President Goodluck Jonathan is billed to meet governors of five northern states who paid a surprise visit to former President Olusegun Obasanjo less than a week ago.
Also scheduled to be part of tonight’s meeting is the embattled governor of Rivers State, Hon. Chibuike Amaechi.
Pointblanknews.com gathered that chairman of the Northern States Governors’ Forum, Dr. Babangida Aliyu was scheduled to lead Governors Rabi’u Musa Kwakwanso, and Sule Lamido of Kano and Jigawa States to visit Jonathan.
Other governors expected at the meeting are Aliyu Wamakko, and Murtala Nyako of Sokoto and Adamawa States respectively. The venue is the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Presidency sources told Pointblanknews.com that tonight’s meeting may have come on the heels of advice from Obasanjo for Jonathan to dialogue with the ‘rebel’ governors.
Jonathan and Obasanjo had last weekend met in the later’s Abeokuta home. The President later told reporters that he was like a son to Obasanjo.
Presidency sources offered that Obasanjo’s meeting with Jonathan, and then with the five governors, may have laid the foundation for tonight’s meeting.
Tonight’s meeting, it was gathered, would dwell on how to resolve the mounting crisis of confidence between Jonathan and the governors.
Obasanjo, whose relationship with Jonathan has been frosty, has, on the other hand, overtly drummed support for Lamido, who served as Foreign Affairs minister under him.
The five governors have also been the vanguard of opposition to Jonathan’s re-election bid in 2015, and spearheaded the rejection of Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau as chairman of Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF).
The governors had supported Amaechi against Jang, believed to enjoy the support of the president.
Shortly after the leadership crisis in the Rivers State legislature, the five governors had attempted to pay a solidarity visit to Amaechi, but were stopped in their tracks by hundreds of demonstrators who prevented their aircraft from landing at the Port Harcourt airport.
The governors, Pointblanknews.com also gathered, plan to visit second republic president, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, Saturday in Sokoto.
There are also reported plans to take their crusade to a former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon.