Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has been described as a national icon who should not be denied his political relevance and place in the leadership of the country.
A Peoples Democratic Party chieftain in Lagos State, Prince Uthman Shodipe-Dosumu, said this in a chat with our correspondent.
He described Obasanjo as a treasured son of Yorubaland.
According to Shodipe-Dosumu, who was reacting to a recent write-up by a veteran journalist, Chief Duro Onabule, who reportedly described the former president as a dead horse, the PDP chieftain insisted that Obasanjo remained a leading light in Yoruba and Nigerian politics.
His present intervention in the Nigerian polity is not about personal gains or selfish propulsion.
Shodipe-Dosumu, who is the Special Adviser on Political Matters to a former Deputy National Chairman of the PDP, Chief Olabode George, said, ‘’I read with dismay and total disapproval the jeremiad written by Chief Duro Onabule condemning the historical significance and the leadership relevance of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, our former president, who is a national icon , and a representative symbol of the Nigerian idealism. Obasanjo is not a dead horse as Onabule implied in his write-up. He is absolutely relevant, important, symbolic of the Nigerian presence and the sanctified emblem of our
tomorrow.’’
Describing Obasanjo as a treasured son of Yorubaland, Shodipe-Dosumu further said, ‘’He is the foremost rallying point of the Nigerian union. He represents the best of the Nigerian ideal. He is resolved upon the Nigerian unifying salvage. He is not detained by tribe or tongue. He will never withdraw into any tribal cordon in favour of anyone from his own tribe. He is expressed in national largeness.
“Surely, his present intervention in the Nigerian polity is not about personal gains or selfish propulsion. It is about our collective salvage from the festering wounds. It is about the general enhancement of the Nigerian possibilities.”
While saying Obasanjo might not be perfect, Shodipe-Dosumu insisted that the former president is a Nigerian hero, who should not be belittled as he had always meant well for Nigeria in his utterances and deeds.
‘’Obasanjo means well for this nation. He is indifferent to tribe and tongue. He is woven in our collective redemption. He looms large just like Sardauna, Awolowo and Azikiwe in their leadership totem because of his sweeping democratic vision and his instinctive courage. He is a national gift we cannot afford to belittle. He remains a singular emblem of courage and selflessness that nothing can conquer,’’ he said.
