I'll quit if CNM joins partisan politics – Obasanjo
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo said yesterday he would cease from being a member anytime the Coalition for Nigeria Movement (CNM) decides to join partisan politics.
Obasanjo disclosed this when he officially registered as a member of the CNM at the NUJ secretariat, Abeokuta.
“I am happy to be a member of the Coalition for Nigeria Movement which is a movement for good governance.
“This is the commencement for our popular and grassroots association. The membership will be free to collectively decide on whether it will become a political party and if it decides to transform itself and go into partisan politics, I will cease to be a member,’’ he said.
Obasanjo completed the membership form of the Movement and handed it over to former Governor of Osun State, Col. Olagunsoye Oyinlola (Rtd.), who is the National Coordinator of the group.
The ex-president’s stance that the movement was apolitical, even though he earlier told President Muhammadu Buhari not to contest for second term had already opened another chapter on discourse about 2019 with many pundits already asking what exactly he wanted to achieve.
On Wednesday, Oyinlola had remarked that it would be difficult to achieve something tangible without a political party.
“We’re not a political party, at least, for now,” he said, but quickly added that it would be difficult to make electoral fortunes without a formidable platform in the form of a political party.
“It is necessary to make it clear that this new movement does not regard itself as a third force,” Obasanjo said.
“It sees itself as a popular movement that can accommodate all Nigerians irrespective of their political interest or affiliations and will propel Nigeria forward,’’ he said.
Obasanjo who maintained that his statement last week was not to malign President Muhammadu Buhari but to pass his candid position on the state of the country, said, “I noted that my advice to the President is optional. He can take it or reject it.”
He said Nigeria must learn to try new answers. “If what we’ve tried in the past has not taken us to the promised land, we have to try something else and something else is this grassroots popular movement built from the bottom to lead us, I hope and pray, to the promised land.”