President Goodluck
Jonathan paid a secret visit to former Vice President Abubakar Atiku on
Friday night to hold a meeting that lasted till the early hours of
Saturday.
Sources at the Presidency told
SaharaReporters that Mr. Jonathan went to Mr. Atiku’s home with the aim
of persuading the former VP to lead a so called interim government of
national unity that the president has been covertly attempting to sell
to numerous political figures in recent weeks. One source said Mr.
Jonathan and some hawkish members of his inner circle, including
Petroleum Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke, First Lady Patience Jonathan,
Governors Olusegun Mimiko and Ayo Fayose of Ondo and Ekiti
respectively, as well as senior presidential aide Doyin Okupe, have
decided that handing over power to Muhammadu Buhari “is out of the
question.”
Several electoral monitoring groups are
projecting that Mr. Buhari, a retired army general and the presidential
candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), is the odds-on
favorite to win the March 28 presidential election.
When SaharaReporters reached Mr. Atiku,
he expressed surprise that we knew about his meeting with President
Jonathan. He asserted that the idea of his heading an interim government
did not come up during the long discussion with the president.
Mr. Atiku said he had retired to bed
when he was woken up and told that President Jonathan had come to see
him, adding that the president was already waiting in his living room.
After denying that he was asked to head
an interim government, the former vice president admitted that Mr.
Jonathan tried to prevail on him to rejoin the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP). He disclosed that he rejected the invitation outright.
According to Mr. Atiku, the president
also discussed the ongoing war against Boko Haram insurgents, asking for
support for Nigerian troops fighting in the area. He said they also
discussed the possibility of displaced Nigerians returning to the areas
that have been recaptured from Boko Haram.
Asked by our reporter whether he thought
President Jonathan was interested in allowing elections to hold on
March 28, the former vice president hesitated before stating that he
would not wish to speculate, but he said the president’s body language
did not reveal that he was interested in the polls that are scheduled to
hold in two weeks.
The secret meeting between Mr. Jonathan
and former VP Atiku has caused unease among some APC stalwarts. A few
hours after the meeting, a faction of Mr. Atiku’s original political
organization, the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM), announced their
endorsement of President Jonathan.
In his telephone interview with
SaharaReporters, Mr. Atiku disclosed that he was opposed to the
formation of an interim government. He stated that when former military
dictator, Ibrahim Babangida, set up an interim national government in
1993, the dictator offered him a position in the government through the
late General Shehu Yar’Adua (ret.). He said he rejected the position,
adding that it was eventually given to a Lagos politician Dapo Sarumi.
Asked further about the substance of his
conversation with Mr. Jonathan, the former vice president said advised
the president to ensure that the elections were free and fair and devoid
of the bloodshed that trailed the 2011 general elections.
Source – omojuwa.com
No comments:
Post a Comment