Senators Kashim Shettima, Solomon Adeola, Tokunbo Abiru and eight others have visited a former Ogun State governor Olusegun Osoba who is recuperating in London after a knee surgery in London.
Shetima (APC, Borno Central), who spoke on behalf of his colleagues, said they went to London as Nigerians devoid of political party or regional colouration to wish him well as an elder statesman at 82.
“As Senators of the Federal Republic, all of us are interested in the growth and progress of our nation,” he said.
“We did not come here for partisan consideration but to seek wisdom from an elder statesman that had contributed positively to the growth of the nation and still willing to do more even in advanced age.”
Adeola, who is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance said that it is gratifying to see that Osoba is fast recovering from his surgery as evidenced in his personally coming to receive them at the door from the first floor and going back up with them to the sitting room upstairs.
The visit came weeks after Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State and Olakunle Oluomo, Speaker of the Ogun State House of Assembly, visited Osoba.
Other lawmakers who made up the delegation include Isah Jubril (APC, Kogi East), Micheal Nnachi (PDP, Ebonyi South), Ayo Akinyelure (PDP, Ondo Central), Gershom Bassey (PDP, Cross River South), Yusuf Yusuf (APC, Taraba Central), Sadiq Umar (APC, Kwara North), Bashiru Ajibola (APC, Osun Central) and Hassan Gusau (APC, Zamfara Central).
In response, Osoba said he was grateful for the visit, adding he would soon return to Nigeria.
He appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to sign the newly passed Electoral Act, which among other things, guarantees the use of direct primary as a means of selecting candidates of all political parties.
“I have a feeling he will sign it,” Osoba said. “The president himself is a product of direct primary. He submitted himself to direct primary in 2019 throughout the country, heaven did not fall. After he subjected himself to direct primary throughout Nigeria in all the wards, he also subjected himself to a national convention to ratify his election at the primary.”
