The supremacy battle between President Goodluck Jonathan and former President Olusegun Obasanjo may take another political dimension any moment from now, as the Wadata Plaza of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is weighing suspension option against the former President as a way of silencing him ahead of the 2015 general elections.
A very strong source from the PDP Headquarters in Abeokuta reliably informed BDSUNDAY that neither the Presidency nor the PDP is happy with the manner with which Obasanjo is denting the political image of President Goodluck Jonathan, his political foot soldiers and the entire PDP ahead of the general elections, saying “they believe that the former president’s castigation against the president is a political gimmick to provide soft landing for rival APC.”
The source said that the call to find solutions to “Baba Iyabo subtle move to work with APC and its Presidential candidate when he emerges”, came from the South-west caucus, having informed President Jonathan that “no matter what you do to appease Obasanjo, he will not forgive you and he is never ready to work with and happy for President Jonathan’s re-election.
Earlier on Thursday, five People’s Democratic Party (PDP) governors, including Godswil
Akpabio of Akwa Ibom state and Chairman PDP Governorship Forum; Issa Yuguda of Bauchi state, Mua’zu Babangida Aliu of Niger state, Sule Lamido of Jigawa state and Liyel Imoke of Cross River state had a closed door meeting with Obasanjo to consult and know his minds.
The meeting, another source in Obasanjo’s Hilltop mansion in Abeokuta, told BDSUNDAY that the governors came on the instances of President Jonathan and the Wadata Plaza Headquarters of the PDP in Abuja to mend fences between President Jonathan and the former president having identified APC political romance with Obasanjo in recent times.
But, when the former president finished the 3-hour long closed door meeting with the governors, he told the waiting journalists that: “First of all I thank my colleagues and my brothers who have decided to pay me a special visit. They were concerned about what you may call the situation of the nation: security, economy.
“What we discussed most of them I have raised in my own public pronouncement in recent
times not to castigate anybody, not to bad-mouth anybody, not to run anybody down, but out of genuine concern for the situation of this country and that is the same thing that has brought them and I. I want to thank them.
“When we look at these issues closely, very objectively and we came to the conclusion that Yes we have a bad situation but not irretrievably bad. Something can still be done and what is now required is the Will and the courage to do something when and how it needs to be done.”
Obasanjo added: “I appreciate their coming to me because of the respect and honour they have for me, this task is not for one man and it is not even a task for one group; it is a task that requires all hands on deck and as they have said and as they have assured me that this type of consultation, they would have with other leaders so that this country which is ours and for which we have no alternatives.”
Despite these seemingly political niceties coming from the former president to reveal his stance ahead of 2015 general elections, the BDSUNDAY source from Wadat Plaza was not convinced and he also declared that the PDP was not convinced as they (Presidency and PDP) had only sent the five governors to obtain vital information with which they can fight in the long run.
The source disclosed that Obasanjo’s demands were too many to fulfill and satisfy by President Jonathan let alone anybody in the party, although he declined to share the demands with our correspondent, he however said that part of what the former president told the five governors to do was to extradite Buruji Kashamu, a strong PDP financier and mobiliser in the South-west to where he was alleged to have been convicted for alleged hard drug peddling.
As if Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State was a mouth piece for President Jonathan and PDP, he called for a quick suspension of the former President Olusegun Obasanjo for what he described as “anti-party activities” for publicly scolding President Goodluck Jonathan, adding that “nobody should be treated as being bigger than the party.”
Governor Fayose, who spoke in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti state Friday through Lere Olayinka, special assistant on Public Communications and New Media disclosed that Obasanjo “is already a member of APC and he would not stop using the gimmick of castigating against President Jonathan to campaign for opposition party and nobody can please him since he doesn’t have a forgiven spirit.
“Obasanjo is a man who can never be pleased. His principle of life is; if it is not his way, it must not be another person’s way. Even if President Jonathan gives Obasanjo his blood today, he (Obasanjo) cannot change because he is already neck deep in the APC agenda, with his eyes on the vice presidential ticket of the party.
“Therefore, no amount of visits by PDP governors can make him change his mind about President Jonathan, whom he hates not because he has not performed, but because he (Jonathan) did not hand over his presidency to him”, he said.
According to him, “he wasted billions of naira in his attempt to perpetuate himself in office beyond the constitutionally recognised two-term. Have you ever heard a former president of the United States of America openly abusing a sitting president of the country?
“Does it mean that former USA president, Bill Clinton agrees with all the policies of George W. Bush and the incumbent president, Barack Obama?
He however, assured the party members that President Goodluck Jonthan and PDP will win 2015 elections with landslide across the country, saying “no amount of mudslinging from him will stop President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election.”
Similarly, Buruji Kashamu, the South-west PDP mobiliser and financier, urged President Goodluck Jonathan and entire PDP to forget about any support from the former President what anybody does to appease him as he described as “a man who believes too much in himself and never forgives his fellow human beings no matter what”.
Kashamu, who spoke through his Media Assistant, Austin Oniyokor, wondered why everybody still believes that Obasanjo could contribute to the re-emergence of President Jonathan in 2015 Presidential election after the former President had lost political clout, asking party leaders to consider how the former President and his daughter, Iyabo, were defeated even in his Owu-Abeokuta ward in 2011 elections.
He said: “Obasanjo is just larger than his own image. With or without him President Jonathan will the election in 2015. Those (five PDP governors) that came to him, come for nothing because Obasanjo does not forgive easily, even if the President cuts his head for him.
It should be clear that we don’t need his support; he is just a human being like Kashamu and every other human being.”
RAZAQ AYINLA
