President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday held a meeting with ex-President, Olusegun Obasanjo to get suggestions from him on how to curtail the campaign of the Boko Haram insurgents in North-East region of the country which assumed a new dimension, with the terrorists capturing-Gwoza, a major town in Borno State, and declaring it an Islamic caliphate.
A source who revealed the object of the meeting to DailyPost disclosed that the recourse to the former President indicates a rethink by the Jonathan administration which had earlier discountenanced Obasanjo’s proposal to commence talks with the extremist-Boko Haram sect through an informal channel.
The former President, who confirmed that he attended the meeting , told reporters in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital that, the meeting which was held in the presidential villa in Abuja on Wednesday, centered on how to tackle the growing insecurity in the country.
It was learnt that President Jonathan who was ostensibly desperate for solutions to the lingering problem offered to fly to Abeokuta to meet with Mr. Obasanjo, but the former President however opted to travel to Abuja instead, out of respect for the office of the President.
In Obasanjo’s words: “Yes, I can confirm that I met with Mr. President on his invitation,” he told journalists. “In fact, he had wanted to come down to Abeokuta, but as a sign of respect to the Office of the President, I had to go. We had discussion on the country’s security issues and that is all.”
The former President commended Jonathan for the invitation and assured the administration that, in the interest of peace and progress of the country, he would continue to avail himself for consultations whenever solutions are being sought for knotty national issues.
Details of the discussions between the two leaders are for now unclear as both of them met behind closed doors.
The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Reuben Abati, also confirmed the meeting, but stated that he too had no details of what was discussed between the two leaders.
