By Ibrahim Sha’aban
Contrary to speculations that the Coalition for Nigeria, CN, movement, has relationships with few other political movements in the country, former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Thursday dissociated himself from any other movement except CN, his brain child movement.
Mr Obasanjo stated this immediately after launching the movement in his hometown, Abeokuta- Ogun state.
Reportedly, some of these groups include: Wale Ajani-led Coalition of Nigeria Movement, CONIM, Revive Nigeria Group, RNG, and Restoration Group among others aiming to lead the country out of its challenges.
He said: ‘’There are other movements but we, as far as I know, have no direct or indirect relationship with any other movements, we do not.”
He however added: “But as I said, if there are people of like minds, people who share the view and the aims and objectives of Coalition for Nigeria Movement, who want to join this movement, we will not object, we will welcome them.
“But to the best of my knowledge, this is a movement that has no relationship with any other movement that I know of.
Speaking on the movement, the former president described the movement as a big masquerade out to scare the smaller ones.
‘’When big masquerades come out, the small masquerade must come out, I appeal to you to join the ceremony, the dance and the message.
“This is the new message in town, the new dance in town, the ceremony in town and I will appeal to you to join this ceremony and dance in town because there may be many masquerades and those of you who had my own type of background, when we were growing up, we were playing masquerades too but those were small masquerades, Mr Obasanjo said.
Speaking on women and youth participation in the movement, Obasanjo said: “You will see that in my prior statement on the January 23rd, the issue of women was raised very heavily.
‘’The position is this: if there will be a change in this country for good, the people that would bring that about would be the youths and the women.
‘’That has to be appreciated and right from the word go, they must be carried along. They must have a place of honour, they must have a place of responsibility, and they must be part and parcel of governance in this country.
‘’If what we have tried in the past has not taken us to the Promised Land, we must try something else.”
DAILY NIGERIAN reported that during the launching, Mr Obasanjo was in company of prominent politicians including former Osun State governor, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola; ex-Governor Donald Duke (Cross River), former minister, Mrs Dupe Adelaja; former governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the 2015 election, Gboyega Isiaka, opinion leaders and scores of enthusiastic residents desirous of registering as CMN members.
