Chief Olabode George, the former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has revealed that President Bola Tinubu sent his Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, to urge him to reconsider leaving Nigeria after the election results in 2023.
George had previously disclosed his intentions to depart the country, criticising Tinubu’s leadership potential.
During an interview on Arise TV, he recounted Gbajabiamila’s visit and highlighted ongoing crises within the PDP that escalated leading up to the 2023 presidential election.
He called for unity among party factions, emphasizing the need to address internal conflicts and rebuild the party.
He said: “I will move away from Nigeria. I’ll leave because he will be your representative on the international plane. Which investment will he bring here? I am not talking because I have any hatred for him.
“This is not the kind of person we can hand over this massive country to manage. He will be the greatest joke on the international plane. We should bother who should lead us.
“If by whatever chance he gets to the villa, I won’t be part of this country. And I am not joking. I can go to Ghana and be watching with binoculars from afar. You will see what will happen.”
Recounting the situation, George shared during an appearance on Arise TV on Wednesday that Gbajabiamila came to see him with a message from Tinubu, encouraging him to reconsider his stance.
He said: “During the campaign period, I stated it and I meant it—that if by whatever measure Bola Tinubu wins this election, I was going to get out.
“Once they heard that, Tinubu sent his chief of staff, who is my little brother from Lagos State, Femi Gbajabiamila, to appeal to me.
“He came to say ‘My boss said I should tell you, please be calm’. They knew they had wronged me. They said they were sorry.”
George elaborated that the turmoil within the PDP arose in the lead-up to the 2023 presidential election. He emphasized that internal conflicts and disagreements escalated during this time, calling on dissatisfied factions to put aside their differences.
“The last convention, the presidential convention, was when everything started, and instead of arresting it, they were exacerbating it.
“With all that, you cannot have the chairman of the party and the presidential candidate from one side of the divide—they didn’t listen.
“Ayu made a public statement that peradventure the presidency comes from the north, he would resign. But when the results were announced, he said, ‘I have four years; I’m not going anywhere’.
“This is breach of trust! Of course, people would react to that. It’s against the party constitution to have the chairman of the party and the presidential candidate from the same zone — it is an anomaly.
“I want to appeal to the leaders of the various groups in the party that it is time to shelve your personal ambitions and let us rebuild the party.
“There is no organisation in the world without crisis, but the ability to rebuild the crisis is needed.
“This crisis didn’t start now; it started from the presidential convention and nobody was able to manage it.
“Atiku and Wike should calm down and let us go to the elders meeting where we would start this discussion, to trace this crisis back to that convention, because that was where everything started going in the wrong direction.”
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