President Buhari, Obasanjo Meet, Exchange Banters After Damaging Statement

President Muhammadu Buhari and former President Olusegun Obasanjo met on Sunday for the first time since the latter released his public statement criticizing the former over his poor leadership and advising him against seeking reelection.

The leaders are attending the 30th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union in Addis–Ababa, Ethiopia.

Another notable figure with them is a former military head of state, Abdulsalami Abubakar.

It was learnt that both leaders met briefly before the opening ceremony of the 30th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU) and exchanged pleasantries.

It was also learnt that Obasanjo made the first move to meet Buhari after moving from one table to the other to exchange pleasantries with heads of state and governments  after which he deliberately looked for Buhari to converse with him.

A source disclosed that both men were the cynosures of all eyes inside the Nelson Mandela Hall where they met and had a brief meeting as photojournalists struggled to capture the meeting.

Both of them spoke briefly in low tunes shortly before the opening events of the meeting kicked off.

Buhari, it was learnt, was just settling down for the next agenda of the meeting which was the launch of a new logo on behalf of AU when Obasanjo appeared before him.

The president at the time was warming up to deliver a paper on the theme: “Winning the Fight Against Corruption: A Sustainable Path to Africa’s Transformation.” 

Walking up to Buhari, Obasanjo was said to have stretched forth his hands towards him for a handshake after which both of them began to chat a course which lasted for only brief minutes before they were joined by another former Nigerian Head of State, Abdulsalami Abubakar, who is also a delegate to the summit for a group photograph.

The development suddenly generated noise in the hall as all eyes were not only gazing on both leaders by participants who had read about Obasanjo's bombshell to Buhari last Tuesday in which he advised the latter to forget about re-election as a result of perceived non-performance and nepotism in appointments of officers serving in his administration. 

It was gathered that the trend became the object of discussion among participants in the hall who discussed the matter in low tunes. However, there was no information on what both leaders discussed just as their romance seemed to be shrouded in mutual suspicion.

Meanwhile, Buhari while launching continental anti-corruption war at the event, alleged that the scourge of corruption robs Africa of over $50billion dollars annually and challenged fellow leaders to halt the menace.

Stating that anti-corruption fight has come to stay in Nigeria, Buhari said his administration would remain resolute in its commitment to bring corrupt elements to justice, insisting that anti-graft war will be fought in Nigeria "today, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow."

Boasting that his administration had pursued the battle with vigour to such an extent that the battle had become institutionalised, Buhari challenged his colleagues to borrow a leaf from Nigeria by empowering anti-corruption agencies in their respective countries and accord them the required independence.

He added that the rampaging acts of corruption in Africa spoke volume of the need for strong leadership in the continent.

"African nations must find a way of building synergy between the executive, judiciary and legislature in order to entrench good governance. Leaders, must have a change of mindset by prioritising accountability and transparency in order to succeed in the fight against corruption.

"This is not stating that fighting corruption is going to be a straight forward task as corruption will always fight back. Irrespective of any setback faced in the fight against corruption, African leaders must remain resolute,” he said.

Buhari also advocated the integration of African youths into the fight against corruption, pointing out the necessity for Africa to raise a generation purged from corruption.

In another development, Buhari on the sidelines of AU summit canvassed the need to curtail the flow of illicit flow of fund for terrorism financing.

He gave the admonition while addressing a meeting of the Peace and Security Council, with the theme: "Towards a Comprehensive Approach to Combat the Transnational Threat to Terrorism."

According to him, deliberate moves must be made not only to crash the network between transnational organised crimes and terrorist organisations but also to ensure that payment of ransom to terrorist groups is disallowed.