Jonathan Phones Obasanjo, Begs To Reconsider Decision

President Goodluck Jonathan has
telephoned former President Olusegun
Obasanjo to deny responsibility for
promoting a controversial member of
his
Peoples Democratic Party, Buruji
Kashamu, as an influential party
leader in
the south-west geo-political zone, a
development that has infuriated Mr.
Obasanjo, sources close to the former
president said Saturday.
Mr. Obasanjo was travelling in Addis
Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, at the
time
of the conversation with Mr. Jonathan,
those familiar with the matter said.
Usually reliable presidency sources
said
Mr. Jonathan hurriedly called Mr.
Obasanjo on Thursday shortly after he
received the former president’s latest
letter informing him and the PDP
National
Chairman, Bamanga Tukur, that he
was
suspending participation in party
activities for as long as the ruling
party
continued to treat Mr. Kashamu,
believed
to be a fugitive, with reverence.
Our sources said during the telephone
exchanges, Mr. Jonathan appealed to
Mr.
Obasanjo to reconsider his decision to
suspend himself from the party, saying
he
would personally prevail on Mr. Tukur
to
stop fraternizing with Mr. Kashamu
and
imposing him on the South-West PDP
as
a rallying point.
The president, according to our
sources,
told Mr. Obasanjo that he had never
met
Mr. Kashamu and had never instructed
anyone to accord the controversial
Ogun
politician a special or preferential
treatment in the party.
“Baba, believe me, I don’t know
Kashamu,” our sources quoted Mr.
Jonathan as saying. “I think it is the
chairman (Tukur) that knows him.
Personally, I have nothing with him.
But I
will ask chairman.
“Kindly consider your decision again.
The
PDP belongs to us all and we need to
correct whatever is wrong together.”
The president then promised to “hear
from” Mr Tukur, and to “do
something”
about the matter, those informed
about
the discussion said.
In his response, Mr. Obasanjo is said
to
have explained to the president his
frustration at explaining to world
leaders
how an alleged criminal, wanted by
the
United States authorities, ended up as
a
leader of Nigeria’s ruling party.
He reportedly told the president that
his
assurance of action might amount to
nothing as he believed not much could
be
done as of now.
The Special Adviser to the President on
Media, Reuben Abati could not be
reached
to comment for this story. Several
telephone calls to him failed to
connect.
But three separate presidential aides,
who
do no want to be named for fear they
might be sanctioned, however
confirmed
details of the conversation between Mr.
Jonathan and Mr. Obasanjo.
Contacted, Mr. Obasanjo’s
spokesperson,
Tunde Oladunjoye, said he had no
permission from his boss to confirm
details of his conversation with
anyone.
An aide of the former president
however
confirmed the exchanges.
Ex-President Obasanjo’s letter to PDP
Chairman Bamanga Tukur
Mr. Obasanjo had in a January 7 letter
to
Mr. Tukur announced that he was
withdrawing from the activities of the
PDP
for as long as Mr. Kashamu, whom he
accuses of being a “wanted habitual
criminal”, remains a leader of the
party in
the south west, the former president’s
geopolitical zone.
In a letter to Mr. Tukur on Tuesday, Mr.
Obasanjo said he would remain a
“card-
carrying member” of the governing
party,
but will no longer participate in the
party’s functions at all levels.
“Politics played by any national
political
party must have morality, decency,
discipline, principles and leadership
examples as cardinal practices of the
party,” the former president’s letter,
published on Saturday, read. “I have
attached here recent documents that
clearly indicates that you extolled PDP
zonal leader in the South West of
Nigeria
and an indigene of Ogun State, who is,
to
say the least, not a credit to the party
as
a member let alone being a zonal
leader.”
Mr. Obasanjo, a native of Ogun State,
as
Mr. Kashamu, said while he believed
that
a truly national political party should,
as
a microcosm of a nation, bear all
forms
of characters as members, he however
found no justification in extolling a
“known criminal” wanted abroad on
drug-related charges.
“Since I stick in my practice of party
politics to the hallowed and cherished
principles enunciated above, I take this
opportunity to let you know that while I
continue to remain a card-carrying
member of PDP, I cannot and I will not
subscribe to a wanted habitual
criminal
being installed as my zonal leader in
the
party; a criminal for whom extradition
has been requested by the US
government,” Mr. Obasanjo said.
Mr. Kashamu dismissed Mr.
Obasanjo’s
letter as a “cocktail of lies” and a
“campaign of calumny” inspired by the
former president’s loss of political
relevance in the Southwest.
“Let me state from the outset that
contrary to Obasanjo’s claim, I am not
the
leader of the party in the South West,”
he
said in a statement on Saturday. “I am
just one of the party’s foot soldiers in
the
zone and it is in that capacity that I
am
made the chairman of the Organisation
and Mobilisation Committee for the
party
in the zone.”
Mr. Kashamu said it was
“preposterous”
to be referred to as the leader of the
party
in a zone that parades Bode George,
Shuaibu Oyedokun, Lekan Balogun,
Iyiola
Omisore, Teslim Folarin, Yekeen
Adeojo,
Clement Awoyelu, Ayodele Fayose,
Bode
Olajumoke.
He denied being wanted in the US.
Officials close to President Jonathan
and
Mr. Obasanjo said the president
contacted
the former leader by phone after being
informed of Mr. Obasanjo’s letter to the
PDP chairman. He denied
responsibility
for Mr. Kashamu’s appointment, a
decision he blamed on Mr. Tukur, who
has been at the centre of the PDP’s
months of intractable internal crisis.
Coming about a month after Mr.
Obasanjo penned a scathing letter
accusing Mr. Jonathan of being inept
and
corrupt –allegations the president
rejected in his reply-, the telephone
communication over Mr. Kashamu
appears partly a fence-mending move
by
the two leaders as their party’s
troubles
escalate in the face of credible threat
from
the opposition All Progressives
Congress,
APC.