Former military president and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential aspirant, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB), yesterday gave his own side of the meeting he had with President Goodluck Jonathan. A national newspaper (not Daily Sun) had reported that President Goodluck Jonathan had during the secret meeting with the former president begged him to drop his presidential ambition.
But speaking with journalists yesterday while on a sympathy visit to the PDP national secretariat in Abuja, to commiserate with the National Working Committee (NWC) over last Saturday’s fire outbreak, the former military president disclosed that he only discussed the state-of-the-nation with President Jonathan and conveyed his appreciation to the President’s wife, Patience, who has shown sustained interest in the wellbeing of Babangidas‘ children.
“Unknown to most of you, there is a very robust relationship between the family of President Jonathan and the Babangidas. His wife has been very kind, she asks after my children all the time and I appreciate that. I don’t run away from my friends, my brothers and I had an opportunity to thank the wife, through her husband.
“His wife has taken a lot of interest in my children and I used the opportunity to convey my appreciation to his wife for his concern about my children.
“Of course, we discussed Nigeria. But not what you guys have been insinuating. So, whenever you find two heads of state, they talk about this country. How can we improve this country? What can we do? All the heads of state, about 10 of us, still living. That’s what we talk.”
The presidential aspirant, however, expressed confidence in his ability to pick the party presidential ticket, even as he submitted that he was not bothered by pockets of opposition to his ambition across the country. “2011 belongs to God and I am fully prepared. The negative I do appreciate, that people have to. I will be a fool, if I accept that everybody loves me. But there are also others who do. That’s life.”
Chairman, Daar Communications and Director-General, IBB Campaign Organisation, Dr Raymond Dokpesi, who accompanied Babangida during the visit told the PDP National Chairman, Dr Okwesilieze Nwodo that the campaign group was deeply touched by the unfortunate inferno and assured the party of its support. “We are deeply touched by the unfortunate fire and we believe that as members of our great party, we will be there to assist. We intend to send a set of engineers to be able to assess and see what kind of contributions, we can make as members of the party.
“We will do everything within our power to ensure that we comply with the rules and regulations of the forthcoming presidential primaries, for which the organization is working very assiduously.”
Nwodo thanked Babangida for showing empathy over the incident.
“We are very happy to receive our very revered leader, former military president of Nigeria, who today is visiting us in a different capacity as one of the frontrunners in our party, for the ticket of the PDP in the forthcoming presidential election and we receive him as a member of our party, who has come to commiserate with us on the unfortunate fire in our secretariat.
“We have received other distinguished leaders of our party, who have come on the same visit. The President has been here himself. So, the tremendous empathy that this unfortunate incident has generated within the leadership and rank and file of PDP, shows that the party is strong, the party has tentacles in all parts of this country and committed members of the party. The ways they have shown their interest in what has happened here, we thank all of them, those who have come and those who are yet to come.
“We also thank those who have made promises to assist us to put together what had been burnt in our Conference Room and we hope that in no distant time, we would be able to resume our work in that part of the building. I want to thank our former president who is here today; I know that he had been busy with his campaign, but he has found time to come, we are deeply touched. For members of your team who have come here with you, we say thank you very much for coming.”
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