The National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and then interim National Chairman of the party, Chief Bisi Akande, Tuesday held a secret meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari in the State House.
The leaders, who arrived at the Presidential Villa at about 3.50p.m., barely a few hours after former President Olusegun Obasanjo released a 13-page statement where he decried Buhari’s perceived non-performance and failure to act decisively on matters of national interest, headed straight to the president’s residence.
The two statesmen, who left about an hour later, kept mum as they declined to speak with journalists who were eager to find out their mission in the villa.
About a forthright ago, Akande did not mince words to say that though Buhari is his friend, he had not done well.
Meanwhile, Tinubu has said his visit to President Buhari was not connected with the critical statement issued by former President Obasanjo on his presidency.
Mr. Tunde Rahman of Tinubu’s Media Office said the visit by Tinubu and Akande to the Presidential Villa was scheduled since last week.
”President Buhari periodically schedules talks with Tinubu and Akande, as he does with other Nigerians and APC figures, to discuss substantive issues pertaining to the governance of the country and matters concerning the party.
”This visit was one of such meetings. As such, the meeting had nothing to do with the statement of former President Obasanjo.
”It is totally unconnected. At the time of the meeting, Tinubu and Akande were even unaware that President Obasanjo had released his statement,” Rahman said.
Obasanjo, in a statement released Tuesday had urged President Buhari to abandon the idea of seeking re-election in 2019.
In the diatribe, which he entitled, ‘The Way Out: A Clarion Call for Coalition for Nigeria Movement,’ Obasanjo claimed Buhari has performed far below expectation and should honourably “dismount from the horse”.
He urged the president to join the league of the country’s former leaders whose “experience, influence, wisdom and outreach can be deployed on the side line for the good of the country”.
Obasanjo, a two-term president on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said he felt disappointed by Buhari, whom he supported during the 2015 election over then incumbent and candidate of his former party, Goodluck Jonathan.
While thanking Buhari for the effort of his administration in rolling back the Boko Haram insurgency and his fight against corruption, Obasanjo said Buhari has ultimately failed in other areas where he had thought he would be efficient.
