Posted by By TAIWO AMODU on
Wary of the likelihood of a snub and attendant humiliation in his efforts at brokering a rapproachment with his former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, immediate past President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo may have enlisted the services of his ex-Special Assisitant on Domestic Affairs, Dr. Andy Uba as the arrow-head of those to facilitate the reconciliation initiative. He is also believed to have approached businessman, Alhaji Aliko Dangote as member of the team.
Wary of the likelihood of a snub and attendant humiliation in his efforts at brokering a rapproachment with his former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, immediate past President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo may have enlisted the services of his ex-Special Assisitant on Domestic Affairs, Dr. Andy Uba as the arrow-head of those to facilitate the reconciliation initiative. He is also believed to have approached businessman, Alhaji Aliko Dangote as member of the team.
Until both men served out their terms May 29 this year, Obasanjo and Atiku had waxed progressively on a no-love-lost relationship, a development that saw the former leaders appropriate public fora to lash out at each other.
A Saturday Sun source and a close associate of Atiku, while speaking on condition of anonymity, disclosed that with the former president gradually coming to terms with the dismantling of what used to be his legacies by his protégé, President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, he is desperately mobilizing everyone that matters to reach out to his ex-vice-president. And Andy Uba, according to Obasanjo, the source further said fitted the bill for the crucial reconciliation bid.
Uncomfortable with the tsunami that President Yar'Adua is gradually turning into, Obasanjo has suddenly realized the need to mend fences with those he gravely hurt while in office, if anything, to save his fast vanishing relevance in the economy and the polity. And Atiku appears to be the biggest beneficiary of his hate.
Saturday Sun source further revealed that Obasanjo finally made up his mind to constitute the Andy Uba team, to cut down on the ranks of those he alienated from the corridors of power while in office, but who unfortunately for him now have unfettered access to the incumbent President, Umaru Yar'Adua.
Prodded further on why the former president should involve former aides on such innocuous mission, which he, ordinarily should take up himself, our source disclosed that Obasanjo being a crafty character would not be willing to be humiliated in case the trouble-shooting voyage hits an ice-berg.
'His fear is that he could be snubbed by those who have vowed, never to have anything to do again, with a vindictive person like him. You know that true to his character, he can always deny knowledge of the Andy Uba team whenever it runs into troubled waters, or in the event that it wants to constitute an embarrassment to him", the source submitted.
Buttressing his point, Saturday Sun source who confirmed the cover story of our last Sunday edition, ‘OBJ begs Atiku' revealed that the Andy Uba team actually met the immediate past governor of Adamawa State, Alhaji Boni Haruna to help facilitate a meeting between the former president and his estranged deputy, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
'Atiku had sent words that as a true Muslim he has forgiven Obasanjo, just as he is willing to put the past behind him, but that he is not disposed to a meeting with his former boss for now.'