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The proposed political movement mentioned last week by former President Olusegun Obasanjo has been launched at the Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja.
Obasanjo had argued that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had become incapable of repositioning Nigeria, having lost the confidence of the electorate.
Obasanjo was not present at the launch on Wednesday, but two former PDP governors, Olagunsoye Oyinlola and Donald Duke, were in attendance.
Oyinlola, a former governor of Osun state, said that the movement was not yet a political party.
“If and when we come to an agreement that we must metamorphose into a political party, then we will,” Oyinlola said.
“We’re not a political party, at least, for now,” he said.
He said that for the movement to make electoral impact in the manner described by Obasanjo in his letter, its proponents would need to follow the Constitution and register it as a political party.
“We recognise the facts that by the dictates of the Constitution, you can only contest on the platform of a political party,” said Oyinlola, who was the National Secretary of the PDP, before joining the APC in 2014, after his controversial removal from his position in the then-ruling party.
Oyinlola also responded to critics who saw the movement as an attempt to legitimise the legacy of Obasanjo, who governed as a democratically-elected President between 1999 and 2007.
“To say that we are legitimising OBJ’s legacy is a bit off the mark,” he said.
Oyinlola said that the leaders of the movement were not necessarily eyeing political offices to benefit themselves, saying their aim was to help leave a better tomorrow for the younger generation.
The leaders of the movement said Nigerians had been through a lot in the hands of the political elite and canvassed a fresh alternative for the citizens by 2019.
