From John Adams, Minna
Amid the pilgrimage by presidential candidates to his residence to seek his support, former president Olusengun Obasanjo yesterday threw a bombshell as he declared that he has no preferred candidates among those contesting the 2023 elections.
Obasanjo who spoke yesterday afternoon in Minna said he only has a national agenda. “I don’t have a preferred candidate, I only have a national agenda,” he said. He was responding to questions fielded by journalists on his recent consultations with some presidential candidates and governors in London.
He made his position known while speaking with journalists after holding separate behind closed door meetings with two former Heads of State, General Ibrahim Babangida and General Abdulsalami Abubakar in the Niger state capital.
Although the details of the meetings were not known, an insider source told our correspondent that the 2023 elections dominated the discussions he held with the duo. This is even as Obasanjo told journalists that after his meeting with Abdulsalami that he was in Minna on a sympathy visit to the former Head of State who he described as his brother following his (Abdulsalami) medical trip abroad.
Obasanjo described Abdulsalami as a special brother to him. He said: “I have come to see my brother who was a bit indisposed and when he was abroad I had wanted to visit him, and the day I arrived in London to visit him was the day he left.
“So I said, well since I could not see him in London, I will come to see him in Nigeria. And so, that is what I have come to do. He is special in a way and he was indisposed, so I had to come and see him. If there is anybody again who is special and indisposed that I have to see, I will see him. I am still strong enough.”