rat dancing in the middle of the road, the drummers are in the bush. Let him take it easy, for the sake of the future generations of this country. Those who invited him, I hope they have learnt a lesson. It takes one terrible person to throw a stone into the well, one million professors won’t be able to find that stone.”
Earlier in his remarks, Olafeso disclosed that his leadership was on a working visit to George to brief him about the outcome of Ondo State governorship election and the future of the party in the zone.