Even before it got off the drawing board,
former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s plan to
lead the peace moves in Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) has collapsed.
The meeting of elders to resolve the party’s
crises was slated for today in Abuja.
It was “technically” called off last night at the
Presidency’s prompting, The Nation learnt.
President Goodluck Jonathan, it was said,
advised the elders to shun the meeting,
following intelligence reports that Obasanjo
was behind the crises.
The former President could not be reached last
night.
Among the elders expected at the meeting are
former chairmen and notable leaders.
A pre-meeting session of some governors at
the Rivers State Governor’s Lodge went on for
hours last night.
It was not clear what was discussed, but the
news about the Obasanjo mission may have
been broken.
“All was well, until this evening when we learnt
the President was opposed to Obasanjo
presiding at the meeting,” a source said,
adding: “He believes that Obasanjo is the
architect of the crises; he shouldn’t be called
to settle it and be seen as a peacemaker.”
The meeting slated for next Tuesday will hold.
President Jonathan will preside.
Brickbats continued to fly yesterday amid
shaky efforts to rescue the PDP.
A group loyal to President Jonathan also
accused Obasanjo of being the architect of the
crises. He should call his associates in the
Kawu Baraje faction of the party to order, the
Media Network for Transformation (MNT) said.
The group said Obasanjo could not continue to
be the hand of Esau and the voice of Jacob at
the same time.
In a statement in Abuja, signed by its
Coordinator, Mr. Goodluck Ebelo, the MNT
urged Obasanjo to either renounce his
associates in the New PDP or be treated like
those rated as rebels by the party.
The group said “no arbiter, who is the guiding
light of the rebels can make peace”.
To the President’s camp, Obasanjo is the
unseen hand pulling the string of crises in the
ruling party. There is suspicion in the
Presidency over his peace mission.
Some governors were meeting last night at the
Rivers Governor’s Lodge in Abuja ahead of
today’s meeting.
National Chairman Bamanga Tukur yesterday
described members of the Kawu Baraje faction
as “prodigal sons” who would be accepted back
into the fold, if they retraced their steps.
But the Baraje faction told Tukur that his “time
is up”.
The statement said: “We call on former
President Olusegun Obasanjo to call his
associates to order. Apart from being their
sponsor, the rebel governors draw their
inspiration from him.
“Apart from numerous clandestine meetings,
former President Obasanjo started his public
romance with the rebel flank when he became
unavoidably absent at this year’s Democracy
Day celebration in Abuja, but vigorously
participated in the day’s activities in Dutse,
Jigawa State. That was followed by the rebel
governors’ visit to his Abeokuta home.
“Then came last Saturday, and Chief Obasanjo’s
mischief literarily flew over the Eagle Square
venue of the Special Convention. Unavoidably
absent, again, he was to turn up the next day
in church, at the Presidential Villa, made a few
platitudinous remarks on the need for a
peaceful resolution of the crisis and thereafter
called a meeting . His meeting failed and will
continue to fail.
“Obasanjo cannot continue to be hands of Esau
and the voice of Jacob at the same time. No
arbiter, who is the guiding light of the rebels,
can make peace. Peace, in this matter, will
continue to elude President Obasanjo because
his activities are the very antithesis of the
conditions precedent to peace.”
The group said it suspected that Obasanjo
cannot resolve the crisis in the party with
alleged partisan interest.
The statement added: “Unfortunately, his eight
years in office provides no road map to
resolving a political dispute. All that can be
gleaned from the debris of his time in power
are abuse of institutions of State in shutting
down dissent, hounding political opponents
into prison and forcing a party chairman to
resign …. Little wonder that such baleful legacy
dogs his attempt at making peace.
“President Obasanjo has to come out publicly
to renounce his ties with the seven governors
who are trying to impose their will on the
remaining 29 states and the Federal Capital
Territory or acknowledge them and be treated
like them.”
President Jonathan is yet to speak on his
political future, but MNT said he is free to run
again. It said: “The governors are welcome to
contest the PDP primaries, individually or
present a candidate. That’s democracy. But for
persons, who themselves, stood for elections
for their second terms to demand that Mr.
President cannot avail himself such amenity is
not only rude but feudal.”
Obasanjo’s media aide Vitalis Ortese declined
to comment on the statement credited to the
group last night.
“I cannot speak on what a faceless group is
saying”, he told our reporter on the telephone.
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