Iyorchia Ayu, National Chairman, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has lauded the PDP-led Presidency of Olusegun Obasanjo as being the best government and governance Nigeria has ever had in recent times going by Obasanjo’s effort to shoot up Nigerian economy as the biggest in Africa.
Ayu added that Obasanjo as the first and best President produced by PDP was able to set Nigeria and Nigerians from the slavery of the then accumulated foreign debts by negotiating Nigeria’s debts with the Paris Club and other multilateral agencies of the World
Recalled that the then Nigeria President Obasanjo was negotiated and secured a final agreement for debt relief worth $18 billion and an overall reduction of Nigeria’s debt stock by $30 billion, which was completed on April 21, 2006, when Nigeria made its final payment and its books were cleared of any Paris Club debt.
A government policy which considered by Ayu as a landmark achievement of PDP-led government that improved the economy and shot up Nigeria as the biggest economy in Nigeria, but said otherwise that President Muhammadu Buhari-led All Progressives Congress government had brought more hardship on Nigeria and Nigerians by piling up debts.
The PDP National Chairman said after a private meeting with former President at his Abeokuta President Library on Saturday in the company of other members of PDP’s National Working Committee (NWC), appealed to Nigerians to give PDP a second chance to restructure the battered economy, insecurity and large scale corruption ongoing in the APC-led government in the country.
Ayu, who was accompanied by Peter Obi, PDP Vice Presidential Candidate in the 2019 Election; former Governors of Ondo, Jigawa, Cross River, Olusegun Mimiko, Sule Lamido, Donald Duke and Liyel Imoke, respectively, said, “We thank you (Obasanjo) for the service you rendered and the great work you have done in the PDP as the first president.
“Your period as president under the platform of PDP was seen as the golden era of the PDP because not only did you grow the economy to be the biggest economy in Africa, you were able to eradicate Nigeria from slavery by negotiating and cancelling so much of our foreign debts that would have made it very difficult to run the country.”
But, responding to Iyorchia Ayu’s comments, former President Obasanjo, who earlier held a closed-door meeting with the PDP National officers, ruled out his possible return to the PDP and partisan politics, saying emphatically that he is no more in partisan politics and will not return to the PDP.
He said, “I have been with the party right from inception. whatever I do in my own life because I became president on the platform of PDP. PDP will continue to be part of the history of my life.
Read also: Wike, Makinde, Ayu, other PDP governors talk tough
“But having said that, the day that in my ward I decided to tear my PDP card was the day I ceased to be a member of PDP, and that day I vowed that I will not be a member of any political party again, but I will remain a statesman in Nigeria, in West Africa, in Africa and indeed in the world.”
But, advised Ayu on what to do as he said,
“Your (Ayu’s) case is like the case of Idi Amin of Uganda. Idi Amin came to me and he said ‘my brother, you have an Africa load and it is on your shoulder, I pray God will help you carry the Africa load’.
“Iyocha, you have PDP load with Nigeria load and it is only God that can help you to carry this load which of course, I believe if God gives you a responsibility, he will also give you the wherewithal to be able to carry that responsibility.
“In my hope which is also some people’s disappointment is that some of you who knew how things were done 21 years ago are still there but then some people will say here if you knew how it was done 21 years ago why have you not consistently be doing it? I think you can answer that, I will not answer for you, but if you ask me, I retired 14 years ago and I remain retired and
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