Following the recent closed-door meeting between former President Goodluck Jonathan and the Reconciliation and Strategy Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) led by a former President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki fresh facts from that meeting indicates that the former president complained of neglect by his party.
A source privy to the meeting told to correspondents anonymously over the weekend that Jonathan complained to the Saraki-led committee that the PDP left him in the dark, without any role assigned to him.
According to the source, Jonathan told the committee that the All Progressives Congress (APC) was trying to lure him because the PDP did not carry him along in its activities.
Read Also: 2023: PDP Leaders Meet Jonathan Amid Defection Rumours
APC had earlier debunked claims that it was wooing the former president to become its presidential candidate in 2023.
However, the Chairman of the National Caretaker Committee of the party and Yobe State Governor, Mr. Mai Buni, had led some other governors of the ruling party to a private meeting with Jonathan in his Abuja residence without any member of the PDP in attendance.
Ebonyi State Governor, Mr. David Umahi, who recently defected to the APC from the PDP; Governor Atiku Bagudu, of Kebbi, who is the Chairman of the Progressives Governors’ Forum; and Governor Abubakar Badaru of Jigawa State were at the meeting.
Also in the team was Mr. Kashim Ibrahim-Imam, former presidential liaison officer to the National Assembly.
According to the source privy to the meeting between Jonathan and the Saraki group, the former president said he stood back because the PDP did not assign him any responsibility or role and he didn’t want to be seen as imposing himself on the party.
He explained that he perceived that the APC people might have approached him because the PDP did not assign him any responsibility as a former president on the platform of the party and leader of the party.
However, the source went further to say that: ‘Jonathan said that now that the PDP has sent a high-power delegation to him, led by the former Senate president, he would make himself available to the party, be it for reconciliation, party building, and any other responsibility. He said he is ready to play any role.’
AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK
