Former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Deputy National Chairman (South-West) Chief Bode George says he is willing to assist and collaborate with President Bola Tinubu if the latter contacts him on matters of administration.
George, who has frequently opposed Tinubu’s bid for the presidency and criticized the results of the election that led to his inauguration, insisted that their conflict is not personal.
According to Leadership, George, a vociferous opponent of Tinubu, declared yesterday that he was ready to cooperating with him for the benefit of the nation while fielding questions from journalists in his Ikoyi office in Lagos.
The PDP leader had previously stated publicly that he opposed Tinubu’s “methodologies of governance,” adding that he would leave the nation should Tinubu win the presidency.
Yesterday, he added a new dimension to his attitude when he said, “Why would I refuse if he came and said look, what do you feel about this, what do you feel about that, let’s work together in the interest of our country? I was also trained by this country.
“The military trained me. There is no part of the world that I have not been to, training and doing exercises. This country trained us. So, we must be able to put something back to the system that would also positively impact on the younger ones, to put a smile on their faces.’’
Regarding the ongoing crisis within the PDP, George claimed that differences over the zoning principle during the presidential campaign “landed the party in a deck”.
“They divided Nigeria into six geo-political zones and sought out six top positions in Nigeria, to which each zone will go home with one position or the other.
“After eight years, all the positions in the north will come to the south so that the issue of the majority perpetually getting the goodies and the minority just being onlookers will be resolved.
“I have not seen any better system. Remember when APC first came, they said ‘we don’t believe in zoning, what nonsense, we are not going to do zoning,” he said.
“What did they do at the end? Where was Buhari from, where was Osinbajo from? Where was the speaker from? Where was the Senate president from?
“That was the major problem the PDP discountenanced and landed us in the deck because the national chairman emerged from the same north where the presidential candidate of the party also came from.
“When we tried to point out to them that the South-West had been left behind and not included in their calculation, they said we should come back after the elections. Then we said okay, we would also see after the elections. Now, we have seen the consequence.’’
