Bode George, a former national vice- chairman of the main opposition the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), has said that the alleged plan by Bola Ahmed Tinubu to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023 would fail.
George stated this Thursday during a media session with journalists in his office in Lagos State.
There hasve been recent reports in the media that Tinubu, who is a national leader of the APC, was eyeing the nation’s top job in 2023 when the position is expected to be zoned to the South.
Tinubu has however, denied such reports on several occasions.
But George, who is a leader of the PDP in Lagos State, warned that such move was not in the interest of the nation, even when President Muhammadu Buhari has not been sworn into office for second term and was capable of derailing the country.
According to him, “This is a cheap talk, silly inordinate ambition; this is what is driving our country in the gutter; is it because he got it easy here in Lagos State? We should pray for such individual, what he has tried in Lagos State let him go to Ogun State and try it.
“He went to Osun and said you people don’t have my money; such talk is ignorantly arrogant”, George said.
The PDP further bemoaned the state of the country twenty years after returning to democratic rule, warning that the current problem bedeviling the nation may worsen without the practice of true federalism.
He canvassed for the diversification of the nation’s economy, stressing that the current practice of depending on crude oil as a source of revenue was becoming unreliable.
“Nigeria is in a precarious situation now, until we go back to true federalism where the management of the country would be from bottom to top, the states will control their resources, we should not expect anything good from Nigeria.
“This nation is without ethical leadership, without honour, without credible vision, lacking in purposeful articulation.
“The scourge of nepotism, the poisonous bile of tribal triumphalism, the hate-infested curse of provincial fixities are now gaining grounds everywhere, defining the thematic aberrations of our times.”
“Let us be truthful and frank: our nation is embattled, scourged and savaged by the virtual selfishness of our collective elite,” he added.
According to him, “Part of the benefit of restructuring that we are canvassing for is for states to tap into their resources; so that we can move away from oil, they are going to stop the production of crude oil engine by 2040; what are we going to do?”
Iniobong Iwok
