By Jide Ajani

Fresh facts emerged, at the weekend, that former
President Matthew Okikiolakan Aremu Olusegun
Obasanjo is intensifying his opposition to the 2015 re-
election aspiration of incumbent President Goodluck
Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan.
This is at a time when some hawks in the Presidency are
pressing for decisiveness on the part of Mr. President,
with a view to clipping Obasanjo’s wings.
The latest indication about the former President’s moves
are what sources described as the “series of meetings
and consultations between Obasanjo and traditional
rulers in the North”.
A former state governor familiar with the surreptitious
movements of Obasanjo in the last one month told
Sunday Vanguard: “The former president has been
moving round the North under the guise of being a
special guest at functions; but the real reason for his
visits to the North is the series of consultations he is
holding with traditional rulers across the zones – save,
of course, North East geo-political zone where the
dreaded Jamaatu Ahlil Sunna Lidawati wal Jihad,
otherwise known as Boko Haram, holds sway”.
It was learnt that Obasanjo’s latest moves are “with a
view to pacifying the North which heaps on his head all
the blames for the loss of its hold on power as
occasioned by the death of late President Umaru Musa
Yar’Adua, a death which paved the way for the
enthronement of Jonathan as president.
“What Obasanjo has come to realize is that even most
of those he considers his traditional friends and
confidants poke disdain at him for his role in the
imposition of the late Yar’Adua and Jonathan as
presidential candidate and running mate on the
platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in 2007,
and he is very desperate to make it up to ‘his people’”
“The meetings are centred on how best the North can
present a united front against the aspiration of
Jonathan. And because of his vast network of friends
across the country, Obasanjo is cashing all his cheques
because of this project”.
Sunday Vanguard can also report that the off-and-on
relationship between Obasanjo and former military
president, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, has again
engaged the ‘ON’ mode.
“When you see Obasanjo and Babangida coming
together again with their interests coalescing, then you
know something is in the air”, our source said.
Another source – a former presidential aide – that is
very familiar with the scheme, said, “It is not so much
of what Obasanjo wants from the northern traditional
rulers but what the rulers want from him. Yes, I can
confirm to you that he has been all over the place and
he has been holding series of consultations. The agenda
is to work against the 2015 aspiration of President
Jonathan”.
Asked about the rumoured rapprochement between
Obasanjo and his ex-deputy, former Vice President
Atiku Abubakar, the source was emphatic in saying that
“the two have not sat down to meet one on one but
there are behind the scene consultations with a view to
ensuring that happens”.
In addition, Obasanjo is also said to be in consultation
with a few PDP state governors who are very loyal to
him, specifically Sule Lamido of Jigawa State and Rabiu
Musa Kwankwaso of Kano State.
Indeed, sensing this emerging threat, PDP Board of
Trustees, BoT, Chairman, Chief Tony Anenih, launched a
counter offensive.
Already, the BoT Chairman has held talks with Lamido,
Kwankwaso, Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State,
and Governor Mukhtar Yero of Kaduna State, among
others.
His rescue mission is to “ensure that a proper
reconciliation is engendered between the President and
the state governors”, a very dependable source told
Sunday Vanguard.
The talks, which are continuing, are said to be “yielding
very positive results”.
On his part, Jonathan himself held talks with a section of
Yoruba leaders three weeks ago in Lagos.
Sunday Vanguard learnt that the meeting, which had
some elders in the land as well as a very strategic
traditional ruler in attendance, explored ways of
pacifying the S/West geo-political zone which is
increasingly becoming vociferous about its claims of
marginalization under the Jonathan administration.
The Yoruba leaders, who do not appear to be on the
same page with the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN,
or its intended successor party, the All Progressive
Congress, APC, are to hold another round of talks with
the President at a later date.
Interestingly, even as the President patience is being
taxed by Obasanjo’s scheme, some hawks in Aso Rock
Presidential Villa are of the view that the former
President’s wings should be clipped.
A Presidency source told Sunday Vanguard:”It is
because President Jonathan is mild-mannered; if not,
are we not living witnesses to how the former President
deployed state power to haunt those he perceived as
capable of stopping him from achieving his failed Third
Term agenda?
“That he is walking the streets of Nigeria free does not
mean he is a saint, especially the way he’s been
carrying on. Is it not the mess that he created after eight
years in office that this administration is still battling to
clear”?, the Presidency source quipped.

Hiss.

Baba sege on the move, its time for jona boy to earn his bones.