We’ll beg Obasanjo, says Lamido

Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State on Tuesday
emerged from a meeting with President Goodluck
Jonathan at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, giving an
indication that the Peoples Democratic Party
stakeholders would beg former President
Olusegun Obasanjo who dumped the party on
Monday.
Lamido, who is the North-West Coordinator of
Goodluck/Sambo Presidential Campaign, told
State House correspondents that Obasanjo
remained the father of all.
He said Jonathan and all the state governors were
creations of the former President.
He explained that it was only appropriate that
“when a father is angry with his children, the
children should beg him.”
Lamido said, “Baba (Obasanjo) is more than a
party man. He is an icon, a national symbol and a
leader and an inventor, a creator of all the
institutions today in Nigeria from the President to
the governors who are his own sons, are all his
creations.
“And so, when a father is angry with his own
children, we will only say we are sorry to him. But
then, we cannot be renounced for whatever it is.
“If you do any political DNA of our blood, you will
find his (Obasanjo’s) blood in us. No matter what
we are, we may not be able to live up to his
expectations.
“We might have made some mistakes, but
abandoning us is not the solution because the
country is first before anything else. So, he is our
Baba even up to the President.
“Baba is our baba no matter what. He is angry
with us, but then, what do we do? He gave us the
life at a time when Nigerians were fighting us, he
stood for us. Since 2011, in 2007, he stood firm
for us.
“He is our father. And so, if we made some
mistakes, we are only human because we are
heading human institutions. And I think by the
time he reflects, how could he abandon his own
children like that. Wherever we are, we are right in
his heart. He feels for us, he cares for us.”
When asked to be specific on whether they would
go and beg Obasanjo to return to the party,
Lamido said such issue was not the kind he
would announce publicly.
“When there is some kind of misunderstanding
between a father and a child, you don’t go to NTA
or any other media to say you are going to do
this.
“I mean the bond between us is so strong. I know
he is equally pained. I know what he is going
through because he is our father, but I will not
tell you the strategy because when he was
producing us, you were not there, when he was
making us, were you there?,” the governor said.
When told that some party chiefs had already said
they would not miss the former President, the
governor said Jonathan who he described as
Obasanjo’s first child had not said so.
“But then, the first child is the President, did he
say so?,” he asked.
When asked again if Obasanjo’s constant
criticisms of the President did not worry him,
Lamido said “when parents get old, they tend to
manifest signs of old age.”
He added, “What I am saying is that all of us have
parents. When we were born, they pepped us,
gave us their love, gave us everything. By the
time they get old, naturally, there is what they call
role reversal. We became the parents and they
became the children. So, what is wrong if our
parents begin to manifest those signs of old age?”
Lamido insisted that despite all the perceived
setbacks, the PDP would still win the forthcoming
elections.
He said, “What is this opposition in Nigeria? You
must know Nigerian history. Nigeria cannot be
governed by an aggregate of pain, anger and
frustration.