Duke, Oyinlola in Abeokuta as Obasanjo declares membership of Coalition for Nigeria Movement

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has unveiled the Coalition for Nigeria Movement in Abeokuta, Ogun state capital.

TheCable had reported that the ex-president would register as a member of the movement.

Accompanied by Donald Duke, former governor of Cross River state, and Olagunsoye Oyinlola, former governor of Osun state, Obasanjo filled a membership registration form at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) secretariat in Oke-Ilowo, Abeokuta.

Duke and Oyinlola had supervised the launch of the movement in Abuja on Wednesday.

Obasanjo had recommended the coalition as solution to the leadership crisis in Nigeria.

In a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, Obasanjo had said neither the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) nor the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) could give Nigeria the leadership it deserves.

“We need a Coalition for Nigeria, CN. Coalition to salvage and redeem our country. You can count me with such a movement,” the elder statesman had said.

Obasanjo spent his two terms as a democratic president under the PDP and even became chairman of its board of trustees in 2007.

But in the buildup to the 2015 election, he gave up his membership of the former ruling party, announcing that he had quit partisan politics.

“From today on, in the presence of all us and with your support, I am not going to be in any political party in Nigeria. I am no more a politician but a statesman both internally and externally,” he had said after instructing Sunmonu Oladunjoye, chairman of the PDP in his ward, to tear his membership card.