By Caleb Ishaya, Abuja
As preparations for 2027 general elections gradually gather momentum former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar yesterday visited erstwhile President Olusegun Obasanjo in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital, where they had a closed-meeting that lasted about two hours.
AljazirahNigeria reports that Kano State former Governor, who was presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party ,NNPP, in the 2023 election, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, and former Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, recently met in Lagos prompting feelings of political alignment and realignment by Key actors from different geo-political zones in Nigeria.
Atiku was accompanied by two former Governors, Senator Liyel Imoke ,Cross River, and Honourable Aminu Tambuwal ,Sokoto State.
The PDP candidate in the 2023 presidential election and his team were received by the ex-President at Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta, where both parties had a closed-door meeting that lasted about two hours.
Obasanjo, while responding to journalists after the meeting, declined comment on the issue discussed saying “Don’t ask me anything. I am not going to comment on 2027 politics”.
Similarly, Atiku also declined to comment the political undertone of the meeting as he only said it was a simple courtesy visit.
However, the social media and main stream media yesterday, were all agog with attendant speculation from the public , some saw yesterday peering as a welcome development.
Dr Ibrahim Modibo while featuring on Arise TV news night programmes, monitored in Abuja, said that the meeting is not an ordinary courtesy visit rather a way to strategies for 2027. Though, the duo have denied it. The veteran journalist cum political analyst inferred that since the two bigwigs and their company refused to address the press, that a two hour meeting wasn’t all about a courtesy visit , if taken further, it could be about the issues within the PDP.
AljazirahNigeria recalls that Atiku in 2024 had embarked on such courtesy visits to the big shots within and outside the PDP.
Besides, he had such meetings with Kwankwaso, the Labour Party 2023 Presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi and the former Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai who had fallen out with his party, the All Progressives Congress, APC.
In the same vein, Kwankwaso’s meeting with Aregbesola sparks 2027 permutations
The meeting between Kwankwaso, Aregbesola, is also generating controversies in the polity.
Aregbesola, a former governor of Osun State, at the weekend, received Kwankwaso, at his residence in Lagos.
The politicians met at a time opposition leaders have been weighing options to unseat President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the APC in the 2027 election.
The meeting came a few days after the Omoluabi Progressives, a group of Aregbesola’s loyalists and supporters defected from the APC in Osun. They claimed their defection from APC was due to “ostracisation from the party, suspension and expulsion of leaders without fair hearing, and continuous denigration of the structure”.
The APC also expelled Aregbesola from the party over alleged anti-party activities. Pundits attribute these to why Aregbesola’s meeting with Kwankwaso has triggered permutations of the possibility of the two politicians working together ahead of 2027.
Kwankwaso confirmed his meeting with Aregbesola via his X handle this: “… I had the pleasure to visit the former governor of Osun State and former Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, at his residence in Lagos. The meeting afforded us the opportunity to engage in discussions on national politics, governance and the future of Nigeria’s democratic landscape”.
An informed source who spoke with our correspondent in confidence about Atiku and others visit said: “The meeting dwelled on issues including 2027 political permutation and the state of the economy, factoring Peter Obi whom former President Obasanjo has so much interest in”.
