Leadership (Abuja)
Iyobosa Uwugiaren
27 January 2008
Abuja — The national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Ahmadu Ali, has stated that the sex scandal rocking the former first family is entirely a personal matter to former President Olusegun Obasanjo and that it has nothing to do with Obasanjo's position as chairman, Board of Trustees (BOT) of the party.
Since the scandal broke a fortnight ago, various commentators have called on the PDP to expel Obasanjo from the party. They said Obasanjo lacks the moral standing to be the conscience of the party. As chairman of BOT, Obasanjo is the moral force of the PDP, the critics have argued, adding that if indeed Obasanjo slept with his daughter-in-law, as alleged, he should be denied his current status.
Ali, who spoke exclusively to LEADERSHIP Sunday, berated Nigerians for always working towards pulling down their leaders, even as he insisted that the said scandal is purely a family affair.
He said in response to a question: "I'm sorry, whatever scandal you call it is his personal problem. We have to differentiate it from a party or institution which he voluntarily joined. If you go to a clubhouse, you don't know what everybody is doing outside the clubhouse. It is not your job to bring back to the club for discussion what members are doing. And I think that matter should be left in that particular department."
He noted further that "this matter has nothing to do with our party. We are a club and we don't know what everybody of over 27 million people we have registered, we don't know what they all do in their privacy. So, we don't want to go into that."
But the Christain Association of Nigeria (CAN) said at the weekend that Obasanjo has committed incest and that it is beyond a family affair.
Speaking on the issue, secretary-general of CAN Engineer Salifu said: "When you talk about Obasanjo sleeping with his son's wife, and if that is true, everybody knows it is an abomination. You don't need a prophet to tell you that." He noted further: "Obasanjo sleeping with his son's wife is not a family affair as some people want us to believe now. It is disastrous. And God said we should not commit adultery, and that is why I am talking like this."
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