Obasanjo may stop Jonathan in 2015

THE battle for the nation’s Presidency in 2015 is getting intense, though the gladiators are not willing to openly declare their interest yet.

A key figure who is working, albeit surreptitiously, to determine who becomes the occupant of Aso Rock in 2015 is former President Olusegun Obasanjo, The Guardian has learnt.

Contrary to the notion that Obasanjo has quit active and local partisan politics for international assignments and diplomacy, the former leader remains a force to reckon with in the 2015 presidency.

The Guardian’s investigation shows that Obasanjo may not support President Goodluck Jonathan for re-election in 2015. It was learnt at the weekend that Obasanjo’s fund-raiser for a mosque project at his presidential library provided the forum for him to strategise for 2015.

Less than 24 hours after the gathering in Abeokuta, which was attended by some political heavyweights even from the core North, Obasanjo, 72, began a strategic political tour of the East on the invitation of Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, publisher of the Champion Newspapers. This tour has been without fanfare. Iwuanyanwu, a People’s Democratic Party (PDP) stalwart from Imo State was at the Abeokuta gathering last Friday, although he arrived late.

The Guardian learnt that after the fund-raiser at the venue, Iwuanyanwu reiterated his (Obasanjo’s) invitation to the East and the following day, the former president who at a religious gathering in Warri reportedly criticised Nigeria’s current President’s handling of the Boko Haram’s insurgency responded to the invitation and began his strategic tour of the South East.

It was learnt that the army general’s strategic foray into the East at this time “is to solidify the political base of the PDP in the area and to re-align forces for 2015 in the context of the ruling PDP” that he recently described as undisciplined

Source:Guardian