Former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday played host to President Goodluck Jonathan as well as four northern governors of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who paid separate visits to him at his Presidential Boulevard Oke-Mosan residence in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
Mr. Jonathan, who was the first to visit at about 11:30am, left around 1:30pm.
Though details of the meeting was kept away from the media as the gates to the former president’s mansion was shut to unwanted visitors and security tightened as soon as Mr. Jonathan’s convoy pulled into the expansive compound, it may not be unconnected with the current crisis in the PDP ahead of the 2015 elections.
Mr. Jonathan and Obasanjo have purportedly been at each other’s throat over party structures and control with the latter tendering his resignation as chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT) but the President insisted yesterday that the Ota farmer remains his father and the visit was far from any fence-mending between them.
Speaking at the Asero Estate residence of his spokesman, Dr Reuben Abati whose mother was buried in the state capital on Friday, the President said, “You should know that I must branch at his (Obasanjo’s) house when I’m in Abeokuta.
“Obasanjo is my father and I’m his son. If I enter Abeokuta and fail to check on Baba at his residence, you people will think that there’s a fight between us. There’s nothing like it. Moreover, the distance between Baba’s house and that of Abati is less than 10 kilometres”, Mr. Jonathan told reporters, who were curious to know the purpose of his visit to the former president.
President Jonathan, who was accompanied by the Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, former Senator, Mrs. Grace Folashade Bent and other personalities, did not stay long at the Abati’s residence as he departed about 30 minutes after his arrival.
Mr. Jonathan, who signed the condolence register on the death of Madam Taiwo Abati said, “Here I am in Abeokuta to commiserate with my brother, Abati; he is a family member because all of us are family at the State House.
“I was to be here yesterday but I was away in Togo. Most of the senior staff that are supposed to be there with him were with me. So I think it is normal for me to come and greet him today”, the president explained.
