Former President Olusegun Obansajo who, in a dramatic move, last Tuesday, resigned his position as Chairman, Board of Trustees, BoT, of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, is insisting that he would have to name his successor.
This, Sunday Vanguard has been made to understand, was one of the conditions the former President tabled before President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan when he visited Aso Rock Presidential Villa to brief him about his intended resignation as the BoT chairman.
The twist in Obasanjo’s resignation, however, is the suspicion, in some quarters, that he quit because he could not have his way in the ruling party. Information pieced together from sources in Abuja, Abeokuta (the Ogun State capital), Lagos and Osogbo (the Osun State capital) point in a different direction.
A very dependable source very close to Obasanjo disclosed that “the resignation of the former President has nothing to do with happenings in the PDP or even penultimate Saturday’s national convention of the party.
“You read the statement issued by former President Obasanjo explaining the reasons which informed his decision to quit”, the source said.
Regarding the PDP convention and the emergence of candidates for the offices, “the former President can not claim not to be involved in all the politicking that went into the emergence of the national chairman, Bamangar Tukur, for instance. The emergence of his protégé, former Governor of Osun State, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, he can not claim that he did not participate in the debauchery that was called a convention”, a member of the BoT told Sunday Vanguard.
In fact, the BoT member continued, “the former President had expected that President Jonathan would plead with him not to go. He attempted to re-assert himself as leader of the party by pre-empting the due date for the end of his tenure, thinking he would be persuaded to wait but Mr. President was not ready for that.
The problem with Obasanjo is that he can never be part of a meeting that he is not in command of. Any meeting he attends, he must be the one issuing directives and orders. That is actually his problem; so he decided to quit before the tenure expiration. Is he just having international engagements now? Has he not been having international engagements since 2007 when his Third Term agenda failed”.
But Obasanjo, in his characteristic insistent manner, was said to have told Jonathan that he should be allowed to nominate his successor.”
A source disclosed to Sunday Vanguard that “contrary to the stories being published, Obasanjo came forward out of his own volition to tender his resignation.
“There was no misgiving about what happened at the convention at all”, the source inside Aso Rock said.
However, what the source failed to reveal was the caveat Obasanjo added.
Sunday Vanguard confirmed that Obasanjo made it clear that he should be allowed to name his successor.
Information available suggests that his long time friend and former national chairman of the party, with whom the de-registration exercise of 2006 was conducted, retired Colonel Ahmadu Ali, was Obasanjo’s choice.
However, with the secretary of the BoT, Senator Walid Jibrin, a Fulani from the North, making Ali, also from the North, as BoT Chairman would create a lopsided board.
But the names from the south: former Senate President Ken Nnamani and former BoT Chairman, Chief Tony Anenih, were spurned by Obasanjo.
“The former President scoffed at the idea of the two persons succeeding him.
Anenih was upstaged by Obasanjo while Nnamani oversaw the killing of Obasanjo’s Third Term agenda and, therefore, saw no good in both men”, the source said.
