Obasanjo Once Again Avoids Reconciliation Meeting With Jonathan

On Friday it seemed that plans for a peace move by the
Peoples Democratic Party and President Goodluck
Jonathan have once again been avoided by former
president Olusegun Obasanjo.
Punch reports that during Jonathan's Friday visit to Ogun
state he had also scheduled to meet the leadership of the PDP.
Obasanjo is said to have got wind of the visit and travelled on
Thursday to Gambia.
It is uncertain if Obasanjo's trip to Gambia was planned or
just on the spur of the moment.
Punch investigations showed that Obasanjo was scheduled to
be part of the closed door meeting Jonathan had with some
Ogun traditional rulers on Friday, but was out of the country.
One aide to Obasanjo said that the major problem the former
president had with Jonathan and the PDP was the promotion
of a chieftain of the party, Buruji Kashamu.
"I can tell you authoritatively that Baba's (Obasanjo)
problem with the President and the PDP is the promotion of
Kashamu," he said.
In 2014, the aide recalled, Obasanjo had written to the PDP
Chairman, Dr Bamanga Tukur, complaining about Kashamu's
membership of the party.
Obasanjo had written that he would cease to be a member of
the party by withdrawing from its activities because Kahamu
had been installed as a party leader.
"I will consider withdrawing my activity with PDP at local,
state, zonal and national levels until the anomalous and
shameful situation is corrected," he had said.
The aide said that rather than try to resolve the issue, the PDP
appointed Kashamu as the chairman of its Mobilisation
Committee in the southwest.
Kashamu recently got the PDP's senatorial ticket for the
Ogun-East Senatorial District.
The Jigawa state governor, Sule Lamido, and the PDP national
chairman, Adamu Mu'azu, had on Wednesday met in Abuja
as part of efforts to convince Obasanjo to return to the ruling
party.
Another presidential aide, who spoke on condition of
anonymity, stated that the former president because of his
annoyance with President Jonathan deliberately decided to
travel out of Abeokuta to avoid meeting him on Friday.
"You can see that he deliberately avoided the President, who
he even almost single-handedly made President. That's not
good enough," he added.
The national publicity secretary of the party, Olisa Metuh said
the party had not foreclosed on reconciliation with the former
president.
Metuh told our correspondent that the party would find a way
of appeasing him.
Metuh said, "The former President remains a revered
member of our party; he is a statesman who led our party to
two victories consecutively.
"Because of our respect for him having been the chairman
of our BoT and a former President, we won't allow him leave
us like that.
"We agree with Lamido that we should not allow him leave
like that. We will do everything within our power to bring
him back.
"We still believe that he would work for our Presidential
candidate and all other candidates of the party during the
forthcoming elections."
Asked how the party would go about it, Metuh merely said
that "we would do everything within our democratic rights to
bring Baba back to the PDP."
Obasanjo on Monday, February 16, left the PDP and told the
party chairman in Ward 11, Abeokuta North, Usman
Oladunjoye, to tear up his membership car