DETAILS: Obasanjo’s important meeting with 5 PDP Governors

President Goodluck Jonathan, who last week bragged through Doyin Okupe that he was a better leader than Olusegun Obasanjo and every other Nigerian leader since independence, on Thursday sent a powerful delegation to the former president to plead support for his understand and forgiveness.

Obasanjo had described Jonathan’s presidency as below “average”, and that the “head” is “rotten”.

And it is becoming increasing clear that Obasanjo, known for his stand against corruption, will give his full support to General Muhammadu Buhari to take over from Jonathan in 2015 through APC.

As soon as this reality dawned on him, Jonathan took a fast action…

He send five PDP governors led by Governor Godswill Akpabio on Thursday to hold a closed-door meeting, which lasted for 3 hours, with Obasanjo at his Hilltop residence in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

Other governors on the trip are the governors of Bauchi, Jigawa, Cross River, and Niger states, Isa Yuguda, Sule Lamido, Liyel Imoke and Babangida Aliyu respectively.

The governors arrived Obasanjo’s residence around 12.30pm and emerged from the inner chamber at exactly 3.30pm.

Briefing journalists after, Obasanjo, said the governors’ visit was not unconnected with nagging issues of the Boko Haram insurgents and the very poor state of the Nigerian economy.

In the words of Obasanjo: “I thank my brothers who have decided to pay me a special visit. They were concerned about what you may call the situation of the nation, the security, and the economy. What we have discussed, most of them I have raised in my own public pronouncement in recent times, not to castigate anybody, not to bad-mouth anybody, not to run anybody down, but out of genuine concern for the situation of this country and that is the same thing that has brought them and I want to thank them.”

The former President noted that the situation in the country currently was bad, but added that it was not totally irretrievable.

He added, “When we look at these issues closely, very objectively and we came to the conclusion that yes, we have a bad situation, but not irretrievably bad. Something can still be done and what is now required is the will and the courage to do something when and how it needs to be done.”

On the economy, especially the slump in oil price, Obasanjo said:

“When we had surplus, we did not remember the rainy day, now that the rainy day is staring us in the face, we must be honest and courageous enough to do what is right, to let the nation know and then to take the steps that will put it right as quickly as possible.

“You do not need to be an oracle or a World Bank expert or an IMF expert to know that our economy is not what it should be and this is not the first time we would hear it, we have heard it in the past.

“When of course I came in 1999, the price of crude oil was about $9 and we realised that we had a problem, we even passed a budget that we could not fund but we realised that we were in a serious situation and we took steps.

“Within two to three years, we were able to sail through, the price of fuel started moving up. Do not forget that there was a time during the Iraqi war, that the price of fuel rose to $42 per barrel and then it came down to $9. The one that we have now, we do not know when it would end but we can weather the storm if we take measure that we should take it and when to take it.”

On his part Akpabio said, “We decided that it is important for us to come and consult with him, as he said pay our respect, discuss the affairs of the nation and then to tap from his wealth of wisdom.

“The intention here is that all Nigerians are determined to re-position the country, we have no other country than Nigeria and so, no matter the challenges we may face today, we must work together as a team to redeem the situation.”

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