Jonathan visits Obasanjo, holds closed door meeting

Goodluck Jonathan was at Ibogun Olaogun village in Ifo local government area of Ogun state holding a closed door meeting with former President Olusegun Obasanjo. The duo held a closed-door meeting for about 30 minutes.

Dr Jonathan who was accompanied by few of his former aides including former Minister of special duties, Kabiru Turaki arrived Ibogun at about 12 noon.

Scores of residents trooped out when the news of Jonathan’s arrival filtered into the town as they swamped on him and welcomed him with songs.

Former Governor of Osun state,  Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola was among the prominent personalities who welcomed Jonathan.

In his remarks after they emerged from the closed door meeting , Obasanjo said,

The first point I want to make is to thank you very sincerely and most sincerely for taking it upon yourself to pay us a visit at this point in time and at this location.

Secondly, since you left office, you hardly have time to sit down and relax like you have been able to do today and I hope, I sincerely hope and pray for more such relaxed situation where we can reminiscence situations of the past that we have been through in this country and we can also look at what the future portends. When leaders come, they have little or no experience, when they have to go is when they have really  amassed  a lot of experience, acquired wisdom, and they are experienced  to be in high demand. For people  like you and me who have the grace of God to bow out gracefully, if there is no what I call constitutional office, then we have residual responsibilities for Nigeria.

I believe that not only Nigeria, but West Africa, Africa and indeed the world will continue to tap into our experiences,  our wisdom and I hope and pray that when you are called upon, you will be more than ready to put your experience, the lessons you have learnt into the service of this country, for Africa and indeed for humanity in general.

I have said to you before and I will say it again that there are plenty of opportunities out there, within the country, within West Africa, within African and indeed in the larger world where people will want you to make contributions. I believe that you are resting now and when you have fully rested, you will be hearing from me because I have had the opportunity to go round the world. I thank you sincerely that you have received us as we are in this village and to prove to you that we are in a typical village, I had earlier told you that your village is better than mine.

I want to say that we have it, Nigeria is a good country and we must never be tired of lifting the country up to the height that God has created it to be. God did not make a mistake when he put all of us together and if He doesn’t want us to be together no power in the world will have made us come together.”