By Henry Umoru

Like a leper, Olusegun Obasanjo may not be in a position to install a new president come 2015, but he appears to still have the wherewithal to inflict maximum disruption.

But for the self- acclaimed largest party in Africa, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, it could be well described as history being made, when two very influential figures in the party decided to sheathe their swords and bury the hatchet on Monday, April 15
The gates of the Hilltop Mansion home, in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, of former President of Nigeria, who also served as the Chairman, Board of Trustees, BoT, of the party, were opened that day.  It was unusual in all ramifications as members of the BoT visited Obasanjo.

But the major personas were Obasanjo and Anthony Anenih, the incumbent Chairman of the BoT.

For six solid years, these major players never met face to face to laugh or hold hands, but, on that Monday, they laughed, held hands.  The meeting of these two Nigerians and leaders of the party became imperative against the backdrop of the need to end the crises bedeviling the PDP especially ahead of the 2015 presidential election and the proposed merger of the opposition political parties designed primarily to wrest power from the party.

Anenih was accompanied to the Abeokuta meeting by the BoT Secretary, Senator Walid Jubrin; Governors Ibrahim Shema of Katsina State and Sule Lamido of Jigawa State; Senator Ahmed Markafi; Senator Abdullahi Adamu; and  Professor Jerry Gana. Also at the residence of Obasanjo were Engr. Segun Oni; Chief Bode Mustapha; former Ogun State PDP Chairman, Joju Fadairo; Senator Dipo Odunjirin; Mrs Aduke Maina, among others.

In fact, Obasanjo was having a meeting of his own people before the BoT members arrived.
An insider in the Obasanjo household told Sunday Vanguard, “Baba was having a meeting with leaders of the PDP in the state before the Anenih team arrived,

“Their own meeting was with a view to strengthening the party in the state – mind you, there are factions of PDP in Ogun State and Baba has been deploying his experience and goodwill just so the party would do well at the polls in 2015.

“That was the meting that was going on in the mansion before the Anenih team arrived”.
Once the BoT team arrived, Sunday Vanguard learnt that Obasanhjo excused the Ogun PDP leaders from the main living room and went outside to welcome the team.  The Ogun leaders joined in.

It was gathered that, at the meeting of these two PDP chieftains-Obasanjo and Anenih- the main issue discussed was the state of insecurity in the country.  Although there were other issues like the 2015 presidential election, crises in the party, the PDP governors and the Tukur- led National Working Committee, NWC, the country, among others, begging for negotiations and discussions, Sunday Vanguard learnt that the main issue was insecurity.

*Olusegun Obasanjo

Even the vexed issue of the ‘Obasanjo boys’ in the party’s NWC who had been treated like gas bags recently was not mentioned.

After the closed door meeting, Anenih, who described Obasanjo as the leader of PDP in Nigeria, said, ‘’PDP is the party to beat; when the time comes, I assure you, we will do what we know how to do best.

‘’I am here to see my leader (Obasanjo), I am here to pay my respect and, indeed, I am here with my colleagues, some members of the BoT of our party to discuss some issues that affect the corporate existence of this country, some issues about the insecurity in the country and some issues about the party itself.

‘’As you can see, we are all smiling. Can’t you see me smiling?. So, we are quite happy about the outcome. For now, it is not for public consumption. Let me tell you, almost all of us here are members of the PDP in Ogun State; so, you cannot say that PDP is dead in Ogun State. The leader of PDP in Nigeria is here and that is the former president.”

Anenih, ‘’Mr Fix it”, as he is fondly called, is setting a template for the party with his trouble shooting tour of  the states where he is begging the governors to have faith and remain in the party; telling the governors and other stakeholders, who are aggrieved one way or the other, to put yesterday behind them and move the party forward.

His tour with other members of the BoT is complementing the reconciliatory drive of party Chairman Bamanga Tukur. Anenih’s meeting with Obasanjo, to a very large extent, showed a high sense of maturity that must be emulated by all, an indication that there is time to fight and time to reconcile; time to disagree and time to agree; time to flex political muscles and time to relax them.

