Chief Olabode George, former deputy national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has said he will gladly work with the administration of President Bola Tinubu if invited to contribute his quota to nation-building.
George, a long-standing adversary of Tinubu, who stated this while reacting to questions from journalists who converged in his office in Ikoyi, said he had no personal issues with the president.
On whether he would agree to serve the country if appointed by the current administration, he said,’’ My reaction, as I have said, there is nothing personal. Look, I trained in the military. You know in the military whoever is in the trench next to you is your brother. When you go out to say what is our mission in the military? It is to defend our country. If he comes and says look, what do you feel about this, what do you feel about that, let’s work together in the interest of this country, why would I refuse? This nation also trained me.
‘’The military trained me. There is no part of the world that I have not been to, training and doing exercises. This country trained us. So, we must be able to put something back to the system that would also positively impact on the younger ones, to put a smile on their faces.’’
Commenting on why his party (PDP) lost the 2023 general election, George said it was because the leaders marginalized some sections of the country.
He said, “They divided Nigeria into six geo-political zones and sought out six top positions in Nigeria, to which each zone will go home with one position or the other. After eight years, all the positions in the North will come to the South so that the issue of the majority perpetually getting the goodies and the minority just being onlookers will be resolved. I have not seen any better system. Remember when APC first came, they said ‘We don’t believe in zoning, what nonsense, we are not going to do zoning.
“What did they do at the end? Where was Buhari from, where was Osinbajo from? Where was the Speaker from? Where was the Senate president from? That was the major problem the PDP discountenanced and landed us in the deck because the national chairman emerged from the same North where the presidential candidate of the party also came from.
‘’I said haba, you wanted to go back to where we tried to avoid, but they kicked. There are no monkeys anymore in Idanre (Ondo State). When we tried to point out to them that South West had been left behind and not included in their calculation, they said we should come back after the elections. Then we said okay, we would also after the elections. Now, we have seen the consequence.’’
