Vice President Yemi Osibanjo at the weekend urged leaders and members of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP to join the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC before they die.
Osibanjo who spoke at the 80th birthday dinner/gala night in honour of former APC National Chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun in Abuja said it is time for the PDP to cross over to APC before dying like a US Republican politician who defected to the Democrat moments to his death.
The Vice President in the analogy said, “let me tell you a story of a politician who was a long time life Republican politician in the US. He was lying down on a sick bed and was about to die, he said, ‘I want to change my party, I want to become a Democrat so that tomorrow it will be announced that a Democrat died not a Republican’.
“You can see that we politicians are very faithful and very loyal indeed. I can only ask our friends in PDP also to ensure that they cross over before they die! It is time for them to cross over”.
Recounting the political exploits of Oyegun, Osibanjo stated that, “as a founding member of the Alliance for Democracy (AD), member of NADECO and Secretary of those abroad, founding member of the APC and the first Chairman, the one who led our party to that historic victory to unseat the ruling party”.
Paying tributes to the APC Chieftain, the Vice President said, “the second reason for my admiration is that somehow, he manages to be so deep in the Nigerian politics and yet he doesn’t even look like a politician or sound like one. He always sounds like a fine, well read, well spoken gentleman dragged into politics by some rascals but he is an unassumingly politician and an astute strategist.
“You know, aside from Lawyers, I think there is no group of people who are maligned like politicians. Every time that you come across the Nigerian politician, there is always one way or the other that we are maligned but people like Chief Oyegun have shown that politicians can be loyal, faithful, trusting men and women”.
In his speech, Oyegun called for a strong political will to harness the nation’s abundant resources for the attainment of her greatness and emphasized that merit should be the sole determinant of positioning and placing people in Nigeria.
“We should stop been a nation of potentials. We are potentially great, we are potentially the leader of the black race. It is high time that these potentiality start been converted into reality. We are blessed with greatness. It is there and what we require is political commitment, political will, political courage to make the changes that are necessary”, he said.
While commending the war against corruption by the APC led Federal Government, the former Edo State Governor said, “that is good and it has to be permanently featured. It is something that has to perforate through the state level to local government level. It should not be left for a President Buhari as if it is one unusual man there who wants to fight everybody. No! It is something that we must totally internalize.
“Lastly, carrot and stick approach. While we are punishing those who are threatening the country either by corruption or any other means, we should at every time and every stage reward service to the nation either through national award or inducement or just a simple invitation to the Presidency or whatever for those who have truly distinguished themselves. You are punishing the bad ones try to reward those who have served this nation faithfully”.
In their separate remarks, Chairman of Nigerian Governors Forum, Kayode Fayemi and Chairman APC Governors Forum, Abubakar-Atiku Bagudu acknowledged the leading role the celebrant played in entrenching democracy in Nigeria since the dark days of military dictatorship and the recent democratic change of government by an opposition party under his guide and sued for his continuous wise counsel
