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.
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).
It was 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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