Obasanjo Clears Air On Reports That He Is Forming New Party To Challenge APC, PDP

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has denied working on the establishment of a new political party aimed at accommodating aggrieved members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

A report had surfaced online on Sunday alleging that Obasanjo was planning to form a new political party because the two major political parties in the country are likely to be embroiled in serious legal and political conflicts that would leave them in a bad shape to be able to contest and win the forthcoming elections and form a national government.

Reacting in a statement on Monday signed by his Special Assistant on Media Affairs, Kehinde Akinyemi, the ex-President said he was done with politics.

Akinyemi said his principal, who is currently in Kabul, Afghanistan, as a guest of President Ashraf Ghani has declared that the report was false, maintaining that there was “no plan to float a new political party now or in near future”.

Obasanjo was quoted as saying, “In my part of the world, when you say goodnight in a place, you do not go back there and say good evening. The one who reported that may need to visit Yaba Left (Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Yaba). And those who believe it can believe that their mothers are men.

“I’m done with partisan politics but by my position in Nigeria and in Africa and without being immodest and indeed in the world, my door must be open and it is open to any individual or group of individuals who want to seek my opinion, view or advice on any issue or matter and I will respond to the best of my ability, without being part of that individual or group.”