The news of the Sunday meeting between President Muhammadu Buhari and former President Olusegun Obasanjo, a few days after Obasanjo asked the President not to re-contest in 2019 is still shocking Nigerians!
PMParrot checks revealed that Nigerians had expected the two leaders to display some kind of ‘enmity’ against one another.
The two leaders met at the opening session of the 30th African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. On sighting Buhari at the venue, Obasanjo who ruled Nigeria as a democratically elected President between 1999 and 2007 approached the President and shook hands with him.
The two leaders exchanged pleasantries and engaged each other in a short discussion that lasted about two minutes. While the discussion was going on, a former military Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar (retd.), joined them.
The three of them thereafter posed for photographs. Both Buhari and Obasanjo are also retired generals.
Obasanjo had in a widely publicised press statement last week gave a damning verdict on the administration led by Buhari.
However, a veteran political observer who spoke with PMParrot under the condition of anonymity submitted that “those who expressed shock that the duo met and exchanged pleasantries are ‘learners’, they really do not know Nigerian politicians.”
The observer continued “Nigerian politicians are one and the same. Specifically, I will say that both Buhari and Obasanjo are too experienced in the game of politics to engage in public show of enmity. No. They are masters in the game. But there is still a lesson for Nigerians, especially our youths to learn from – they must never allow themselves to be used by politicians as party thugs to kill and maim opponents. At the end of the day, the politicians know where and how to meet and reconcile or even cross carpet.”
Packaged by Alice Egbedele with additional reports from punchng.com
