Wednesday, 1 January 2014
REVEALED!!! Jonathan visits OBJ @atta farm
Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan
today made an unscheduled visit to his
political mentor and former President,
Olusegun Obasanjo. Mr Jonathan met
Obasanjo playing the popular Yoruba
game of Ayo while he adorned a long
traditional attire, Jalamia. According to
sources who were at the venue of the
meeting, Obasanjo was not expecting the
President
hence he did not tell any of his aides.
President Jonathan was reported to have
told him that he came to pay homage for
the New Year.
He left the venue after discussing some
undisclosed issues with him around
3.35pm
The relationship between the Godfather
and Godson has recently gone soue after
Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan
accused ex-leader Olusegun Obasanjo of
threatening “national security” by
whipping up opposition to his rule.
Mr Obasanjo had “set the stage for
subversion” after making false claims of
assassination plots and “high corruption”
in government, he said.
Mr Jonathan was responding for the first
time to a letter Mr Obasanjo wrote to
him earlier this month.
He had called on the president not to
seek re-election in 2015.
The public spat between the two men
shows the deep divisions that have
engulfed the governing People’s
Democratic Party (PDP), amid fears that
it could lose the election under Mr
Jonathan’s leadership, correspondents
say.
Last week, Mr Jonathan lost his majority
in the lower chamber, the House of
Representatives, after 37 PDP MPs
defected to the opposition All
Progressives Congress (APC) party.
A powerful faction of state governors
have also crossed over to the APC,
leaving the PDP with fewer governors
than the opposition.
In a rebuttal letter to Mr Obasanjo, Mr
Jonathan said his government had taken
effective steps to tackle the myriad
problems that it inherited when it took
office in 2010 – including corruption, oil
theft, kidnappings, armed robberies and
an Islamist-led insurgency.
“It is very regrettable that in your letter,
you seem to place sole responsibility for
the ongoing intrigues and tensions in the
PDP at my doorstep, and going on from
that position, you direct all your appeals
for a resolution at me,” Mr Jonathan
said.
The president said Mr Obasanjo had
accused him of putting more than 1,000
Nigerians on a “political watch list, and
that I am training snipers and other
militia to assassinate people”.
Such allegations were “unconscionable
and untrue” but he had asked the
security agencies and National Human
Rights Commission to investigate them,
he said.
“Baba [father], I don’t know where you
got that from but you do me grave
injustice in not only lending credence to
such baseless rumours, but also
publicising it,” Mr Jonathan added.
The president said Mr Obasanjo had
“surreptitiously” obtained a letter
written by Central Bank governor
Lamido Sanusi, alleging that nearly
$50bn (£30bn) was “unaccounted for” by
the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC).
However, the allegation was “spurious”
and Mr Obasanjo should apologise for
impugning the integrity of the
government, he added.
“In closing, let me state that you have
done me grave injustice with your public
letter in which you wrongfully accused
me of deceit, deception, dishonesty,
incompetence, clannishness, divisiveness
and insincerity, amongst other ills,” he
said.
Mr Jonathan moved from the vice-
presidency to the presidency in 2010
after his predecessor, Umaru Yar’Adua,
died in office.
He won presidential elections the
following year, with the backing of Mr
Obasanjo.
A former military ruler, Mr Obasanjo
won democratic elections in 1999 and
2003 on the platform of the PDP.
He stepped down in 2007, after failing to
win support to change the constitution
so that he could run for a third term.
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