The new Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Chairman, Adamu Mu’azu on Sunday visited former President Olusegun Obasanjo in his Hilltop mansion, Abeokuta.
Mu’azu who arrived at the former president’s mansion at 3:30pm in a convoy of four vehicles met with Obasanjo for over an hour without disclosing his mission.
Efforts to get the ex-president or his media minders to speak on the meeting failed but, according to sources, Muazu’s visit was not unconnected with the crisis in the PDP and Obasanjo’s recent withdrawal from the party’s activities because of the involvement of Buruji Kashamu in the leadership of the party in the Southwest.
Obasanjo had described Kashamu as “a habitual criminal” who is wanted in the United States. But Kashamu insists he is innocent.
Former House of Representatives member Kayode Amusan, who was at the house when Mu’azu visited, said the PDP chairman was “working to rectify all that is wrong within the party”.
Amusan, who has indicated interest in the Ogun State governorship on the platform of the PDP, told reporters that Obasanjo could not be ruled out in the scheme of things.
“Baba is our leader, our mentor so, we can visit him any time. We are free to come to him. The new chairman has come and gone. All of us we are Baba’s sons. We can come here any time.
“Of course, apart from coming from the same state with baba, baba ruled this nation for many years. You can’t rule him out in this country.
“In a democratic dispensation, there must be regrouping, there must be alignment and there must be realignment and that is it. Let me tell you, the moment somebody comes on board, he has been brought to come and rectify and put in order all the anomalies in the party,” Amusan said.
Sources say Muazu has put reconciliation with Obasanjo on his agenda to restore peace to the party. “The new PDP chairman has the onerous task to restore peace to PDP. This is why he has decided to visit Obasanjo to lay all the cards on PDP crisis on the table and find a way forward.
“Some of the issues on Muazu’s agenda are the defection of five governors to APC, state of PDP in the Southwest, especially the control of the structure by Kashamu, the sack of Oyinlola, Segun Oni, and Bode Mustapha from the National Working Committee, and relegation of Southwest PDP to the background.
“But the most important is the face-off between the President and Obasanjo, which led to the exchange of letters by the two leaders.
“Do not forget that the situation degenerated to the extent that Obasanjo withdrew his involvement in all the activities of PDP until further notice.”
Another source said that “Many Nigerians, including ex-heads of state, have intervened in the bitter fight between the President and Obasanjo.
“Muazu is expected to crystallise this mediation. The ultimate goal is to reconcile the two leaders in the interest of the nation.
“If he succeeds, it might lead to the stoppage of the ongoing investigation of issues in Obasanjo’s recent letter to the President.”