Former President Olusegun Obasanjo does not look like a figure that any serious politician can jettison. This proof manifested on Friday when Senate President David Mark and a National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, had separate closed-door meetings with the former President.
The meetings lasted for more than two hours.
Since leaving office Obasanjo has become a rallying point for allies and supposed political foes. Recently, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, also held a closed-door meeting with the former president.
The Friday meetings with Obasanjo held at the former president’s Hilltop residence in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital and at the end, both Mark and Tinubu told journalists that they visited the former president to pay homage and discuss politics and the state of the nation.
Tinubu, who was the first to come out, said he was with Obasanjo to discuss the ambition of some of the president’s former boys for the presidential election in 2015.
In the APC, Muhammadu Buhari and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar have indicated their interest in the exalted position. Both had also earlier held meetings with Obasanjo.
Tinubu said: “we are here to pay homage to our former president and have a number of discussions with him because he has a lot of influence in the political sphere.
“As a good merger, we need to talk, because the merger will serve various branches. It is a very big tree. So, we need to talk, to find out his thinking about Nigeria and the future.
“We need to seek his observation as some of his former boys are running for presidency in our party. What can he say about them?”
In the case of David Mark, the Senate President arrived at the Hilltop residence of Obasanjo at 2pm and left around 3.45pm describing the former President as the father of the nation with a wealth of experience.
David Mark visited Obasanjo with a team including Governor of Delta State, Emmanuel Uduaghan; Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Women Leader, Mrs Josephine Anenih; and Senator Polycarp Nwite, among others saying he was there to discuss with Obasanjo and raise some basic issues that affect both the PDP and the nation at large.
“They are discussions that would move this nation forward, because his passion for this nation is unquantifiable. So we have really had a good discussion with him,” Mark said.
But a source privy to the meeting said the team led by Mark was an emissary from President Goodluck Jonathan to plead with Obasanjo for forgiveness and amicable resolution to the lingering cold war between the former president and Jonathan, who he helped install as president.
The relationship between the duo became frosty soon after Jonathan became the president of the country. This led Obasanjo to resign as the PDP Board of Trustees chairman and further led into a verbal warfare between the two.
Since then too, Obasanjo had stopped attending PDP functions even though he claimed to be a PDP member.
It was learnt that former PDP governors who later defected to the APC had the permission and blessing of Obasanjo.
The source who confided in Huhuonline.com, said the meeting majorly dwelt on Jonathan’s 2015 presidential ambition and how he could be helped to achieve victory. Also discussed, according to the source, was the need for Obasanjo to fully return to the PDP which he helped to build as well as forgive all those who had offended him in the past.
It was learnt that Obasanjo did not have a specific answer for the team but only spoke as an elder statesman.
