Report by Halimah Olamide
The Sunday, New Year day endorsement by former President Olusegun Obasanjo has put paid to all hopes by many presidential candidates for the 2023 election of getting the backing of former President.
NPO Reports recalls the energy put into getting the endorsement of the two termed president with pilgrimages to his Abeokuta, Ogun state capital residence.
Obasanjo had on Sunday, released his final stance on the New Year Day, jolting many with his decision to endorse the candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi.
The presidential candidate of the All Progressive Congress, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who was the first to fire a salvo at Obasanjo condemning his action, had visited Obasanjo in August last year with a huge entourage that showed the seriousness attached to the person of the former president in the forthcoming poll.
Though, no statement was made of the visit, there had been insinuations that Obasanjo had expressed his support for the former Governor of Lagos state.
His ally and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila,had gone to town with what appeared like a broadcast of the decision of the former president to back Tinubu.
The Reps Speaker had told a gathering in Surulere, Lagos that with what he heard from Obasanjo during the meeting with Tinubu, he was confident that he would mobilise support for the APC presidential candidate.
Hardly had Gbajabiamila made his statement than Obasanjo fired back to say he never expressed any support for Tinubu, adding then that his talks with the APC candidate was more “brotherly than political.”
In his response, he said “Those claiming to be insiders at the meeting issuing statement on the discussion and those crediting to me statement I had not made are enemies of the visitor and are not doing the visit any good.”
Earlier in the year, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, had visited Obasanjo at his Hilltop mansion in Abeokuta seeking the backing of the former president.
Though Atiku did not expressly state whether Obasanjo promised any form of backing, he nevertheless told Nigerians that there was no problem between the two of them.
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Recall that Atiku served under Obasanjo as Vice president for eight years.
However, it is believed that Obasanjo has no good rating for his former vice especially on his allegations of corruption.
Last week, Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, told Atiku that Nigerians are yet to forget how he (Atiku) made Obasanjo to kneel down for him begging to be allowed to go for a second term.
He accused Atiku of giving Obasanjo very tough conditions to support him for a second term.
In seeking Obasanjo’s backing, other candidates who had visited Obasanjo include Obi, the candidate of the New Nigerian Peoples Party, Engr Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and a host of others.
Though, in their separate responses, both Tinubu and the PDP campaign organisations have dismissed Obasanjo’s endorsement as worthless and of no effect, all the major candidates had sought to get his backing ahead of their electioneering.