Nigerian former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo on Monday discredited a media report linking him with the formation of an alternative political party to rival the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) and main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ahead of the 2023 presidential election.
In the said report, the ex-President had mobilised three former governors to midwife the supposed third force.
In discrediting the report, the former Nigerian leader, speaking through a statement by his media aide, Kehinde Akinyemi renounced the said report as false saying that the author of the falsehood may be a fitting candidate of “Yaba left,” while the people that believed the report would also believe if told their mothers were men.
“Upon hearing of this latest fabricated report, Chief Obasanjo said “In my part of the world, when you say goodnight in a place, you do not go back there and say good evening. The one who reported that may need to visit Yaba Left. And those who believe it can believe that their mothers are men.
“I’m done with partisan politics but by my position in Nigeria and in Africa and without being immodest and indeed in the world my door must be opened and it is open to any individual or group of individuals who want to seek my opinion, view or advice on any issue or matter and I will respond to the best of my ability, without being part of that individual or group,” the former President said.
The Owu-born retired Army General said that the fabricated story hardly comes as a surprise because he has, for some time now, observed with bewilderment the efforts by some people to drag him into their political games but stated he had no plan to float a new political party now or in near future.
“If anything, Chief Obasanjo’s political party today is the party of Nigerians facing insecurity, unemployment, hunger, poverty, and various other challenging issues. It is the party of Nigeria that must be saved, kept wholesomely united in peace, security, equity, development, and progress.
“Let those who want to use the back door to force Chief Obasanjo to return to partisan politics respect his choice to remain a non-partisan statesman.
“On his part, the former President will continue to perform his role as a statesman focused on providing counsel, support, or solutions wherever possible in Nigeria, Africa, and indeed the world,” Akinyemi noted.
The elder statesman, who is currently in Kabul, Afghanistan, as a guest of President Ashraf Ghani, refuted the false report.
