Former President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday said he did not dodge President Goodluck Jonathan and other former Nigerian leaders at the 90th birthday celebration of former president, Alhaji Shehu Shagari.
Obasanjo, who stated that he had no reason to avoid Jonathan and other former Nigerian leaders, explained that his inability to meet up with them at the event was due to a heavy traffic his convoy ran into. His reaction was contained in a statement issued in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
Aside Jonathan, all living exheads of state such as Gen. Yakubu Gowon, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, as well as former Head of Interim National Government, Chief Ernest Shonekan, attended Shagari’s birthday in Sokoto on Wednesday. Jonathan and the former leaders joined Shagari to cut a commemorative cake to mark the birthday.
While a former head of state and presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Major- Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, was absent as a result of his engagements outside Nigeria, Obasanjo breezed into Sokoto after Jonathan and the former rulers had left Sokoto.
But yesterday, Obasanjo expressed dismay over reports by a section of the media over his absence, especially the aspect that imputed that he deliberately dodged Jonathan and other ex-heads of state. The former president described the media reports as unfortunate.
According to him, a heavy traffic which his entourage ran into on that day prevented him from catching up with the Nigerian leaders in Sokoto.
He wondered why the media failed to report the “profuse apologies” he tendered to Shagari when he eventually arrived the venue of his birthday.
Obasanjo said, “I have read with dismay the imputation of some section of the media to the unfortunate incident of my not being able to be with my colleagues at the birthday celebration of President Shehu Shagari on Wednesday 25 February.
“Leaving Abeokuta at 6:45am and hoping to fly out of Lagos airport at 8:30am to Sokoto, we ran into a very bad traffic hold-up that made me get to Lagos airport at 10:45am. “I did not arrive at Shagari’s house until about mid-day by which time the team of my colleagues had left.
It is a pity that the media did not report my profuse apologies to both Shagari and other colleagues when I spoke at Shagari’s house.” The former president noted that he had “no cause to dodge, avoid or snub my colleagues for what we all agreed to do together.”
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