While Tukur is using a town hall-meeting style, Anenih is taking it to the door steps and locale of the dramatis personae in the PDP drama.

Having met with the governors and Obasanjo, Anenih and his men should not leave behind those that contested with Tukur last year before they were coerced to step down, just as he will also meet with other aspirants to the BoT position like former Vice President Alex Ekwueme; former National Chairman, Dr. Ahmadu Ali; former Deputy National Chairman, Alhaji Shaiubu Oyedokun; Chief Don Etiebet; Chief Emmanuel Iwuayanwu, among others as another former contestant, former Senate President Ken Nnamani, accompanies him on some of the trips. It is hoped that with these meetings by the Uromi- born politician, and especially with Obasanjo, peace will return to the troubled PDP; it is also hoped that a new trend will be in the PDP while all aggrieved members will be ready to bury the hatchet and embrace peace in the interest of the party.

It will be recalled that Obasanjo took over from Anenih as BoT Chairman in June, 2007 at the Kano Hall of Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, after amending the party’s constitution with the support of the former Chairman, Ahmadu Ali, and the then National Secretary, Chief Ojo Maduekwe that a former president still in the party can hold that position, but the clause was later expunged in 2009.
Though it is now history, the election which brought in the former president as BoT Chairman then became the first time in the life of the body that meeting would be held in the morning as against in the dead of the night.

Anenih, who was conspicuously absent at the meeting, as gathered, became angry because he had fixed the meeting for 8pm as Chairman and he was still in Benin-City, with plans to arrive Abuja before the scheduled time for the meeting, but the time changed without his consent, just as he was said to have kicked against the choice of the time and venue of the meeting for 10am at Hilton Hotel.

The meeting lasted for two and a half hours behind closed door.
Since then, the relationship between Anenih and Obasanjo became sour and it was a case of one dodging the other at events; infact, they never saw face to face and the battle of the two senior party leaders affected the PDP.  Obasanjo  later resigned as the BoT Chairman on April 3, 2012, explaining that the action would give him time ‘’to give some attention to mentoring across the board nationally and internationally in those areas that I have acquired some experience, expertise and in which I have something to share”.He went on,” In 2011, I was in the vanguard of working for  the PDP to produce a president for Nigeria. God answered our prayer.”

Following his resignation, it became clear that intrigues will come to play for his replacement. Even as Anenih was interested in the position, Obasanjo was also keen in influencing the choice of his successor as he was said to have backed Ahmadu Ali or Shauibu Oyedokun. At the end of the day,however, President Goodluck Jonathan had his way and Anenih bounced back to the position he was removed from in a coup in 2007.

The Monday meeting  of Obasanjo and Anenih, at least to pacify the former, was also very important and timely for the PDP because the former president’s political psyche and prowess, especially in his native Ogun State, had been destabilised with developments that unfolded before now. His candidate, Tunji Olurin, for the Ogun State governorship election in 2011 did not have his way when the crisis between him and the former Ogun State governor, Gbenga Daniel, became peaked. He also suffered in the hands of the PDP when his men in the present leadership like the National Vice Chairman, South West, Segun Oni; the National Secretary, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola; the National Auditor, Bode Mustapha; were removed and he was also not carried along when the Tukur -led National Working Committee, NWC, set up the Ishola Filani- led Caretaker Committee for South West PDP.

Obasanjo, it will also be recalled, wanted the Speaker, House of Representatives to come from the South West, but, at the end of the day, Aminu Tambuwal threw away the party’s zoning arrangement. Tambuwal and his deputy, Emeka Ihedioha, achieving the goal they set for themselves, stormed the Wadata Plaza, the party’s secretariat, apologised to the leadership and it was a case of ‘go and sin no more’. Obasanjo lost out in the game of producing the Speaker.

Recent reports say Obasanjo had acted in a way as to extract his pound of flesh from the PDP leadership. He was said to have been collaborating with anti-PDP forces, especially from the North, to frustrate the ruling party from returning to power in 2015.