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Adams Oshiomhole, former national chair of the All Progressives Congress (APC), says ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo tried to transform Nigeria into a one-party state.
Speaking on Thursday at the APC presidential campaign rally in Benin, the Edo capital, Oshiomhole said when Bola Tinubu, APC presidential candidate, was the Lagos governor, he defended multiparty democracy in Nigeria.
Oshiomhole, former governor of Edo, said history will never forget Tinubu and his fight for democracy in the country.
“Today, across Nigeria, if you are going to understand why Obasanjo failed to transform Nigeria to a one-party state, you cannot forget the dogged fight of our presidential candidate to maintain and defend multiparty democracy in Nigeria,” he said.
“Unless we get the politics right, we cannot fix the economy.
“The world is unanimous that multiparty democracy is the way to go. I want young people to remember where we are coming from. Our youths need to know who laid the foundation for the crisis we face and the crisis our presidential candidate is going to resolve.
“We are not lamenting it, but we must make you understand your past in order to appreciate the future.
“By 1999, President Obasanjo took over ANPP. He appointed the chairman as his adviser and called the governors to move. By 2003, he rigged out all the south-west governors. He took out Lam Adesina, Segun Osoba — all the south-west governors — and planted PDP in the south-west.
“Obasanjo tried to take Lagos and Tinubu stopped him. Tinubu showed him he is field marshal of politics while he (Obasanjo) is the army general. At the end of the day, Lagos survived. The rest of the south-west, Obasanjo rigged them over.
“Asiwaju decided he is not going to cry. He retained Lagos. They moved away the commissioner of police; they moved away INEC… because Obasanjo wanted to play a do-or-die politics. But Asiwaju said ‘you (Obasanjo) will do; we will live’. Tinubu came back to reclaim Oyo, Ekiti, Osun, and Ondo states.”
