 |
| Olagunsoye Oyinlola |
The former Governor of Osun State, Olagunsoye Oyinlola,
monday took a swipe at a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Board of
Trustees (BoT), Alhaji Shuaib Oyedokun, accusing him of fanning the embers of
discord in the party.
Oyinlola, in a statement issued by him, said it was
unbecoming of an elder like Oyedokun to seek to create a rift between President
Goodluck Jonathan and former President Olusegun Obasanjo through unguarded
statements based on falsehood.
Oyedokun was quoted in a report yesterday as accusing Chief
Obasanjo of causing divisions in the PDP by criticising Jonathan during his
visit to Jigawa State recently.
Oyinlola said no fifth columnist could succeed through
political subterfuge in creating a rift between the two foremost leaders of the
PDP.
He added that he suspected Oyedokun of being uneasy over the
current efforts by stakeholders to resolve the differences in the party hence
the statement.
“It does not lie in the mouth of Oyedokun to romanticise
about unity in the PDP after planting his own son, Femi Oyedokun, in theAction
Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and putting
his wife in Accord Party (AP). An elder who is genuinely interested in the unity
of the party would not ask his son to go to the ACN seven days after his party
lost power in Osun State and even lobby for the son to be made a commissioner
in an opposition government. I expect Oyedokun to first bring his own household
back into the PDP before talking about anything in the party,” he said.
Oyinlola said Oyedokun as an elder should have found out
what Obasanjo actually said in Jigawa State before concluding that the former
president attacked Jonathan.
“I have painstakingly found out that what Obasanjo said in
Jigawa was that he was happy Governor Sule Lamido did not disappoint him given
the role he (Obasanjo) played in his emergence as governor.
He then concluded with a Yoruba proverb: “You can help someone
get a job, but you cannot help the person do the job. We got Lamido the job and
he has done it well.” That was it. There was no innuendo or allusion to
President Jonathan in the statement which Oyedokun has now clung to further
cause divisions in the polity.
“ I am particularly worried that Oyedokun did not agree with
our BoT chairman, Chief Tony Anenih, who, just last week at the PDP family
dinner, called for peace and the resolution of all differences in the party.
Could Oyedokun be carrying out the usual assignment of throwing spanners in the
works of genuine members of the PDP who are working hard to reconcile all its
leaders and members and reposition it for the tasks ahead? What could actually
be his motive?
“ I asked the above questions because in 2007 after Oyedokun
abandoned the PDP and joined forces with its opponents to found the Action
Congress, and then lost out in the power struggle in that opposition party, it
took me to beg Obasanjo to accept him back into the fold and to even make him a
BoT member of the PDP. It is very ironic that Oyedokun is now using that
position to attack his benefactor unjustly and seek to destroy once again, the
PDP, the platform that has given him the visibility he currently enjoys.
“I also read that he claimed Chief Obasanjo is planning to
go to
another political party. I think by now Oyedokun ought to
know that Obasanjo does not have the character of a betrayer. He is also not
what in the military we call a deserter. He is a leader of
the PDP and I am sufficiently close enough to him to know
that he is ever committed to the growth and survival of the party and of the
nation,” Oyinlola said.
Oyinlola also appealed to all PDP members in the South-west
to remain steadfast in their support for Jonathan and the government’s
transformation agenda.
He further urged them to see current challenges as temporary
and surmountable.
No comments:
Post a Comment