‘Make a switch before you die,’ Osinbajo pokes PDP members

Members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have been asked to make sure they cross over to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) before they die.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo stated this at the weekend when he spoke at an elaborate dinner to round off activities commemorating the 80th birthday celebration of APC national chairman, Chief John Oyegun, in Abuja.

“Let me tell the story of a politician who was a long time, life Republican politician in the US. He was lying down on his sickbed and was about to die and he said ‘I want to change my party, I want to become a Democrat so that tomorrow it will be announced that a Democrat died not a Republican’.

“You can see that we politicians are very faithful and very loyal, indeed. I can only ask our friends in the PDP to also ensure that they cross over before they die. It is time for them to cross over,” Osinbajo said.

However, the PDP in a quick response to Osinbajo, said in a statement by its national publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, that “Professor Osinbajo cannot comprehend the drumbeats playing across the nation. Only that can account for his wishful invitation to our party members to decamp to the failed APC.”

He added, “Nigerians are looking toward the judiciary to return our party’s stolen presidential mandate for the nation to come out of the woods, which the APC and Buhari’s Presidency has plunged her.”

Meanwhile, Osinbajo used the birthday event to pay glowing tributes to Oyegun, describing him as a man who always positions himself on the right side of history.

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According to him, Oyegun was “a founding member of Alliance for Democracy (AD), member of NADECO and secretary of those abroad, a founding member of APC and the first chairman, the one who led our party to that historic victory to unseat the ruling party.”

He added, “The second reason for my admiration is that somehow, he manages to be so deep in Nigerian politics and yet he doesn’t even look like a politician or sound like one. He always sounds like a fine, well-read, well-spoken gentleman dragged into politics by some rascals but he is an unassuming politician and an astute strategist.

“There is this particular attribute of being in politics without being a politician.  I would like to be like Professor (Ibrahim) Gambari when I grow up. I would like to be like that. You know aside from lawyers, I think there is no group of people who are maligned like politicians.

“Every time that you come across the Nigerian politician, there is always one way or the other that we are maligned but people like Chief Oyegun have shown that politicians can be loyal, faithful, dusting men and women.”

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