Jonathan’s Aides Meet Again, Prepares President’s Response to Obasanjo’s Letter

For the second time since the letter written by former President Olusegun Obasanjo to President Goodluck Jonathan got to the public, aides of the president met for hours inside the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Friday.

Those who met included the Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Mr. Ahmed Gulak; Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe; Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Umar Sani.

They are saddled with the responsibility of compiling a response to the letter which a source said will be made available to the public next week.

This is in spite of the breakfast meeting between President Goodluck Jonathan and former President Olusegun Obasanjo in Nairobi, Kenya on Thursday

The source said, “The aides will present their work to the President over the weekend. By the time he goes throughout it and make corrections, the response may be ready any time next week.”

It was gathered that the aides were almost through with the report and would present their report to the President anytime from now while the President is expected to take a final decision on the matter next week.

Obasanjo had written an 18 page letter to the president accusing him of everything from corruption to divisive politics to dangerous ambition. “Nigeria is bleeding and the hemorrhage must be stopped,” Obasanjo said. “As Head of Government, the buck of the performance and non-performance stops on your table.”

He said the president’s agenda serves a narrow ethnic interest of the Ijaw nation and fostered divisions between Christians and Muslims as Jonathan seeks to retain power in 2015.

Though both Obasanjo and Jonathan met in Nairobi on Thursday held fruitful discussion at the luxurious Intercontinental Hotel where Jonathan lodged to attend Kenya’s 50th independence celebrations, a source said none of the two leaders made any reference to the letter during their brief encounter.

He said “The issue of the letter was not discussed at all. That encounter cannot be said to be a meeting. No fewer than eight presidential aides were with them throughout the brief session.

“You will agree with me that if it was a proper meeting, the two leaders would have been excused. No aide would have been allowed.

“Nothing was discussed apart from the former President’s humorous way of saying he came to pay homage to the President and the way he sought the President’s permission to go ahead of him to the venue of Kenya’s Independence Day anniversary.”

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