DANGOTE, OTHERS SET UP JONATHAN, OBJ TALK –INVESTIGATION

DETAILS emerged on Monday how ex-president Olusegun
Obasanjo’s loyalists facilitated his fence-mending visit to the Aso Rock Villa
on Sunday.

At the core of the arrangement that led to the visit and
closed-door talk between Obasanjo and President Goodluck Jonathan were business
mogul, Aliko Dangote; oil marketer, Femi Otedola; court-sacked National
Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Olagunsoye Oyinlola; and a former
Chief Executive Officer of the United Bank of Africa, Mr. Tony Elumelu, among
others.

These Obasanjo’s men who are also said to have the ears of
Jonathan were said to have impressed it upon the former President that the
lingering feud between him and the current occupier of Aso Rock was inimical to
the interest of the ruling PDP, especially with the justling for the 2015 poll
already picking up.

Dangote and others were however, said to have received the
blessing of Jonathan before they approached Obasanjo for a possible settlement.

In spite of denials by the Presidency, both Jonathan and
Obasanjo had been at loggerheads for some time with each side taking a sharp
jab at the other.

Barely 24 hours before Obasanjo’s sudden visit to the
villa in Abuja, the Presidency had railed at the ex-President, whom Jonathan’s
aides said was “confused” in his assessment of the Boko Haram issue.

“If Obasanjo said what he said, we will just tolerate him
because the other time, he said force should be used and he turned back to say
dialogue must be used. Now, he is saying another thing. He is becoming
confusing. I think the old man is becoming confused. The fact is that the
insecurity issue started even during Obasanjo’s regime. It did not start with
Jonathan’s regime,” Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters,
Ahmed Gulak, had said in an interview with The
PUNCH on Saturday.

Alarmed at the statement from the Presidency and knowing
what would be Obasanjo’s response, Dangote, Otedola, Elumelu and co were said
to have rushed down to Abeokuta to meet the ex-President at his Presidential
mansion and begged him to give peace a chance.

Indeed, Obasanjo, according to a source, had planned a
“befitting” acerbic line to drop on his way out of the country on Sunday but
for the quick intervention by the “men of peace”.

The peacemakers were also said to have been propelled by
Jonathan’s known aversion to pick quarrels with Obasanjo who was said to have
facilitated the President’s rise to power, though a fresh revelation by another
Obasanjo loyalist and former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mallam
Nasir el-Rufai, in his yet-to-be-released book is said to have indicated that
the ex-President really wanted to ditch Jonathan because of his “weak
character”.

It is said to have been the prevailing view among those
managing the President that his major concern should be the provision of
effective leadership for the party under his leadership as President and not to
be seen to be fighting.

But there are said to be some in Obasanjo’s camp who did
not want the rift between their principal and Jonathan to come to an end.

Recounting the circumstances that led to Obasanjo’s
Sunday’s fence-mending visit to Aso Rock, a source in the know said, “You see,
the Obasanjo camp is divided between its loyalists who wanted a fight and those
who wanted settlement.

“You can see that while people like Oby Ezekwesili wanted
a fight, people like Femi Fani-Kayode were not in support of such a fight,
although they would defend Obasanjo in all situations no matter what.

“However, some of Obasanjo’s allies like Oyinlola,
Dangote, Otedola and Elumelu initiated the move to bring the two men together.
With what has happened, it is clear that those who didn’t want a fight are the
ones winning. But don’t lose sight of the fact that the other camp would not go
to sleep.

“The challenge, however, is that the President’s men and
those on the side of peace from the Obasanjo camp have to work hard to nurture
it.

“The President is the leader of the party. It is his
responsibility to lead the party. He cannot be fighting his people; he has to
lead them.”

Meanwhile, Jonathan has reportedly ordered his aides to
cease fire on the dispute between him and Obasanjo in tandem with the truce
agreed upon by the duo on Sunday.

Obasanjo was accompanied to the Villa by two of his
daughters; a son, identified as Juwon; and Otedola.

A top chieftain of the PDP, who pleaded anonymity, said,
“You will observe that Jonathan has not engaged in any direct verbal war with
Obasanjo. He has been looking for ways to restore the peaceful relationship
between them.”