Ex-President explains why he tore his PDP membership card

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has explained why he ripped apart his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) membership card.

Obasanjo, on Monday, February 16, tore the card in public ending his connection with the party.

The former President told Premium Times on Tuesday, that he had allowed the card to be torn to show that he was more interested in the progress of Nigeria than in any party affiliation.

“They were concerned that I had only one leg in the party, and worried that since I’m their leader in the ward, they need to hear from me,” Obasanjo said of the PDP members who paid him a visit to convince him to be loyal to the party.

The former President reportedly said that when the party members arrived in his home, they were singing a Yoruba song which translates to mean: “Nigeria belongs to all of us, we must not allow it to be destroyed and we must join hands to make it great.”

He said further that the PDP members urged him to participate in party activities to prevent being expelled.

“You are our leader and it is you we are following. You have remained a card-carrying member of the party. But since you became angry with the party we have lost sense of direction and now we are hearing that they want to expel you. If they expel you, where do we go? What do we do?” PDP ward Chairman, Surajudeen Oladunjoye said according to Obasanjo.

Obasanjo stated that at this point he handed his membership card over to Oladunjoye to do with as he pleased.

“In my response, I said when you people came you were singing a song and I agreed that Nigeria is our own. If the issue is the party, I will not choose the party at the detriment of Nigeria and I will fight for Nigeria even at the detriment of the party. I will rather surrender my membership of the party so you people can move on politically,” Obasanjo said to the party members.

“If you people’s worry is that I’m a card-carrying member of the party and I’m not showing you people direction and you are worried that I’m neither here nor there, this is the card; you can keep it, you can burn it or you can tear it, do whatever you want to do with it,” he added.

This led to the card being torn in public by Oladunjoye while Obasanjo watched. The former President also added that he has no regrets over his actions.