Adams Oshiomhole, former national chair of the All
Progressives Congress (APC), says ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo tried to
transform Nigeria into a one-party state.
Speaking on Thursday at the APC presidential campaign rally
in Benin, the Edo capital, Oshiomhole said when Bola Tinubu, APC presidential
candidate, was the Lagos governor, he defended multiparty democracy in Nigeria.
Oshiomhole, former governor of Edo, said history will never
forget Tinubu and his fight for democracy in the country.
“Today, across Nigeria, if you are going to understand why
Obasanjo failed to transform Nigeria to a one-party state, you cannot forget
the dogged fight of our presidential candidate to maintain and defend
multiparty democracy in Nigeria,” he said.
“Unless we get the
politics right, we cannot fix the economy.
“The world is unanimous that multiparty democracy is the way
to go. I want young people to remember where we are coming from. Our youths
need to know who laid the foundation for the crisis we face and the crisis our
presidential candidate is going to resolve.
“We are not lamenting it, but we must make you understand
your past in order to appreciate the future.
“By 1999, President
Obasanjo took over ANPP. He appointed the chairman as his adviser and called
the governors to move. By 2003, he rigged out all the south-west governors. He
took out Lam Adesina, Segun Osoba — all the south-west governors — and planted
PDP in the south-west.
“Obasanjo tried to take Lagos and Tinubu stopped him. Tinubu
showed him he is field marshal of politics while he (Obasanjo) is the army
general. At the end of the day, Lagos survived. The rest of the south-west,
Obasanjo rigged them over.
“Asiwaju decided he is not going to cry. He retained Lagos.
They moved away the commissioner of police; they moved away INEC… because
Obasanjo wanted to play a do-or-die politics. But Asiwaju said ‘you (Obasanjo)
will do; we will live’. Tinubu came back to reclaim Oyo, Ekiti, Osun, and Ondo
states.”
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