Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar on Wednesday paid a courtesy visit to former President Goodluck Jonathan at his country home in Otuoke, Bayelsa State. The former Vice President celebrated the former President as a hero of democracy in Nigeria, declaring that history will be fair to him in the annals of history of the political development of Nigeria.
National Daily gathered that Atiku, who was on transit in continuation of his consultations and mobilization across Nigeria for the 2019 presidential ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), acknowledged Jonathan’s exemplary decision to hand over power in 2015 to the opposition to President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) without resistance;. Atiku declared that that singular historic decision set Jonathan apart as a democrat of unimpeachable credentials.
Atiku remarked that the singular action of Jonathan doused tension in the country at that time; noting that the situation in Nigeria may have been different if Jonathan did not voluntarily relinquish power.
Atiku had declared: “I want to say without equivocation that history will be very kind to you. As the democrat that I have always been, I want to say you have truly excelled! If you did not excel as a democrat par excellence, I wonder what the situation in Nigeria would be today.”
Former President Jonathan acknowledged that his relationship with Atiku dated back to over 16 years when he was Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, a time the Waziri Adamawa began to show him friendship and support.
The former President had commended Atiku for appointing former Governor Gbenga Daniel of Ogun State as Director General of the Atiku Presidential Campaign Organisation; observing that Daniel was DG was also the DG of his own (Jonathan’s) Campaign in the South West in 2014 to 2015; adding that Daniel’s hard work paid off and fetched him huge electoral success in the zone.
Daniel was said to have celebrated Jonathan as the most educated President Nigeria has ever had, who made it through the ranks as Deputy Governor to becoming Vice President and subsequently President of Nigeria.
National Daily further gathered that Atiku departed Bayelsa on Wednesday for Port Harcourt, Rivers Sate, where he met a former Governor of the state, Chief Peer Odili, in continuation of his nationwide consultations for the 2019 presidential ticket of the PDP.