2015: Jonathan, Anenih, Tukur Woo Obasanjo

By: Bayo Oladeji, Chibuzo Ukaibe, George Agba on August 12, 2013 - 5:12am

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President Goodluck Jonathan, Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Board of Trustees Chief Tony Anenih and National Chairman of the party Alhaji Bamanga Tukur have met with former President Olusegun Obasanjo, to seek his support ahead of 2015. This was even as the former president appealed for time to think it over.

Although Jonathan has not made his second term intentions known officially, his body language and the activities of his foot soldiers have continued to indicate that he will seek a second term in office.

Before now Obasanjo, who imposed Jonathan and the late president Umaru Yar’Adua on the nation, had dissociated himself from the second term bid of the president and reportedly reminded him of his promise to spend only one term.

The occasion for the closed door meeting was said to have been the 80th birthday celebration of Anenih which, to the surprise of many, Obasanjo attended.

An informed source told LEADERSHIP that Senator Andy Uba was the middleman between Obasanjo and Anenih who had reportedly asked Uba, the former Senior Special Assistant on Domestic Affairs to Obasanjo, to deliver a special invitation to his former principal who was in faraway Russia.

According to the source, they met after the party and begged Obasanjo to support Jonathan in his attempt to secure a second term.

The source said, “It was Andy who begged Obasanjo to attend the party because Obasanjo is not happy with the way Jonathan is going about his second term ambition. Obasanjo came and you heard Chief Anenih praising Obasanjo for his presence, a sign that he had forgiven those who hurt him.

But shortly after the ceremony, President Jonathan, Obasanjo, Tukur and Anenih met late in the night where they begged Obasanjo; they asked him to forgive President Jonathan and support his second term bid.”

The source disclosed that the former president refused to give his word either in support or against the second term bid of Jonathan: “All attempts made to let him endorse the second term bid of President Jonathan did not work. All he told them was that things have gone wrong but we would see how we could save the situation. He reminded them that 2015 was still far away but very close.”  

The five governors - Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Babangida Aliyu (Niger), Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto) and Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano) - who are at war with Jonathan are believed to be doing the bidding of the former president who was also said to have endorsed the duo of Sule Lamido and Rivers State governor Rotimi Amaechi as his preferred candidates for the 2015 election, barring all unforeseen circumstances.

But in order to douse the tension, Anenih was said to have midwifed a dialogue between Obasanjo and his estranged political son, Jonathan, where the duo of Anenih and Tukur joined Jonathan in begging Obasanjo to reconsider his opposition to Jonathan’s second term bid.

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