Obasanjo, Jonathan Meet Behind Closed Door For Three Hours

Jonathan and Obasanjo 

 Former presidents, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, yesterday met behind closedoors. The meeting, which held at the Ibogun-Olaogun country home of Obasanjo in Ifo Local Government Area of Ogun State, lasted about three hours.


Jonathan also used the occasion to tour the village, to the excitement of Obasanjo’s kinsmen. The immediate past president, who arrived aboard a chopper about 12 noon, was accompanied by a former Minister of Special Duties, Alhaji Kabiru Turaki (SAN), and some close aides.

The parley, though regarded as a private one, saw the two former Nigerian leaders meeting behind closed-doors for about one and half hours.

After emerging from the meeting, they exchanged banters and interacted freely and later entered for another closed-door meeting that lasted about two hours.

The duo eventually embarked on a tour of the neighbourhood amid cheers and admiration of community leaders and residents.

In a brief remark, Obasanjo extolled the virtues of Jonathan and lauded his several diplomatic and international engagements since quitting power. Obasanjo charged political leaders to learn from the exemplary leadership style of himself and Jonathan.

The former president, who said God did not make mistake by creating Nigeria, noted that leaders that left office “gracefully” have residual responsibilities for the country.

He said: “The first point I want to make is to thank you very sincerely and most sincerely for taking it upon yourself to pay us a visit at this point in time and at this location.

“Secondly, since you left office, you hardly have time to sit down and relax like you have been able to do today (yesterday) and I sincerely hope and pray for more such relaxed situation where we can reminiscence situations of the past that we have been through in this country and we can also look at what the future portends.

“When leaders come, they have little or no experience. When they have to go is when they have really amassed a lot of experience, where they have wisdom; they are experienced to be in high demand.

“Those like you and me who have the grace of God to bow out gracefully, if there is no what I call ‘constitutional office,’ we have residual responsibilities for Nigeria.

“I believe that not only N igeria, West Africa and Africa and indeed the world will continue to tap into our experiences, our wisdom and I hope and pray that when the call is made, you will be more than ready to put your experience, the lessons you have learnt into the service of this country, for Africa and indeed for humanity in general.

“I have said to you before and I will say again that there are plenty of opportunities out there, within the country, within West Africa, within Africa and indeed in the larger world, where people will want you to make contributions.

“I believe that you are resting now and when you have fully rested, you will be hearing from me because I have this opportunity to be around the world and if I mention your name in dispatch.

“I thank you sincerely that you have received us as we are in this village to prove to you that we are in a typical village, I was telling you that your village is better than mine.

“I want to say that Nigeria is a good country and we must never be tired of lifting the country up to the height that God has created it to be and God did not make a mistake when he put all of us together.

And if He doesn’t want us to be together, no power in the world will have made us come together.” Jonathan, who was all smiles as Obasanjo enthused, declined to speak publicly but beckoned on Turaki to comment on behalf of the visitors.