Uthman-Shodipe flays Onabule over comments on Obasanjo

Former Editorial board member of The Guardian Newspaper, Prince Uthman Shidipe-Dosunmu has faulted the views of Chief Duro Onabule, the erstwhile chief press secretary to the military President, Gen Ibrahim Babangida for condemning the historical relevance and leadership of former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.

In a statement yesterday, Uthman-Shodipe said, “I read with dismay and total disapproval the jeremiad written by Chief Duro Onabule condemning the historical significance and the leadership relevance of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, our former president, a national icon and a representative symbol of the Nigerian idealism.

“Obasanjo is not a dead horse as Onabule viciously implied. He is absolutely relevant, important, symbolical of the Nigerian presence and the sanctified emblem of our tomorrow.“Chief Obasanjo is a treasured son of the Yorubaland. He is the foremost rallying point of the Nigerian Union. He represents the best of the Nigerian ideal. He is resolved upon the Nigerian unifying salvage. He is not detained by tribe or tongue. He looms most majestically as a primal arbiter of our collective fortunes.”

Uthmn-Shodipe who is also a PDP chieftain said Obasanjo as wrongly portrayed by Chief Onabule will never withdraw into any tribal cordon in favour of anyone from his own tribe. He is expressed in national largeness, saying, the former president’s present intervention in the Nigerian polity is not about personal gains or selfish propulsion. It is about our collective salvage from the festering wounds. It is about the general enhancement of the Nigerian possibilities.He said Chief Onabule’s position is biased and unrepresentative of Obasanjo’s character.

According to him, “Obasanjo may not be perfect. But who is? But this much is true: He is a Nigerian hero, our common icon of national salvaging truth. He means well for this nation. He is indifferent to tribe and tongue. He is woven in our collective redemption. He looms large just like Saudana, Awolowo, Azikiwe in their leadership totem because of his sweeping democratic vision and his instinctive courage daring and defying the oppressor’s intrusion. He is a national gift we cannot afford to belittle. He remains a singular emblem of courage and selflessness.”