Former President Olusegun Obasanjo and President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday met behind closed doors in the Intercontinental Hotel, Nairobi, Kenya.
The meeting held less than 24 hours after an 18-page letter Obasanjo sent to Jonathan went public.
Both leaders were in Nairobi for Kenya’s 50th independence anniversary which was held inside the Safaricom Stadium.
The former President had in the letter accused Jonathan of condoning corruption and engaging in acts that were capable of destroying the country.
Before the event, Obasanjo had made an appearance at Jonathan’s hotel on a day the media were awash with the letter titled “Before it is too late.”
The former President’s arrival was said to have been heralded by the surprise visit to Jonathan by Obasanjo’s daughter identified simply as Funke.
A source told The PUNCH that a few minutes after that, Obasanjo arrived to the surprise of Jonathan’s aides.
The source added that the ex-President, in his usual humorous manner, said, “Mr. President, I have come to pay homage.”
According to him, they talked briefly over breakfast after which Obasanjo jokingly said, “Mr. President, permission to go ahead of you.”
Our source said Jonathan replied with “Permission granted,” amidst laughter by the two of them and their aides.
But The PUNCH learnt in Abuja on Thursday that the Presidency and the Peoples Democratic Party were already planning a counter offensive against Obasanjo.
Some of the aides of the President, headed by his Chief of Staff, Chief Mike Ogiadomhe, met at the Presidential Villa with Vice-President Namadi Sambo, the Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, the Minister of Transport, Senator Idris Umar; and the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh.
The other aides in attendance at the meeting which took place in Sambo’s office were the Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Mr. Ahmed Gulak; the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe; the Senior Special Assistant to the Vice-President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Umar Sani.
Sambo, Maku and Umar later left others to attend a scheduled meeting inside one of the conference halls in the vice-president’s office while others moved to Oghiadomhe’s office to continue their consultation.
A source privy to the meeting told one of our correspondents that they discussed how best the Presidency would respond to Obasanjo’s letter.
It was gathered that the meeting by the presidential aide was approved by Jonathan, who, according to our source, was rattled by the publication of the letter by the media.
They also discussed the way to handle the backlash arising from the letter and how to reach out to those that Obasanjo sent copies of the letter to.
The former President had copied two former Heads of State, Generals Abdulsalami Abubakar and Ibrahim Babangida.
He also copied former Vice-President Alex Ekwueme and a former Minister of Defence, Lt.-Gen. Theophilus Danjuma.
One of the decisions reached at the meeting was that “a high-powered” delegation be sent to Abubakar, Babangida, Ekwueme and Danjuma to explain Jonathan’s angle to the issues raised by Obasanjo.
It was gathered that the team would leave for Minna, Niger State “soon,” to meet with Abubakar and Babangida.
Our source said there were reports that Babangida was also planning to write his own letter to the President, asking him to forget his second term ambition.
The source said, “The two meetings are aimed at dousing tension created by Obasanjo’s letter.
“We will meet those he copied in his letter and explain our points to them before deciding on the next line of action. We know the security and political implications of the letter. So, we don’t have to leave anything to chance.”
The source added that the President might personally reply Obasanjo in writing.
He said, “Chief Obasanjo has said that the President refused to reply his earlier letters. He will get his reply this time round. When the President said he would personally respond to the charges, he did not mean that he would address a press conference for instance. What he will do is to write the former President.”
When asked if the President’s letter would be made public, he replied , “When we reach that bridge, we will cross it. For now, the response is still being compiled.”
Shortly after the meeting , Sambo also met behind closed doors with the Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees, Chief Tony Anenih.
At the end of the meeting, Anenih, who refused to speak with journalists, also had discussions with the National Chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur.
Mixed reactions have however continued to trail the letter in which Obasanjo lashed out at Jonathan for acts capable of destroying the country.
Those who reacted on Thursday were a Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, the All Progressives Congress, the Northern Elders Forum, the Coalition of Northern Politicians, Academics, Professionals and Businessmen, the Ijaw Youth Council and the United Action for Democracy.
While Abubakar called on the two former Heads of State, Ekwueme and Danjuma to speak up now on the letter, the APC, CNPAPB A, the NEF and the UAD cautioned the Jonathan administration against treating issues raised by the ex- President with levity.
But the IYC chided Obasanjo, claiming that his anti-Jonathan posture was capable of putting the nation on the precipice.
Although Abubakar said he was not competent to speak on the letter, he however insisted that it was expedient for Nigerian leaders to intervene and reduce the tension created by Obasanjo’s weighty allegations.
In a statement issued by his media office in Abuja, the ex-vice-president said like every other Nigerian, he felt the allegations were too disturbing to be treated with apathy by any political stakeholder.
He said at a moment of national anxiety or uncertainty, leaders across the country should rise to the occasion and reassure their citizens about the future.
Abubakar said, “Our priorities for Nigeria are forging lasting solutions to our chronic unemployment, providing safety and security for all, and vastly improving our failing education systems. President Jonathan’s government has consistently failed to address these critical concerns.
“That said, it is on record that I have firmly fought for a democracy where the voters choose their future leaders, not political party bosses.
