The Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Organisation, PDPPCO, has described the endorsement of the Presidential Candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), by former President Olusegun Obasanjo as unfortunate.
It nevertheless said the former president should realize that he had only one vote.
The campaign organisation was reacting to the public endorsement of Buhari by the former Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the ruling party in Kenya on Tuesday.
Speaking on Buhari, Obasanjo said the APC flag bearer was aware of the challenges of Nigeria today and was qualified to rule the country again after his brief stint as a Head of State in the early 80’s
Obasanjo added that he had confidence that Buhari would be able to tackle corruption and insecurity effectively if elected
The open endorsement of Buhari by Obasanjo is to the detriment of President Goodluck Jonathan and the ruling party, with the Presidency said to have been caught off-guard by the ex-president’s action.
Though Obasanjo and Jonathan do not presently see eye-to-eye on some aspects of the latter’s leadership style, it was gathered that the Presidency was of the opinion that the ex-president would not openly speak on the issue.
Director of Media and Publicity of the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, however, said in Abuja on Wednesday that his former boss, Mr. Obasanjo, was entitled to his opinion.
He said, “I have to confess to you, I have not seen what ex-President Obasanjo said. I have just been told and I haven’t read the text.
“As far as I am concerned, (ex) President Obasanjo is entitled to his opinion. He is a respected member of our society, and we have immense respect for him. This election is about one man, one vote and we should restrict our choices and decisions to ourselves.
“I believe it will be a very sad day indeed, if going by what we all know about General Buhari and what General Obasanjo knows about General Buhari that he will still go out of his way to endorse him for anything and I will be very surprised.
“But we will meet them all at the polls; we will meet on the field and by the grace of God, at the end of it all, those that have endorsed Buhari, of course, they know that President Goodluck Jonathan has come of age and Nigerians will make their choice and we shall win”.
On the laying of siege to the residence of s former Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu by soldiers, Fani-Kayode said it was not true.
He said rather than soldiers, a detachment of policemen were stationed near the former Lagos State governor’s Bourdillon residence, Ikoyi, at the expense of the state government to provide security for Tinubu.
He said, “It is a perilous lie. This party and government will never do that. Why would the government do that?
“How would that profit the government and the party? It is a sorry time for the members of the opposition for claiming this. I think Asiwaju Tinubu should provide the evidence of the soldiers’ presence with photographs”.