By Dansu Peter
Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, a former President has threatened to quit his newly championed Coalition for Nigeria Movement if try to go into partisan politics.
He said the movement did not regard itself as a third force, but “it sees itself as a popular movement that can accommodate all Nigerians irrespective of their political interest or affiliations and will propel Nigeria forward.”
The former President made the disclosure on Thursday at the secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Oke Ilewo area of Abeokuta, shortly after the Coalition for Nigeria Movement was inaugurated in Ogun State, and he was registered as a member of the movement.
Obasanjo, while justifying the need for the CNM, argued that if all the instruments the country had used in the quest for nation building and governance since independence had failed, it was imperative to try new ways.
He said, “If what we have tried in the past has not taken us to the Promised Land, we have to try something else and something else is this grassroots popular movement built from the bottom-up to lead us, I hope and pray, to the Promised Land.”
He, however, warned that if the movement “decides to transform itself and go into partisan politics, I will cease to be a member.”
Obasanjo further said the spate of violence, and other forms of criminality had not received sufficient proactive ameliorative responses through transformational leadership.
He said the youth and women would be carried along, as “they must be part and parcel of governance in this country.”
Obasanjo, who urged Nigerians to go online and register as members, said the CNM currently had no link with other movements.
But he, however, said “if there are people of like minds, people who share the views and the aims and objectives of the Coalition for Nigeria Movement who want to join this movement, we will not object, we will welcome them.”
He said the movement did not regard itself as a third force, but “it sees itself as a popular movement that can accommodate all Nigerians irrespective of their political interest or affiliations and will propel Nigeria forward.”
Obasanjo added, “This is the new message in town, the new dance in town, the ceremony in town and I will appeal to you to join this ceremony and dance in town.
“There may be many masquerades and those of you who had my own type of background, when we were growing up, we were playing masquerades too but those were small masquerades, but when big masquerades come out, the small masquerades must go.”
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