“If the incumbent President insists on continuing to destroy his own party with vindictive internal wars and thinks his record of rising youth unemployment, never-ending violence, corruption and scandals is worthy of another term, then he is welcome to run. We are confident Nigerians will exercise their democratic right to choose new leadership in 2015.”
He agreed that the President was free to run his government without interference, but said sometimes even sitting Presidents needed outside constructive interventions to move their countries forward.
The APC said it agreed with Obasanjo’s call on Jonathan not to allow personal and partisan considerations blot out his responsibility as the father of the nation.
The position of the APC was contained in a statement by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.
In reference to happenings in Rivers State, for which Obasanjo also berated Jonathan, the APC said it had resolved not to sit by and allow anyone make the nation a laughing stock in the comity of nations.
The statement reads in part: “We are aware of the letter to President Jonathan by former President Obasanjo, virtually accusing the President of destroying the same nation he was elected to preside over and uplift.
“We hope he will not allow Obasanjo’s prognosis about him to come true so soon by backing any move that can plunge Nigeria into chaos.
“This is because, we in the APC, have resolved never to sit by and allow anyone, no matter how highly placed, to engage in actions that will make our country a laughing stock and a pariah in the comity of nations.”
The APC said there would be no peace anywhere in the country if the Federal Government supported the perpetration of impunity in Rivers State.
This, it said was not a threat, “but the sure consequences of any acts of impunity.”
Speaking in a similar vein, the Convener of the CNPAPB, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, said Obasanjo’s letter raised a number of serious issues that could not be ignored.
He said claims that the Presidency was plotting to set up “a killer squad” was particularly worrisome considering the nation’s sad history of unresolved assassinations.
Mohammed said, “This, to me is very serious and given the way the government has been behaving from the time Jonathan came to power in an acting capacity, the way and manner he, INEC and others, were complicit in rigging the election. I, as a Nigerian, has to be worried.
“It is a known fact that a new think tank has been created and is being massively funded. Nigerians ought to be worried; we had random extra-judicial killings which became the norm of the government of the day.
“As I can recall, most of the people killed have been unaccounted for.
Most of the people who were alleged to have done it or were accessories have been freed.
“The idea that we are going back to the era where for example, Kudirat Abiola was assassinated in broad daylight, a time where the late Alex Ibru, got a snipers bullet in the head; he never was the same until he died of another ailment.”
Also, the UAD agreed with Obasanjo’s claim that corruption had been institutionalised in the country.
The group, which is made up of more than 46 civil society groups, also said it would be wrong to insulate the National Assembly from the corruption bazaar in the country.
It said corruption was being used as a patronage mechanism of the ruling elite.
The National Convener of the UAD, Mr. Baba Aye, spoke on behalf of other leaders of the group at a news conference in Abuja on Thursday.
Those present at the briefing were the Deputy National Convener, Abdul Yusuf; the General Secretary, Zulu Ofoelue; the National Treasurer, Jide Afolabi; and the National Publicity, Styvn Obodoekwe.
Aye said, “The UAD notes that corruption has remained institutionalised in Nigeria as a patronage mechanism of the ruling elite to foster their control over the economy and polity.
“With the recent rating of Nigeria as the 33rd most corrupt country in the world by the Transparency International, the brazen faces of corruption continue to disrupt national development.”
He stated that it was particularly worrisome that there was surreptitious sharpening of the teeth of state terrorism going on in the country.
“We regard these allegations with utmost seriousness, and demand an urgent verifiable response from the Presidency,” Aye said.
On its part, the NEF said even though Obasanjo said nothing new, he should be given credit for his comment on Jonathan administration.
Its spokesman, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, said, “This is from the horse’s mouth, if I had said this three weeks ago they would have said, Ango has been in opposition all his life but this is the man I opposed. I opposed Obasanjo, he was my friend. We parted ways in 2003.
“Here is the man who brought this man (Jonathan) to us (North), he was the one who did the mago, mago(trick) for Umaru Yar’Adua, he did the mago, mago for Jonathan.
“Now that he has at least been honest enough to speak out about the fact that, there was a one-term agreement and all of the issues he has raised in his letter, we should take him as an authority on the issue.”
The NEF spokesman also said there was no denying the fact that the nation was on its knees hence the need for all men of goodwill to abandon their ethno-religious differences and work towards rescuing the nation.
But the IYC accused Obasanjo of heating up the polity unnecessarily.
President of the IYC, Udengs Eradiri, who addressed journalists in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, asked Obansajo to look inwards before making spurious comments.
He said it was unfortunate that Obasanjo associated Jonathan with violence and purported training of goons like late General Sani Abacha reportedly did.
He added that it was not in the character of Ijaw people to take delight in killing people.
Eradiri said Obasanjo’s letter was suggestive of ill-feelings, stressing that he was engaging in the proverbial ‘pull-him-down syndrome’ because the President had unbeatable record of achievements.
He said, “In this country, leaders who see that others will surpass them will decide to drag them down and is that is what is playing out in the case of Obasanjo’s letter to Jonathan.
“The achievements that Jonathan has put on the table will be difficult for any other President to surpass in the country. But he is a man who does not know how to blow his trumpet.”.
Credit: Punch
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