APC Chieftains Visit To Obasanjo, Atiku For Consultation, Not ‘Cultivation’, Says Aregbesola

Governor of Osun State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has defended the recent visit by leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to former President Olusegun Obasanjo and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, saying it was a necessary move calculated to save Nigeria.
Aregbesola, who made this known in an exclusive interview with Sunday Trust, stated that the move was aimed at drawing “reasonable advice and intervention” that could save the country from disintegration.
It would be recalled the leadership of APC, comprising its interim national chairman, Chief Bisi Akande; former Lagos State governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; and some APC governors, were led to Abeokuta, Ogun State by Gen Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) on a visit to Obasanjo. This came after a similar visit to Atiku at his Asokoro residence in Abuja.
The separate meeting with the two PDP card-carrying members was interpreted as a move by the opposition party to further deplete the ranks of the ruling party following the APC’s success in wooing five PDP governors into its fold.
But Aregbesola dismissed the notion, saying APC was not trying to woo Obasanjo and Atiku into its fold as it was being widely speculated, adding that the party was only consulting them to seek advice on how to stop the nation from breaking up.
He explained the fact that the two leaders are in an opposition party did not mean they cannot be partners in progress and that his party was not claiming to be the only one occupying a moral high ground that would not require it to look outward for advice.
“At the state we are in presently, sorry to say, we cannot be too puritanical. The worrisome situation with this nation has degenerated so badly and there is no time to start being puritanical. In this situation, what is too much to sacrifice to ensure that many Nigerians who do not accept the depth of maladministration, poor leadership and bad governance are mobilized to overcome the problem?” he said.

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