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.
“I was trained by the military. I have traveled to every region of the world to train and perform exercises. This nation gave us training. Therefore, we must be able to provide something to the system that would also benefit the younger people, to make them happy.
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 geopolitical zones and searched for six of the country’s top positions, with each zone taking one or the other.
“After eight years, every position in the north will go to the south, solving the problem of the majority always getting the nice stuff and the minority just watching.
I haven’t come across a better system. ‘We don’t believe in zoning, what nonsense, we are not going to implement zoning,’ they claimed when APC first arrived,’ I remember, he recalled.
“What happened in the end? Where were Buhari and Osinbajo originally from? Where did the speaker originate? that was the senator that served as president?
Because the national chairman was from the same section of the north as the party’s presidential candidate, that was the main issue the PDP downplayed and led to our inclusion in the fray.
“When we attempted to explain to them that the South-West had been overlooked and was not taken into account in their calculations, they suggested that we return after the elections. After that, we agreed and promised to check back after the elections. We have now observed the results.
