Former President Of Nigeria Olusegun Obasanjo Meets With Duke, Kwankwaso,Agbakoba And 35 Political Parties In Lagos.
Ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo
Eniola Akinkuotu and Femi Makinde
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo; the
immediate past Governor of Kano State, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso and some
political parties have been meeting as part of moves to strategise for
the 2019 elections, The PUNCH has learnt.
In one of such meetings, which held at
Protea Hotel, located at 42/44 Isaac John Street, GRA, Ikeja, Lagos,
Obasanjo was said to have met with 35 political parties under the aegis
of the Coalition for New Nigeria.
Others at the meeting included the
Co-Chairmen of the Nigerian Intervention Movement, Mr. Olisa Agbakoba
(SAN), and Dr. Jhalil Tafawa-Balewa, one of the children of Nigeria’s
post-independence first Prime Minister, Alhaji Tafawa Balewa.
A former Governor of Cross River State,
Donald Duke; a former Governor Osun State, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola;
and a former Special Adviser to Obasanjo, who is the spokesman for the
CNM, Mr. Akin Osuntokun, also attended the strategic meeting.
Some of the political parties
represented at the meeting included the Social Democratic Party, Labour
Party, Alliance for Democracy, Democratic People’s Congress, Action
Alliance, Progressives People’s Alliance, Democratic Alternative and
National Conscience Party.
Others, who attended the Lagos meeting,
were Mr. Kenneth Udete, who represented Action Alliance Party; and Mr.
Okey Chukwuendu, who represented the All Grand Alliance Party.
A source, who attended the meeting, told
our correspondent that Obasanjo emphasised the need to work together
ahead of the 2019 general elections.
The source, who is close to Obasanjo, told SUNDAY PUNCH
that the coming together of the various interest groups and individuals
had become necessary as that was seen as the only way to defeat the
ruling All Progressives Congress in the 2019 elections.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the
source said, “The meeting was summoned by Obasanjo. He noted that both
the APC and the Peoples Democratic Party have failed Nigeria and there
is a need to come together. He said his association, Coalition for
Nigeria Movement, and the NIM should form a merger.”
When asked why Kwankwaso was invited to
the meeting despite being a member of the ruling APC, the source noted
that Kwankwaso had always been an Obasanjo loyalist.
“Have you forgotten that Kwankwaso was
appointed the Minister of Defence by President Obasanjo in 2003? The
former governor was not invited because of his ties with the APC but
because he also has a huge movement known as the Kwankwasiya in Kano and
its environs. Kano is a very strategic state,” the source, a top member
of one of the groups, stated.
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“The meeting is not just a political one but an attempt to come up with a unified ideology and strategy for 2019.”
The source explained that Obasanjo
stressed the need for the parties present to prove to Nigerians that
they were different from the APC and the PDP, saying Nigerians were
tired of the two parties.
When asked why the meeting was kept
secret for so long, the source said Obasanjo insisted that such
strategic sessions remained clandestine.
When contacted on the telephone on Saturday, Agbakoba confirmed the meetings with Obasanjo.
Agbakoba, who is a co-chairman of the NIM, said the meetings would continue to hold.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria stated,
“What I can say is yes, that is true. We are exploring the option of
working together and those conversations are still ongoing and we have a
mutually-agreed agenda that we will have to make an impact in 2019.
“And that we will not be supporting the
APC or the PDP. We have agreed on that but we have not agreed on who the
candidate would be and other minute details.”
When asked if the presence of old
politicians like Kwankwaso and Oyinlola in the meetings would not
undermine the quest for change, Agbakoba said NIM would be circumspect.
The former President of the Nigerian Bar
Association, added, “I can confirm that Kwankwaso was there and
Oyinlola was there, but for us, our concern is that Nigerians need to
see a new political plan and we told them in clear terms that if we are
to work together, it would present a challenge if the Nigerian voting
population see the same old people and then there would be no change.
So, that’s where we are.
“It will be difficult in my view for us
to be supporting the same old people who left the PDP and went to the
APC to come and join us. It will be very difficult.”
Attempts to get a response from Kwankwaso about the meetings were futile.
Calls to the mobile of his spokesperson,
Rabiu Bichi, were not returned while a response to a text message sent
to him on the subject was still being awaited as of the time of filing
this report on Saturday night.
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Attempts to speak with Osuntokun proved
abortive as he neither returned calls to his mobile on Saturday nor
responded to a text message sent to his telephone.
Efforts to get Oyinlola to speak on this
were unsuccessful. Calls to the former governor’s phone rang out
several times while he had yet to respond to the text message sent to
him on the same issue as of the time of filing this report.
For reference,read the Punch Newspaper of 18th March 2018.
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