Elder statesman and a former governor of Ogun State, Chief Olusegun Osoba has warned the All Progressives Congress (APC) to learn from the mistake of the Peoples Democratic Party or risk losing power in 2019.
Speaking with Daily Sun, Ososba admonished members of the ruling party to buckle up and meet the expectations of Nigerians or be booted out from power by Nigerians just like they did to the PDP in 2015.
He said, “The choice is now going to be clear in 2019. And as I said it would be tough. If a party messes up, a person who is popular would go and do it independently and win elections.
“And any party that does not do internal democracy is doomed; not just APC. PDP had suffered it. We must learn from it and not go through the same route.”
Osoba, an ace journalist also blamed the public angst over President Muhammadu Buhari’s ill health to the poor official handling of the issue, wondering why the nature of the illness should be shrouded in mystery.
He cited reaction to his own public disclosure of having undergone eye and prostate surgeries recently, asserting that it was not only hypocritical, but naïve to expect that at 78 years-old, his body, which had been flogged in several decades of journalism practice as well as in public service and politics, would remain the same as when he was much younger.
“But the president is human, he like everyone does not have a perfect health. Even, my own health has not been perfect; because I went to Abeokuta last week and I announced that I’ve just had a major prostrate operation and I heard people saying ‘Ah! Why should I say it?’ I now asked what was wrong with a 78- year old man having health challenges. And to drive the point home to the ordinary people, I told them that I’ve had my engine re-boiled. The crankshaft has been changed, the piston has been changed, the oil is renewed. And I told them that, what I mean by that, is that I did two operations separately on my two eyes, for cataract, and the result is that, now I don’t use glasses anymore.
“So, what is wrong in admitting health challenges? What is wrong in telling the world? Can a car you’ve been using for 20 years be the same as a new car? A body that I have been flogging; I flogged it for journalism, I flogged it for politics, I flogged it for governance. Would the body be the same? It can never be the same. I am even lucky, mine is limited. So, I must say that we’re humans and in the process, errors and mistakes are made and what is left is finding a way of correcting the errors and mistakes we’ve made in the past.”
