Elder statesmen across the country have concluded plans to mediate in the seeming rift between President Goodluck Jonathan and his political godfather, former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Saturday Newswatch gathered that some of the ‘mediators’ plan to meet in Kaduna tomorrow, to prepare the ground for an enlarged meeting in Abuja, scheduled for next week.
Among the leaders said to be involved in the mediation are former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, Second Republic President, Alhaji Shehu Shagari and head of the Interim National Government, Chief Ernest Shonekan.
Also this weekend, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), would be meeting to elect a new leader and take a critical look at the nation’s polity as it affects the northern region. A former Inspector General of Police is tipped to emerge as its consensus candidate.
Obasanjo had in a letter to President Jonathan on December 2, x-rayed the state of the nation and concluded that all was not well with the running of government, an action that elicited a reply full of bile and a dint of threat from the President who on December 24, dragged the former president to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), and the anti-graft agencies.
Not done yet, the President, in his Christmas Church service message, again, took on his predecessor, warning that: “for us at this time, especially we the politicians, that we think we own this country, to begin to think about next election and doing what we ought not to do, making statements we ought not to make, writing letters we supposed not to write…”
It was gathered that the conveners of the meeting were worried that the altercation between the two leaders was capable of overheating the already charged political atmosphere.
In addition, they were said to have reasoned that the exchanges from both sides have to do with ego and that efforts should be made to prevent a recurrence of what happened between Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Chief Ladoke Akintola, which led to the crisis in the South-west in the first republic.
Saturday Newswatch gathered that one of the elder statesmen, who is mutually respected by both Jonathan and Obasanjo, may have been contacted to speak to both men not to make further comments on the letter.
It was also gathered that some powerful forces within the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may have given a ranking Senator from the Middle Belt the go ahead and ‘oil’ his political machinery in preparation for the 2015 general elections.
The Senator’s posters were seen in some parts of Abuja and neighbouring states recently, although the federal lawmaker disclaimed it, saying he was not nursing any presidential ambition.
The All Progressives Congress (APC), the leading opposition party in the country, had on Thursday in a statement issued in Lagos accused Jonathan of desecrating the office of the President by allowing himself to be drawn into exchange of words with Obasanjo.
Daily Newswatch