How Tinubu stopped me from leaving Nigeria — Bode George
Former Deputy National Chairman (South-West) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Bode George says he is prepared to help and work with President Bola Tinubu if he consults him on the issues of governance.
George, who has opposed Tinubu’s presidential ambition many times and criticised the outcome of the presidential election that led to his inauguration, however, said his feud with him is not personal.
Yesterday, while fielding questions with journalists in his Ikoyi office, Lagos, George, a staunch critic of Tinubu said he was open to working with him for the interest of the country, according to Leadership.
The PDP chieftain had disclosed several times that he disagreed with Tinubu’s “methodologies of governance”, adding that he would leave the country if Tinubu emerged as President.
He, however, took another dimension on his disposition, yesterday, when he said, “If he comes and says look, what do you feel about this, what do you feel about that, let’s work together in the interest of this country, why would I refuse? This nation also trained me.”
“The military trained me. There is no part of the world that I have not been to, training and doing exercises. This country trained us. So, we must be able to put something back to the system that would also positively impact on the younger ones, to put a smile on their faces.’’
On the prolonged crisis in PDP, George said the disagreements on the principle of zoning during the campaign for the presidency “landed the party in a deck”.
“They divided Nigeria into six geo-political zones and sought out six top positions in Nigeria, to which each zone will go home with one position or the other.
“After eight years, all the positions in the north will come to the south so that the issue of the majority perpetually getting the goodies and the minority just being onlookers will be resolved.
“I have not seen any better system. Remember when APC first came, they said ‘we don’t believe in zoning, what nonsense, we are not going to do zoning,” he said.
“What did they do at the end? Where was Buhari from, where was Osinbajo from? Where was the speaker from? Where was the Senate president from?
“That was the major problem the PDP discountenanced and landed us in the deck because the national chairman emerged from the same north where the presidential candidate of the party also came from.
“When we tried to point out to them that the South-West had been left behind and not included in their calculation, they said we should come back after the elections. Then we said okay, we would also see after the elections. Now, we have seen the consequence.’’
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