President Goodluck Jonathan on Saturday
met behind closed-doors with former President Olusegun Obasanjo in what
appeared to be a fence-mending effort aimed at wooing the former
president who is known for openly criticising the present
administration’s handling of some national issues lately, including the
Boko Haram insurgency.
Also, four governors from the Northern
part of the country who apparently avoided President Jonathan met
separately with Obasanjo behind closed-doors in his Hilltop Mansion.
The meeting between Obasanjo and
Jonathan, which held at the former president’s residence in Owu,
Abeokuta, came a few days after the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic
Party’s Governors’ Forum, Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State,
met with the former President in Abuja to convince him to support
Jonathan.
Akpabio is an ally of the two leaders.
Although the meeting is believed to be
part of Jonathan’s consultations ahead of his declaration of interest in
the 2015 presidential election, the President told journalists that he
was in Abeokuta to commiserate with his spokesman, Dr. Reuben Abati, and
his family on the death of their matriarch, Taiwo, and felt it would be
disrespectful if he did not visit Obasanjo whose house is a stone’s
throw from the Abatis’.
“It is true that we saw (former)
president Obasanjo in his house because we came to Abeokuta to
commiserate with Abati who buried his mother yesterday (Friday). Knowing
that Abati’s house is at the backyard of Obasanjo’s house, it will not
be good if we come and we did not visit him. Even the man (Obasanjo)
himself will not be happy if we don’t visit him. I am like a son to
Obasanjo,” Jonathan told reporters at Abati’s residence.
Jonathan’s meeting with Obasanjo lasted over an hour.
Dressed in a black flowing agbada
and a cap to match, the President arrived Obasanjo’s residence around
12noon in company with Senator Grace Bent and met with the former
president for about one hour 30 minutes before proceeding to the Asero
Estate residence of his spokesman.
The gates to Obasanjo’s Hilltop mansion
were shut against other visitors immediately Jonathan drove into the
expansive compound while security was also beefed up outside and along
the road leading to the former president’s home.
It was immediately after the meeting
that Jonathan moved to Abati’s family house where he commiserated with
his spokesman whose mother was buried in the Ogun State capital on
Friday.
The President said he had planned to
attend the burial service after he inaugurated a 200-unit Idimu Police
Housing Estate in Lagos but was unable to do so because there was an
urgent need for him to travel to Togo for a meeting with the President
of Côte d’Ivoire, Allasane Quattara, in order to forestall an
undisclosed looming political crisis.
Describing Abati as a member of his
family, Jonathan advised the household to take solace in the fact that
their mother lived to a ripe age beyond the biblical three scores and
10.
Abati, on his part, said the family was
no longer expecting the President since he was fully represented at the
service by his Chief of Staff, Chief Mike Ogiadomhe.
While expressing delight at the surprise
visit, the presidential spokesman said his family would cherish the
momentous occasion for a long time.
The four PDP northern governors who met
with Obasanjo were Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Sule Lamido (Jigawa); Aliu
Wamako (Sokoto) and Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano).
NigerianEYE learnt that the
governors were earlier scheduled to meet with Obasanjo at about the same
time as President Jonathan but decided to tarry a while at an
undisclosed location in Abeokuta perhaps to avoid contact with the
President.
The Northern governors later arrived at Obasanjo’s Hilltop Mansion around 1:28pm, few minutes after President Jonathan had left.
The North is believed to be courting the former president as part of the strategies to regain the nation’s presidency by 2015.
Speculations are already rife that
Governor Lamido has been pencilled down as the North’s PDP Presidential
flagbearer for the 2015 poll if the region should succeed in clinching
the ticket.
When the Northern governors emerged
about one hour later from their meeting with Obasanjo, Governor Nyako
said he and his colleagues were in Abeokuta for “consultation” with the
former president on “very important matters.”
“We have come to greet the most
accomplished Nigerian ever and would remain so for a very long time and
to consult him on very important matters,” Nyako said.
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I hope this story is not TRUE, otherwise Mr PRESIDENT is just like other GREEDY POLITICIANS-even those that wanted third term.
ReplyDeleteNa wa 4 humans O!