Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar on Thursday cleared the air on his relationship with former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Atiku, who is a presidential aspirant on the platform of the All Progressive Congress (APC) during an interactive session with the Catholic Bishops of Nigeria Conference (CBNC) in Abuja, revealed that he has fully reconciled with his former boss, Obasanjo, The Nation reports.
He confirmed that there is no enmity left in the relationship with his former boss and that bygones are bygones.
Atiku’s revelation was a reaction to the anxiety expressed by the Most Reverend Anthony Obinna, Archbishop of Owerri and his counterpart from Calabar, the Most Reverend Joseph Ekuwem.
The clergymen expressed disappointment at the celebrated face-off between these two men when they were in power as President and Vice President between 1999 -2003.
Obinna on his part noted that in 1999, both Obasanjo and Atiku started well to the admiration and high expectation of Nigerians, only for the people to be disappointed when rift and ill-will developed between them thereby slowing down the country’s progress.
He said the political elite failed the nation and traced the recent insecurity challenges and corruption to the failure of the political elite. He told Atiku to promise the nation’s Catholics that the rift is over and that such would not happen again.
Obinna described the former president as an open-minded individual, while the Archbishop of Owerri disclosed that he is impressed by Atiku’s interest and commitment to national unity and fairness.
Atiku while responding to the concerns of the clergy men on the insurgency ravaging the country, he told the CNBC led by the Most Reverend (Dr.) Ignatius Kaigama, that it is the duty of the political and military leadership to crush insurgency whenever and wherever it rears its ugly head.
