2023: Obasanjo Denies Forming New Political Party

Olusegun Obasanjo

A former Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo has denied reports that he is planning to form a new political party ahead of the 2023 general elections.

Obasanjo said on Monday that his attention was drawn to the unfounded report published by a national newspaper, with claims that he would be picking three former governors as the coordinators.

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

He said that the fabricated story hardly comes as a surprise because he has, for some time now, observed with bewilderment the efforts by some people to drag him into their political games.

“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. 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 opened 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,” a statement by his media assistant, Kehinde Akinyemi, said on Monday.

Akinyemi spoke further that, “If anything, Chief Obasanjo’s political party today is the party of Nigerians facing insecurity, unemployment, hunger, poverty, and various other challenging issues. It is the party of Nigeria which must be saved, kept wholesomely united in peace, security, equity, development and progress.

“Let those who want to use the back door to force Chief Obasanjo to return to partisan politics respect his choice to remain a non-partisan statesman.”