The Peoples Democratic Party and the All Progressives Congress have begun what can be described as the last battle to woo former President Olusegun Obasanjo ahead of the presidential primaries. Investigations by our correspondents on Sunday showed that separate meetings the former president held with Senate President, David Mark, and an APC leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, marked the beginning of the last attempt to get Obasanjo’s support ahead of party primaries...
Although the PDP has endorsed President Goodluck Jonathan as its sole presidential candidate, it presidential primary would hold on December 6, 2014. On its part, the APC will choose between former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and an ex-Head of State, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) at its national convention on December 2, 2014.According to the Independent National Electoral Commission, party primaries will hold between October 2 and December 11, 2014.Our correspondents gathered that the meeting with Tinubu, which was also attended by the APC National Vice-Chairman, Segun Oni, centred on what should constitute the interest of the South-West in the forthcoming presidential election.It was gathered the APC leaders specifically solicited the support of the former president for the party.Obasanjo was said to have advised the opposition party to choose a presidential candidate with a clean record.A top APC chieftain in the South-West, who confided in one of our correspondents, said, “The two former governors said that the interest of the South-West should determine the candidate our people should support.
“You will agree that our people have not been fairly treated by the present government at the centre, but Baba in his characteristic frankness advised the APC to choose a candidate with an untainted record.”
It was learnt that the PDP and Jonathan chose Mark to head the reconciliation team because of his closeness to Obasanjo.The former president had on several occasions expressed his opposition to Jonathan’s second term ambition on the grounds that the President in 2011 promised not to re-contest.But a top PDP chieftain, who confided in one of correspondents, said, “The President has not lost hope. He still respects Obasanjo and believes the former president can still support him.”A source, who was part of the team that visited Obasanjo, confided in one of our correspondents, in Abuja on Sunday that Mark’s team arrived Obasanjo’s residence when the retired general was seeing off Tinubu and his team.
No comments :
Post a Comment