Obasanjo Restates Commitment To Nigeria At Meeting With APC As Tinubu Urges Fmr President To Lead Rescue Mission
A high-powered delegation of All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders,
who visited former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Saturday at his
hill-top mansion in Abeaokuta, Ogun State, were given a warm reception
as the former president openly threw his weight behind the party.
It was learnt that the APC leaders at the meeting pleaded with Mr.
Obasanjo for his support of the party in the 2015 general elections.
The visitors started arriving at Obasanjo’s expansive mansion around 5:22pm.
A former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, led APC leaders,
including the party’s Interim National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande;
former Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari; former speaker of the
House of Representatives, Aminu Masari; former Borno State governor,
Senator Ali Modu-Sheriff; Senator Osita Isunazor; Senator Bukola Saraki;
and APC Interim National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed to
the meeting.
Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State, former Chairman of the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commissioin (EFCC) and one-time
presidential candidate, Malam Nuhu Ribadu; the former minister of
aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode and others were driven into the former
president’s compound in a convoy of three black jeeps.
Other APC governors at the meeting included Rochas Okorocha (Imo),
Ibikunle Amosun (Ogun), Abdulfattah Ahmed (Kwara), Rabiu Kwankwaso
(Kano), Senator Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo), Babatunde Fashola (Lagos) and
Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers), who drove himself to venue of the meeting with
former FCT Minister, Malam Nasir el-Rufai in the passenger’s seat.
The former Chairman of the defunct New PDP, Kawu Baraje led some of
his members including the former Kaduna State Chairman of the
faction, Yero Makama, to the meeting.
Presenting the party chieftains and the APC governors to Obasanjo
during the opening of the meeting, Akande said the party was in support
of the former president’s 18-page letter to President Goodluck Jonathan.
The APC National Leader, Tinubu, who during his tenure as governor of
Lagos State, was constantly locked in a battle of wits with then
President Obasanjo, alluded to the former president’s contribution to
nation building, but lamented that the country was divided more than
ever.
In seeming reference to Mr. Obasanjo’s recent scathing letter to Mr.
Jonathan, Tinubu urged the former president not to shy away from
speaking the truth.
Tinubu added that the APC had resolved to rescue Nigeria and appealed to Obasanjo to lead the mission.
“You’ve come out of tribulation and held the highest position in this
country. We are here because of your courage. Nobody can say he has
information more than you. You have surmounted a number of crises.
Nigeria is divided more than before; to realise stable Nigeria, we want
to encourage you to continue to speak the truth. We’re resolved and
determined to rescue Nigeria. We want you as navigator”, he said.
In his response, Obasanjo, who stressed that he remained a
card-carrying member of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP,
described himself as an “incurable optimist” totally committed to
Nigeria’s well-being.
He said, “I am a card carrying member of the PDP but the politics I
play traverses Nigeria, Africa and world in that order. I am a democrat
and one of the essential ingredients of democracy is opposition. A
democracy that has no opposition built into it is not democracy.
“As an opposition, you are enhancing democracy. You are at home, you
are welcome. I will just appeal that the politics you play is politics
without rancour, without bitterness, with decency, that has Nigeria at
heart. I am an incurable optimist about Nigeria, I am totally committed
to Nigeria and nothing will divert me from that commitment”.
At the end of their two-hour meeting, Tinubu, in a parley with
reporters, denied that the APC had come to woo the former president to
join its fold.
“It is to be able to set Nigeria on the right path and for all men of
goodwill to come together to rescue Nigeria. It is not a matter of
wooing (him), an elder statesman”, he said.
Tinubu added: “Yes, he is a very unique person in his own way based
upon the experience of life, tribulations one way or the other; he saw
power, tribulations and then back to power. If you want to grasp the
life of this man from zero to grace, zero again and then to grace. And
then you will see what you get in such a person.
“And you will need that wisdom not necessarily to join our partisan
politics, but just to draw from the experience of an elder statesman”.
Shedding more light on what transpired at the meeting, Fani-Kayode, a
staunch supporter of the former president, said that he [Obasanjo],
embraced the APC.
According to him, “The ex-president told us that APC has taken the
first step in the right direction towards making Nigeria great. It was
an excellent meeting”.
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