Jan. 11, 2014
Saharareporters, New York
Former Nigerian leader, Olusegun Obasanjo has penned another letter, this time to Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, the National chairman of the ruling People’s Democratic Party, resigning his membership of the party.
In the one-page letter dated 7 january, Obasanjo declared that he would, temporarily, cease to be a member of the party or participate in any political activity at any level, unless the party dissociated itself from businessman Buruji Kashamu, who appears to be the leader of the party in Obasanjo’s Ogun state and the country’s western region.
Declaring Kashamu as unfit for any leadership post in the party, he described him as a drug baron who has cases to answer in the United States of America.
The full text of the three-paragraph letter reads:
Dear Chairman,
“While I believe that a good and truly national political party must be a microcosm of the nation in its membership, made up of all sorts of characters from near-saints to near-satan, I also believe that on no account should a known habitual criminal that is wanted abroad to face criminal charges levelled against him be extolled as a political leader in a respectable and wholesome nation-building political party.
“Buruji Kashamu has been so extolled in PDP in South-West geo-political zone which I personally find unsavoury. Politics played by any national political party must have morality, decency, discipline, principles and leadership examples as cardinal practices of the party. I have attached here recent documents that clearly indicate that your extolled PDP Zonal Leader in the South-West zone of Nigeria and an indigene of Ogun State is, to say the least, not a credit to the party as a member, let alone being a zonal leader.
“Since I stick in my practice of party politics to the hallowed and cherished principles enunciated above, I take this opportunity to let you know that while I continue to remain a card-carrying member of PDP, I cannot and I will not subscribe to a wanted habitual criminal being installed as my zonal leader in the party; a criminal for whom extradition has been requested by the US government. In the meantime, I will consider withdrawing my activity with PDP at local, state, zonal and national levels until the anomalous and shameful situation is corrected.”
Thank you.
Yours Sincerely,
Olusegun Obasanjo
Buruji Kashamu’s issue featured in Obasanjo’s earlier letter to President Goodluck Jonathan. And Kashamu responded that although he was once arrested in the UK for alleged drug offences, he was freed and that he is not on the wanted list of the Drug Enforcement Agency of the United States.
Buruji also stated that he was Obasnjo’s political ally in the battle to hijack the PDP from former Ogun governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel and wondered why Obasanjo now detested him when he once cavorted with him, when it suited him.
