Former President Olusegun Obasanjo and ex-military dictator, General Ibrahim Babangida (retd), met in Abuja on Thursday over the 2011 presidential election.
The meeting, which took place at the Wuse 11 residence of Babangida, was held behind closed doors.
Sources close to the meeting, however, told our correspondent on Friday that Obasanjo asked Babangida to drop his presidential ambition in the interest of the nation and to prevail on some northern governors who on Tuesday voted to support zoning at their meeting held in Kaduna to change their stance.
Although Babangida was said to have been non-committal on Obasanjo’s request that he should drop his presidential ambition, he was said to have told his guest that it would be difficult for him to convince all the states in the north to jettison zoning.
It was also learnt that as a follow up to the meeting, Obasanjo agreed to meet with key northern traditional rulers on the need to prevail on their subjects to forget zoning for now ”in the interest of the nation.”
A source, who did not want to be named because the discussions at the meeting were not meant for public knowledge, said, ”The meeting was held at Wuse 11, and it was between the two former presidents, Obasanjo and IBB (as Babangida is popularly called).
”The aim of the meeting was to ask IBB to drop his presidential ambition as Obasanjo was said to have explained that the ambition was not in the interest of the nation.
”Not only that, the two statesmen, especially Obasanjo, were said to have opined that the resolutions of the northern governors were not in the interest of the nation, and that the two of them must find a remarkable solution to the logjam.”
Our correspondent also learnt that before the meeting, Obasanjo had met with President Goodluck Jonathan at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa where the two leaders appraised the impact of the resolutions of the northern governors on the President‘s ambition.
It was at this meeting that the idea of Obasanjo meeting with Babangida was said to have been muted.
Although details of Jonathan’s and Obasanjo’s analyses of the northern governors‘ resolutions when the two met were sketchy at press time, the President was said to have agreed that there was a need for what the source called ”extensive consultation with stakeholders from the north.”
This, it was gathered, might delay until a later date in August Jonathan’s public declaration of his decision to contest for the presidency on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party.
The 19 northern states on Tuesday openly disagreed over the adoption of the zoning formula of the PDP for the 2011 presidential election.
At the meeting of the governors held in Kaduna, 10 states voted for zoning while seven states voted against it.
The states that declared support for zoning were Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto, Kebbi, Gombe, Jigawa, Niger, Kwara, Borno and Kano. Two of these states, namely Borno and Kano, are being governed by the All Nigerian Peoples Party.
The governor of Kano State, Mallam Ibrahim Shakarau, had before now campaigned against zoning, just as he is campaigning to be the ANPP presidential candidate.
However, seven of the northern states voted against zoning, stressing that merit was the only way to move the country forward.
The states are Benue, Kogi, Plateau, Kaduna, Adamawa, Taraba and Nasarawa.
Yobe State reportedly abstained from voting, while Bauchi was not represented because of the death of the Emir of Bauchi.
Nevertheless, the position of the Bauchi governor, Alhaji Isa Yuguda, is well known as he has been canvassing for the dumping of zoning openly.
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