THE
battle for the nation’s Presidency in 2015 is getting intense, though the
gladiators are not willing to openly declare their interest yet.
A key figure who is working, albeit
surreptitiously, to determine who becomes the occupant of Aso Rock in 2015 is
former President Olusegun Obasanjo, The Guardian has learnt.
Contrary to the notion that Obasanjo
has quit active and local partisan politics for international assignments and
diplomacy, the former leader remains a force to reckon with in the 2015 presidency.
The Guardian’s investigation shows that
Obasanjo may not support President Goodluck Jonathan for re-election in 2015.
It was learnt at the weekend that Obasanjo’s fund-raiser for a mosque project
at his presidential library provided the forum for him to strategise for 2015.
Less than 24 hours after the gathering
in Abeokuta, which was attended by some political heavyweights even from the
core North, Obasanjo, 72, began a strategic political tour of the East on the
invitation of Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, publisher of the Champion Newspapers.
This tour has been without fanfare. Iwuanyanwu, a People’s Democratic Party
(PDP) stalwart from Imo State was at the Abeokuta gathering last Friday,
although he arrived late.
The Guardian learnt that after the
fund-raiser at the venue, Iwuanyanwu reiterated his (Obasanjo’s) invitation to
the East and the following day, the former president who at a religious
gathering in Warri reportedly criticised Nigeria’s current President’s handling
of the Boko Haram’s insurgency responded to the invitation and began his
strategic tour of the South East.
It was learnt that the army general’s
strategic foray into the East at this time “is to solidify the political base
of the PDP in the area and to re-align forces for 2015 in the context of the
ruling PDP” that he recently described as undisciplined.
The Guardian was told by some sources
in Abeokuta that before the last Friday’s political fund-raiser, there was a
strategic rapprochement that the former president organised in his palatial
home.
He consummated a reconciliation with
one of his old allies in the South-West, Chief Johnson Fasawe, who has also
remained loyal to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar. It was Fasawe’s loyalty
to Atiku that caused his disconnection from Ota seven years ago in the
heat of succession struggle between the then president (Obasanjo) and the vice
president (Atiku).
In Obasanjo’s spacious sitting room
before the big party train moved to the fund-raiser, the Deji of Akure, Oba
Adebiyi Adesida led Fasawe who prostrated before Obasanjo and remarked
that he (Fasawe) was part of the building of the Obasanjo home and he had come
back home.
Obasanjo was said to have noted that
Fasawe, was not just instrumental in the building of the Abeokuta Hilltop
house, he was “a part owner, we both own the house your room is upstairs.” He
(Obasanjo) was said to have patted Fasawe on the back and called Fasawe
“Omowale” (a great son has returned home). These gestures were made to the
delight of the visiting governors from the North who cheered with a light clap.
Shortly after the ceremony, Obasanjo
was said to have gone into a long meeting with Fasawe in another room in the
house. Details of what transpired in the inner sanctuary were unknown at press
time.
It was Fasawe who later announced N5
million worth of donation to the mosque project on behalf of Atiku.
More than N400 million was raised at
the Friday ceremony chaired by the Governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji Aliyu
Magatarkada Wamakko. The Governor of Kano State, Dr. Musa Rabiu Kwakwanso,
Governor of Kebbi, Alhaji Saidu Dakingari and the Deputy Governor of Katsina
State and Alhaji Abdullahi Garba Faskari also graced the occasion.
The wife of the late strong man of
Ibadan politics, Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu, Mrs. Bose Adedibu and wife of the late
Ayodeji Omotade, a permanent secretary who died in Bellview plane crash on
October 22, 2005, were there.
Governor Ibikunle Amosu of Ogun State
was at the fund-raiser briefly before he left, sources at the venue noted.
Political pundits in the South West and
Abuja who are sufficiently close to Obasanjo who was recently honoured by the
British Monarch, the Queen of England as country representative for her Diamond
Jubilee Trust is said to have said that the Friday fund-raiser and the political
tour of the East “is a way to tell the incumbent Nigeria’s leader that he is a
better organised politician and 2015 calculations within the ruling PDP are
still within his power and he can sway opinions in the East and South West and
even the North … in 2015…”
There has been a silent rift between
Obasanjo and the sitting President and the northern establishment still accuses
Obasanjo of foisting on them in 2007 the then Governor Umaru Yar’Adua as his
(Obasanjo’s) successor. The core North still believes that the Owu chief knew
that the then Governor Yar’Adua was too unhealthy to be president and a younger
and healthier Goodluck Jonathan was made to be the running mate to succeed him
after his expected demise.
Obasanjo has consistently denied this
charge and one major denial was at a Daily Trust yearly lecture in 2010/11 when
he revealed that an emeritus professor of medicine was made to examine the
health records of the then governor of Katsina State and he was certified
“healed” following the observation that Yar’Adua was then suffering from a
terminal illness.
“But as Shakespeare said, all the
perfumes of Arabia, cannot wash Obasanjo’s hand clean of the conspiracy to
install Jonathan on the nation since 2007 when a very sick Yar’Adua was imposed
on the nation to pave the way for the emergence of a Jonathan in 2010…,” was
the way a political leader in the North still accused the former president at
the weekend in an interview with The Guardian.
But in the same vein, the same core
North too was accused of imposing Obasanjo on the South West in 1999 when it
was decided by the political class that the South West that lost Bashorun
Moshood Abiola to the June 12, 1993 political struggle be served with the
first shot. “Obasanjo only paid them in their own coin in 2007 if their
allegation was true that he imposed a sick Yar’Adua. They also imposed a
prickly and irascible Obasanjo on us in the South West and indeed the South,”
was the way another elder from the South West responded to the issue at the
weekend in an interview with The Guardian.
The alleged Obasanjo-Jonathan tango
came to the fore last week again when at a presidential media chat, the
President noted that the Obasanjo’s strategy in Odi, Bayelsa State failed to
solve the problem of militants’ insurgency in the area in his (Obasanjo’s
time). This was seen as a direct response to Obasanjo’s remark at a ceremony in
Warri, Delta State where the president’s strategy in handling the Boko Haram
security crisis was reportedly criticised.
Analysts believe that Obasanjo’s
current move to launch a ‘political’ mosque project and his rapid response to
Iwuanyanwu’s invitation is a strategic move to stir up some dust around the
project 2015 he (Obasanjo) has been accused of stepping into through his
protégé, and governor of Jigawa State, Alhaji Sule Lamido who was absent in
Abeokuta last Friday.
Meanwhile, the Governor of Central Bank
of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi in his traditional regalia was in Abeokuta too
last Friday and he donated N5 million to the mosque fund-raiser in his personal
capacity. There are reports that the CBN governor too is a ‘suitable suitor’
for Project 2015, in which President Jonathan is the issue and indeed the man
to beat.