The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Tuesday, February 24, 2015 responded to the departure of former President Olusegun Obasanjo from the PDP and his dramatic tearing of his PDP membership card, attributing old age to his unwarranted action.
Speaking to journalists in Abuja, the PDP national Secretary, Oladipo Olawale said Obasanjo’s exit would enable the party grow and amass wider support in the forthcoming polls.
Olawale said: “Baba is a very intelligent man. When Baba was helping us, he knows that a lot of people could have complained that they could have voted for PDP but Baba is there. You know when a big tree exits in a big forest, smaller trees cannot grow.
“If that big tree leaves, 10 to 20 smaller trees will grow. In politics one big tree has a vote, while 20 small trees have 20 votes. If you do the arithmetic, I am a scientist, I know that head or tail, it is a win-win situation for PDP.”
While blaming old age for Obasanjo’s tearing of his membership card, Olawale said the former military head of State tore an old PDP card as the party had kick started the process of launching new cards.
He said: “Baba is over 80 and my mother is around Obasanjo’s age and when you reach that age, you do things that only you can explain. Secondly, you will see that Baba did not tear our card.
“He asked somebody ostensibly to do the tearing and I am assuring you that the card that was torn was not the current PDP card. The current PDP is signed by Mu’azu and Prof Wale Oladipo. So the card he tore was a Baraje card, which we were going to destroy anyway. So I think Baba started it.”
