Shagari Clarifies Aso Rock Visit, Rallies Support For Jonathan

Source: thewillnigeria.com
PHOTO: SHEHU SHAGARI.
PHOTO: SHEHU SHAGARI.

San Francisco Feb 15, (THEWILL) – Former president of Nigeria Alhaji Shehu Shagari has debunked newspaper reports that the former heads of state that paid Acting President Goodluck Jonathan a visit at the villa advised him to scale down Yar'Adua's Seven-Point Agenda.

Speaking on a British Broadcasting Service, BBC Hausa Service programme on Monday, Shagari said the group could not given such advise because the Seven Point Agenda was put together by the group of former presidents.

Defending their support for Dr. Jonathan, he said the acting president's ascension to the presidency was more like a "rescue mission."

"When we met the Acting President, no journalist was there, I therefore, do not know where they got such information that we advised him to streamline the Seven-point Agenda to two or three. We never did anything like that.

"How can we ask him to reduce the Seven-point Agenda when we were the people who made them up for him, he put the agenda together and he has reasons for doing so, we only hope they will make the country great and better.

"You may wish to know that I don't read newspapers but we decided to lend our voices to the political happenings in the country because we, as citizens, have a stake and we owe it a duty to intervene in order to get the country and the people out of the political confusion we found ourselves in at the time.

"It is true we visited him because he invited us and we gave our useful advice on the way out and we are happy that we are out of it for now," the former president said.

On Yar'Adua's reaction to the former president's support for Jonathan, Shagari said," What we did was in the interest of Nigeria and Nigerians, and we are daily praying for him to get better and return to his desk. After all we have not heard from him again after his last interview with the BBC Hausa service about a month ago."

Shagari did not disclose their discussions with the Acting President maintaining that it was strictly a "private matter."


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