Former President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday evening paid a secret visit to President Muhammadu
Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. The meeting was held inside the President’s official
residence. That was the first time Jonathan would be visiting
the Presidential Villa since he left in the morning of
May 29 for the Eagles Square where Buhari took his
oath of office and allegiance as his (Jonathan’s)
successor. The Special Adviser to the President on Media and
Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, confirmed Jonathan’s
visit and meeting with Buhari to our correspondent
on Sunday. Adesina, however, said he was not privy to the
subject of discussion at the meeting. A top Presidency official also confided in our
correspondent that the meeting was strictly
between Buhari and Jonathan. He said the visit was made discreetly to the extent
that photographs were not taken. “Nobody was with them. I am sure they don’t want
the visit to be an item in the media. That probably
explains why the former president visited at night
and went straight to the residence. They met for a
few minutes in the President’s residence,” the
official said. The following day, however, Buhari also played
host to former President Olusegun Obasanjo. But unlike Jonathan’s visit, one of the
photographers attached to the President was able
to capture the two leaders. It was not clear at press time whether the two visits
were connected. The present administration had been investigating
some activities of Jonathan’s administration with
government officials, claiming that the past
administration was characterised by impunity and
large scale corruption. Apart from probing the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation, the present administration
is also beaming its searchlight on the management
of the Excess Crude Account under Jonathan. Some former aides of the ex-President such as his
National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.);
his Chief Security Officer, Mr. Gordon Obuah; and the
former Director-General of Nigerian Maritime
Administration and Safety Agency, Dr. Patrick
Akpobolokemi, have either been arrested, detained or investigated. On May 27, less than 48 hours to the end of his
tenure, Jonathan had advised Buhari not to single
out his administration in any probe. He said all those advising Buhari to probe his
administration must also advise him to extend his
probe beyond his regime or else, the probe will be
seen as witch-hunting. Jonathan said, “Some people are even calling for
the probe of this government. I agree that in
Nigeria, there are a number of things that we will
probe, many things. “Even debts owed by states and this nation from
1960 up to this time, they are saying it is Jonathan’s
administration that is owing all the debts. I believe
that anybody calling for probe must ensure that
these probes are extended beyond the Jonathan
administration, otherwise to me, it will be witch- hunting. “If you are very sincere, then it is not just the
Jonathan’s administration that should be probed. A
number of things have gone wrong and we have
done our best to fix them. The Attorney-General is
aware of massive judgments debts, if we aggregate
all of them, it is about $1billion. “How did we come to this kind of huge judgment
debts? These issues should be probed. How do you
allocate our oil wells, oil fields, marginal wells and
others? Do we follow our laws? All these should be
probed. I believe all these and many more areas
should be looked at.