During last week’s meeting between former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the new national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, the ex-president was very blunt.
LEADERSHIP Weekend learnt that Obasanjo told Mu’azu that any move to make him active in the PDP and work with President Goodluck Jonathan must begin with making the president and the ruling party address the prevailing injustice in the polity, as reflected in the letters he wrote to President Jonathan and Mua’zu’s predecessor, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur.
As part of his efforts to reconcile the PDP with its aggrieved leaders, Mua’zu visited Obasanjo in his Abeokuta home where he sought his support and asked him to end his feud with President Jonathan because he was a stakeholder whom the party needs to forge ahead.
Also yesterday, Mua’zu took his peace overtures to former military president Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) in Minna, Niger State, where they had a closed-door meeting for one hour.
Mua’zu arrived in Babangida’s home at 12:05pm and had a chat with former House of Representatives speaker Ghali Umar Na’abba, PDP national youth leader Abdullahi Mai-Basira and some executive members of the party who were on his entourage before the meeting started.
An impeccable source close to Obasanjo told our correspondent that the former president, while responding to Mua’zu’s appeal, told him to go and address all the issues he raised in his letters to President Jonathan and Tukur.
The source said: “The meeting Baba (Obasanjo) had with the party chairman was very brief because he simply asked him to go and address every issue he had raised in the letter he wrote to Jonathan and the one he wrote to Tukur. He told him that instead of addressing the issues he raised, some supporters and aides of President Jonathan were calling him all sorts of names while the security agencies were threatening to arrest him because Jonathan accused him of committing treasonable offence for saying the truth.”
When asked of the specific peace terms Obasanjo gave to Mua’zu, the source said they were the same issues he raised in his two letters which are well-known since they were publicised by the media. “What is left for the new chairman was to do what Tukur had failed to do. What details do you need again? The two letters were published by the newspapers and news magazines; they are also on the internet. All that Mua’zu should do, if truly he wants Obasanjo back in the party, is to do what the former chairman could not do for whatever reasons. You know how Tukur removed (Prince Olagunsoye) Oyinlola as the PDP national secretary, despite the Court of Appeal ruling; Segun Oni was removed as the national vice chairman of the party in the southwest and the national auditor (Bode Mustapha) was also sacked. These people should be returned to their offices and the man who is wanted in the United States (Kashamu) should be asked to go and clear his name in America. Until all these issues are addressed, all those emissaries from Jonathan are just wasting their time,” he said.
Another PDP bigwig in the southwest advised Mua’zu to keep away from the controversial Buruji Kashamu, if he wanted the mainstream PDP in the zone to support President Jonathan. He also advised the president to personally meet with Obasanjo before declaring his second term ambition.
“The Board of Trustees of our great party is in support of his visit to Baba Obasanjo. It was a good step in the right direction, but if he is sincerely interested in having him back into the party, Mua’zu should not have anything to do with Kashamu as demanded by the former president. He should instead advise President Jonathan to send the man back to US to defend himself. Then the president should personally meet with Obasanjo and resolve the issue of his second term before telling the whole world about it if he wants Obasanjo to campaign for him,” he said.
In Minna, five minutes after he interacted with his team, Mua’zu went into closed-door meeting with Babangida till 1:05pm. No member of the 15-man team led by Mua’zu participated in the secret meeting.
Maibasira, Na’abba and the state PDP acting chairman, Tanko Beji, waited in the second chamber to allow the duo have a private session.
When the meeting ended, Babangida refused to talk to journalists. He simply said, “I am not going to say a word. I am not talking.”
When pressed to speak on the parley, Babangida replied that it was his constitutional right not to talk. Jokingly, he declared, “If you are not satisfied, you can sue me.”
Commenting on the meeting, Mua’zu said it was part of his reconciliatory move and in continuation of his meeting with some elders of the PDP across the country.
He said, “I am here in continuation of my visit to our elders and I had a fruitful meeting with the former president. It was a fruitful meeting.”
Asked on the issues they discussed, he said, “What we discussed is not meant for public consumption. All I can say is that we had a fruitful deliberation.”
After leaving Babangida’s house, Mua’zu’s convoy headed for the private residence of Niger State governor Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu along Peter Sarki Road in Tunga at 1:19 pm. He departed at 1:40pm.
When he was contacted on phone last night on the position of Obasanjo, Mua’zu did not pick the call nor respond to a text message sent by our correspondent.
The text message reads: “Sir, we gathered that former president Obasanjo gave the condition that you stop the misrule of President Jonathan and PDP before he can fully participate in the affairs of the party. Does this reflect the true position of your meeting with him?”
Mua’zu will bring back defected govs – PDP Chief
Meanwhile, a chieftain of the PDP in Rivers State, Opunabo Captain-Briggs, is optimistic that the current reconciliatory effort of Mua’zu will bring back Rivers State governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and four other governors who defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the ruling party.
The governors who defected with Amaechi to the APC are Ahaji Ahmed Abdulfatai (Kwara), Dr Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso (Kano), Aliyu Magatakarda Wammako (Sokoto) and Murtala Nyako (Adamawa).
Captain-Briggs told journalists in Port Harcourt yesterday that he believed that apart from the five governors, Mua’zu would also reconcile other aggrieved members of the party across the country.
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