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JONATHAN MOVES TO RECONCILE WITH OBASANJO
President Goodluck Jonathan has begun moves to reconcile
with former President Olusegun Obasanjo, as a means of ending the rift between
them.
Jonathan and Obasanjo had fallen
apart over the last few months, following critical comments made by Obasanjo
about the government.
In a recent interview on Cable
Network News, the former president criticised Jonathan’s handling of the Boko
Haram insurgency and advised him to initiate a dialogue with the extremist
sect.
Obasanjo told the CNN in the
interview that Jonathan had been applying less of dialogue and more of force in
solving the Boko Haram issue.
But the Presidency, in a reaction to
the ex-President’s submission, said Obasanjo’s position on the Boko Haram issue
had been contradictory.
Both men also disagreed on the choice
of the chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees. While Jonathan rooted for a
former BOT Chairman, Chief Tony Anenih, his predecessor reportedly backed a
former PDP National Chairman, Dr. Ahmadu Ali.
The division between the President
and his predecessor led to a stalemate at the last meeting of BOT members at
the Presidential Villa on January 8.
After a three-hour meeting, BOT
members failed to produce a new chairman of the board as expected.
The meeting was meant to elect a
replacement for Obasanjo who resigned from the position last year for personal
reasons.
The crisis over the BOT chairmanship
also snowballed into moves by governors elected on the platform of the party to
remove the National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, over his alleged meddling
in the politics of Adamawa State PDP and unilateral dissolution of the
executive council of the state chapter.
Matters came to a head when a Federal
High Court in Abuja on January 11 sacked PDP National Secretary, Prince
Olagunsoye Oyinlola.
The national secretary was nominated
by Obasanjo and the governors and his removal was seen as a big blow to the
former president’s control of the party in the South-West.
However, Jonathan made a U-turn on
his rift with Obasanjo when he agreed to reach out to the former president at a
meeting with some former national chairmen of the party on Wednesday evening at
the Presidential Villa.
The former chairmen were said to have
been led to the parley by Tukur.
“The party elders and the President
spoke at length on the ways to resolve the crisis in the party. But one of the
decisions reached was the need for the President to mend fences with former
President Obasanjo.
“They believe that once the two
leaders are together, the tension in the party will be reduced to the barest
minimum,” a PDP leader who attended the meeting said.
In line with the decision, our
correspondent learnt that Jonathan had been prevailed upon to try and attend a
civic reception organised in honour of Obasanjo by the South-West PDP in
Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital on Saturday.
The event, which began on Friday,
would be concluded with a reception on Saturday.
Jonathan travelled to Abidjan, Cote
d’Ivoire on Friday for an Extraordinary Session of the Economic Community of
West African States Authority of Heads of State and Government.
It was also learnt that as part of
the reconciliation, Jonathan may withdraw support for Anenih’s BOT chairmanship
bid.
Although Political Adviser to the
President, Dr. Ahmed Gulak, denied the existence of a rift between both men, he
said Jonathan would not interfere with the selection of a new BOT chairman.
He said the President and members of
his administration had great respect for Obasanjo and regarded him as “a
father.”
Gulak said, “There was never a rift
between the President and Obasanjo over BOT chairmanship. The president will
work with whoever emerges as BOT chairman.”
He said what arose at the BOT meeting
was a constitutional issue over the tenure of some BOT members, insisting that
the relationship between Jonathan and Obasanjo was cordial.
At today’s reception, the national
leadership is expected to meet with some aggrieved members of the South-West
PDP.
Those invited to the meeting apart
from Obasanjo are , PDP National Vice-Chairman (South-West), Mr. Segun Oni;
Chief Bode George; Chief Dapo Sarumi; Prof. Tunde Adeniran; Chief Bode
Olajumoke; and Otunba Oyewole Fashawe.
Others are Alhaji Shuaib Oyedokun;
Chief Ebenezer Babatope; Alhaji Tajudeen Oladipo; Chief Yekeen Adeojo; Chief
Lekan Balogun; Chief Richard Akinjide; Chief Tunji Olurin; and Chief Joju
Fadairo.
Oyinlola and Oni confirmed that they
would be at the reception for Obasanjo as well as the reconciliation parley.
Media aide to Oyinlola, Ayo Olaiya,
who spoke with one of our correspondents on Thursday, in Osogbo, said,
“Oyinlola is already in the South-West. He will be around for the reception for
Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.”
Oni’s media aide, Mr. Lere Olayinka
said, “Segun Oni will be at Abeokuta on Saturday. As per the meeting, it is
natural as the zonal chairman of the PDP that if any meeting is going to be
held in the South-West, he would be invited to such meetings and he will surely
attend.”
Factional leader of the PDP in Ogun
State, Buruji Kashamu, told one of our correspondents that he received an
invitation to the reception for Obasanjo, but warned that nobody could dictate
to his group on its determination to push Oyinlola, Oni and another chieftain,
Bode Mustapha, out of leadership positions in the party.
“They just want to use that reception
ceremony for Obasanjo to try to talk to some people to accept their fate. You
tell me what will they be discussing there?
“Whatever they want to discuss there
is an afterthought. Tukur is an elderly man and an intelligent person and as
the father to all of us, it is normal for him to use that occasion to talk to
some leaders.
“But you will see that some of these
people you think will attend that meeting may not turn up at the end of the
day. May be 80 per cent of them may not come.
“It was not Tukur that removed
Oyinlola. He only followed the rule of law and implemented the order of the
court. So, there is no way he would go there and tell them that the court was
wrong. That is not possible,” Kashamu said.
The party leader also said no member
of the national leadership of the party could reverse the decision of the
court.
“I believe that the problem is not
even about the national body prevailing on us to back down. It is in the
interest of the national body to always show respect for the rule of law.
“Don’t forget, PDP is the largest
party in the whole of Africa and so there is no way they will not have respect
for the rule of law,” he added.
Source: Punch
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