An encounter with Mbeki, Buhari, AbduSalami

The meeting which lasted for about an hour took place at Buhari’s personal office located on Jabi Road, Unguwar Rimi. Mbeki and Abdusalami had earlier met with President Goodluck Jonathan and the content of their meeting was never revealed to the public. General Buhari is the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in […]

The meeting which lasted for about an hour took place at Buhari’s personal office located on Jabi Road, Unguwar Rimi. Mbeki and Abdusalami had earlier met with President Goodluck Jonathan and the content of their meeting was never revealed to the public.

General Buhari is the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the rescheduled elections and major challenger of President Jonathan’s reelection bid.
As usual, I and few other news reporters swarmed around the area to get the story; some of us actually with pre-planned interview questions for the leaders especially Mr. Mbeki who is viewed in Africa as one the respected leaders on the continent.
Unfortunately for me, my mission to interview Mbeki did not materialise  because upon arrival at the office, a man walking with forearm crutches told me straightaway that the meeting was strictly confidential and no journalist will be allowed to go into the conference room. I met The Nation Newspapers correspondent, Abdulgafar Alabelewe, and Suleiman Yakubu of Hamada Radio together with the elderly man, but as soon as he passed his information to me he limped to his spacious office adjacent to where I met them.  About 10 minutes later the Bureau Chief of Leadership Newspapers in Kaduna, Midat Joseph, joined us.
My mission was to know the purpose of the meeting especially three weeks to the elections and to ask Mbeki a number of questions on continental and global peace initiatives. Again, I knew Mbeki, as a member of the African National Congress (ANC) who was in 1977 sent to Nigeria. Mbeki’s mission in Nigeria was to establish diplomatic relations with General Olusegun Obasanjo’s regime later both men served as presidents in their respective countries almost at the same time. So one of the questions I framed in my mind was about his relation with Nigerian leaders and government.
Mbeki was most noted for his efforts in setting up permanent institutions to serve Africa, such as the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the African Union (AU). Launched in 2001 with its headquarters in South Africa, NEPAD was designed to heed a call to Africans to find African solutions to their problems.
On the other hand General Abubakar and Mbeki were members of the AU High-Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) for Sudan and South Sudan and both are playing crucial roles in peaceful resolution of conflicts.
To add insult to injury, while I was scheming on how to skillfully throw one question to the leaders, Malam Ya’u Darazau, one of Buhari’s media aides, came hurriedly and informed us that the leaders have concluded their talks and wanted to leave but they have agreed for a photo session with journalists. Knowing the background of all the former leaders as straightforward in their interactions, I decided to shelve the idea of asking questions and study the body language of each leader.
They emerged from the meeting looking calm and took positions for the photo shots and I listened attentively to any possible side talk but none decided to talk. While photographers were taking pictures, General Abubakar asked one of his aides, certain Sani to use his ipad to take the photos. General Buhari suddenly told Abubakar that the pictures could be posted to his email address. “I am not IT compliant,” Abubakar replied and Buhari and Mbeki smiled.
While the two leaders were about leaving, Abubakar moved toward Buhari and spoke to him softly saying “please pray for peace” and Buhari replied “and pray for us too.”
Not to leave the venue prematurely, we decided to have a photo session with the APC presidential candidate who did not turn down our request.  The fact that we succeeded in getting the General to take photos, we still requested for an interview to try our lock. As shrewd as he was, Buhari told us that Abubakar and Mbeki would have been in the best position to answer our questions not him saying “and you have allowed them to go.”
I was able to gather from sources that the meeting was meant to ensure peaceful elections, especially with appeal to major candidates to shun violence.