Whatever hopes President Goodluck Jonathan and the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP had of a reconciliation with former President, Olusegun Obasanjo were dashed Monday night, after the meeting the president and his team had with Obasanjo reportedly flopped.
The president had requested for a meeting with the former president at his Abeokuta Hilltop residence, hoping to mend his frosty relationship with his political benefactor.
According to sources at the meeting, President Jonathan and other top leaders of the ruling People’s Democratic Party, PDP felt disappointed with its outcome and may have decided not to push the idea of mending fences with the former leader again.
A source, who was present at the meeting, disclosed that Obasanjo merely accepted to allow Jonathan and other PDP chieftains to visit him as a mark of respect to the office of the President and not to make peace with him.
The source further disclosed that Obasanjo deliberately requested two prominent clergymen, Pastor Enoch Adeboye of Redeemed Christian Church of God and Bishop David Oyedepo of Winners Chapel to be present as witnesses at the meeting to prove the point that it was President Jonathan that actually caused disaffection between them by not sticking to decisions they jointly reached.
Continuing, the source said Obasanjo wouldn’t have granted Jonathan audience because of his recent provocative utterances against prominent Nigerian statesmen, including him Obasanjo, where the president described them as motor park touts but for the office he occupies as president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This, the source said seriously hit the former president in the wrong place.
According to the source, Obasanjo asked those present at the meeting to ask President Jonathan if he had been honest with him and those he had assured he would run for a single term, if they supported him to win the last election.
The source said: “It is true that Obasanjo invited the two clergymen to witness the meeting which he grudgingly accepted to host because of the respect he has for the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He did not want to turn the president and his entourage down since they requested to see him in his house as part of their rally in the state.
“But the truth of the matter is that Baba has not shifted grounds on any issue since he feels that Jonathan has not been fair to him by not adhering to any of the previous agreements reached with him.
“What really irked Baba is the reference by Jonathan to some Nigerian elder statesmen as behaving as ‘motor park touts’ a day before begging him to grant him audience in Abeokuta. The man really felt insulted by such unfortunate outburst from the president of a country.
“There was no need to enter into any peace deal with Jonathan because similar deals done in the past only resulted in more attacks by him and his aides on Baba only for them to come begging for forgiveness once it is close to election.”
Obasanjo and Jonathan with members of the party’s Board of Trustees, BoT had met for about three hours in Abeokuta on Monday trying to settle the differences between the two leaders and get his support for the president’s re-election next month.
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