It’s A Pity Peter Obi Dumped PDP, Says Bode George

A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bode George, has said it is a pity that presidential hopeful, Peter Obi, dumped the party.

Obi, on Wednesday, announced his resignation of the PDP while he was contesting to emerge the party’s presidential flagbearer.

Reacting, George wondered why the former governor of Anambra State took the decision.

He laid his mind bare when he apprared on Channels Television’s Politics Today program on Wednesday.

He said, “Once that news broke, I was taken aback because Obi Peter has established himself as a respectable and responsible, gentleman; very resourceful both in human resources and other endeavours of life.

“But for him to have dumped the PDP, I don’t know why he did that, it’s a pity that he actually dumped the party.

“Life is full of imponderables; you can’t win it all the time and Nigeria is still developing.
“I’m not very happy but maybe he has another plan, I don’t know why. I have a lot of regard and respect for him and every presidential aspirant in our party that came to Lagos to lobby delegates.”

He said it is very important for the PDP to present a candidate that does not have a filthy record for the presidential election.

“I was particularly very happy with every one of them (aspirants) but who will win? I’m not a soothsayer, and I don’t hold a crystal ball. May the best win but the most important is whoever we present to the Nigerian public must be somebody that has character, that has a high track record of responsibility, not somebody that has filthy things in his closet because the public office is a public trust,” he said.

He further appealed to Nigerians to stop comparing the country’s democracy to that of the United States of America which is over 200 years old while Nigeria is still a developing country.

He said, “My appeal to everyone in this country, don’t think that, yes don’t think that Nigeria is America yet. America is over 200 years old; even there, democracy is not perfect.

“We are still like a toddler when we talk about democratic dispensation, so it will take time, and democratic practice is not a 100 metre-dash, it is continuous. You win some, you lose some but the most important thing is after an election, there will be a post-mortem analysis during which the failures and drawbacks will be looked at and we make amends for us to start growing.”