President Goodluck Jonathan has begun moves to reconcile with former President Olusegun Obasanjo, as a means of ending the rift between them.

Jonathan and Obasanjo had fallen apart over the last few months, following critical comments made by Obasanjo about the government.

In a recent interview on Cable Network News, the former president criticised Jonathan’s handling of the Boko Haram insurgency and advised him to initiate a dialogue with the extremist sect.

Obasanjo told the CNN in the interview that Jonathan had been applying less of dialogue and more of force in solving the Boko Haram issue.

But the Presidency, in a reaction to the ex-President’s submission, said Obasanjo’s position on the Boko Haram issue had been contradictory.

Both men also disagreed on the choice of the chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees. While Jonathan rooted for a former BOT Chairman, Chief Tony Anenih, his predecessor reportedly backed a former PDP National Chairman, Dr. Ahmadu Ali.

The division between the President and his predecessor led to a stalemate at the last meeting of BOT members at the Presidential Villa on January 8.

After a three-hour meeting, BOT members failed to produce a new chairman of the board as expected.

The meeting was meant to elect a replacement for Obasanjo who resigned from the position last year for personal reasons.

The crisis over the BOT chairmanship also snowballed into moves by governors elected on the platform of the party to remove the National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, over his alleged meddling in the politics of Adamawa State PDP and unilateral dissolution of the executive council of the state chapter.

Matters came to a head when a Federal High Court in Abuja on January 11 sacked PDP National Secretary, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola.

The national secretary was nominated by Obasanjo and the governors and his removal was seen as a big blow to the former president’s control of the party in the South-West.

However, Jonathan made a U-turn on his rift with Obasanjo when he agreed to reach out to the former president at a meeting with some former national chairmen of the party on Wednesday evening at the Presidential Villa.

The former chairmen were said to have been led to the parley by Tukur.

“The party elders and the President spoke at length on the ways to resolve the crisis in the party. But one of the decisions reached was the need for the President to mend fences with former President Obasanjo.

“They believe that once the two leaders are together, the tension in the party will be reduced to the barest minimum,” a PDP leader who attended the meeting said.

In line with the decision, our correspondent learnt that Jonathan had been prevailed upon to try and attend a civic reception organised in honour of Obasanjo by the South-West PDP in Abeokuta, the  Ogun State capital on Saturday.

– The Punch