Obasanjo obtains CNM membership card

*Says I will withdraw if CNM joins partisan politics

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo today obtained the membership card of the Coalition for Nigeria Movement (CNM), while he urged members of the public as well important personalities in Nigeria to join the movement towards building a new Nigeria.

The Former president registered his membership at the Ogun State secretariat of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Oke-Ilewo, Abeokuta, where the state chapter of CNM was formally launched.

Obasanjo was accompanied by former governor of Osun State and acting National Coordinator of CNM, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, former Cross River State Governor, Donald Duke, former Minister of State for Defence, Mrs Modupe Adelaja, and former military governor of old Ondo State, Chief Ekundayo Balogun among others.

In his address after obtaining the membership card, Obasanjo said he would cease from being a member anytime CNM decides to join partisan politics.

He expressed his happiness in being a member of the new movement, which he described as a pressure group towards good governance.

He said, “I am happy to be a member of the Coalition for Nigeria Movement which is a movement for good governance.

“This is the commencement for our popular and grassroots association.

“The membership will be free to collectively decide on whether it will become a political party and if it decides to transform itself and go into partisan politics, I will cease to be a member.’’

Obasanjo said that the movement is not a third force, but rather a popular movement to accommodate all Nigerians irrespective of political interest or affiliations.

He added, “Some people have started worrying about the problem of personalities, in which some, in other efforts, allocate positions to themselves. This movement is not about personality or personalities; but about platform and system.

“Our system so far has not given us what we must have. For the first time, we are building a platform from bottom-up. The movement’s base is the grassroots and the people – all the people.

“It is necessary to make it clear that this movement does not regard itself as a third force. It sees itself as a popular movement that can accommodate all Nigerians irrespective of their political interest or affiliations and will propel Nigeria forward.”

The Former President noted that his letter to Buhari last week was born not out of frivolity, but out of great concern for the situation in the country.

He added that Nigeria as a nation cannot continue business as usual, observing that he used his letter to proffer a way out and a way forward.

He said, “ If the instrument we have used so far in our nation-building and governance since independence have not served us well, it is imperative that we should rethink and retool. “

The CNM, which was officially launched in Abuja on Wednesday, was the brainchild of Obasanjo, which he had proffered as a platform to mobilise Nigerians for unity in his recent advice to President Muhammadu Buhari.

Obasanjo composed a new song for the nation, by saying ‘I see a new Nigeria in the hands of God, We see a new Nigeria in the hands of God and we will all be witnesses of the emergence of a new Nigeria.’’