The South West Chapter of the PDP on Monday said it would honour Chief Olusegun Obasanjo on Friday and Saturday in Abeokuta.
The party, at a media briefing in Ibadan, said the occasion was meant to celebrate Obasanjo’s voluntary retirement as the Board of Trustees (BoT) Chairman.
The Chairman of the Obasanjo Civic Reception Committee, Mr Yemi Adefulu, told newsmen that the programme, which includes lectures, cultural night and civic reception, would hold at the Olusegun Obasanjo International Library in Abeokuta.
He said the lectures scheduled for Friday at the library would be chaired by a former President, Chief Ernest Shonekan.
The lectures, he added, would be delivered by former Ghanaian President, Mr John Kufour, and Alhaji Maitama Sule, Nigeria’s former representative to the UN.
Also to speak at the forum is Mrs Obiageli Ezekwesili, the immediate past Vice-President for Africa at the World Bank.
He said a cultural night would be held in honour of the former president also on Friday while a civic reception would hold on Saturday.
Adefulu said President Goodluck Jonathan would be the special guest of honour at the occasion, adding that more than 5,000 people were expected across political divides.
“We chose to celebrate the outstanding leader for his sterling leadership and rare courage.
“ He was an outstanding defender of the nation’s unity, who stood for the dignity of the black man and human race at every forum.
“In our clime, it is only when people die that they are appreciated and adulated in superlative terms. We chose to be different.
“ We decided to celebrate this outstanding leader of our time, to show gratitude and the gratitude of the nation for his sterling leadership and rare courage,’’ he said.
Present at the briefing were Chief Olusegun Oni and Dr Segun Agagu, former governors of Ekiti and Ondo States respectively.
Also present at the forum were members of PDP executives in the South West states.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the former president resigned as chairman of the BoT of the party in April, 2012.
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