For a long while now, news have been going round the media that there exist bad blood between Mr President and the Former Military President, General Ibrahim Babangida, in fact an Abuja based newspaper published a story on Monday that Mr President was seeking an audience with Gen. Babangida to congratulate him of the start of this year’s fasting, an invitation that was turned down by the General, but after reading the story, the Presidency has asked the daily tabloid to retract the story because that did happen, and to add credibility presidencies story General Babangida rebuffed insinuations of bad blood between him and President Goodluck Jonathan, asserting that there was never a time he turned the President away from having breakfast in his house.
Babangida said in a statement that the newspaper report alleging that he turned President Jonathan away from coming to his house to have the early morning breakfast before the commencement of the Islamic fast was entirely wrong.
President Jonathan had last Tuesday, through a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media, Dr. Rueben Abati, equally refuted the story and demanded an apology.
Emphasizing his respect and reverence for the office of the President and the person of President Jonathan, General Babangida said he was more than willing to have any meeting with him for the purpose of nation building.
He said: “There was no time that the President requested for a breakfast meeting with General IBB, let alone turned down by the former President.
“Former President IBB had visited President Goodluck Jonathan more than twice since his assumption of office, meetings which afforded the two leaders the opportunity to brainstorm on the challenges confronting the country.
“It is, therefore, very unfair to the persons of former President General Ibrahim Babangida and President Goodluck Jonathan to be portrayed as if there was bad blood between them.
“Having served this country before and knowing the enormity of the challenges of governance, General Ibrahim Babangida will be more than willing to have unconditional breakfast meeting or any other meeting for that matter with the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria.
“While General IBB will be looking forward to any of such invitation now and in the near future, it is important and appropriate on the part of the media to always cross-check their facts correctly before going around town with sensational headlines at the detriment of bona fide citizens of Nigeria, especially that of the President”.
“As a trained officer of the Nigeria military, the former President is equipped with discipline and patriotism to constituted authorities at different levels of government. Given this orientation therefore, General IBB will honour an invitation from his ward councillor without equivocation, let alone an invitation from the number one citizen of Nigeria. If there was any reason to refuse any invitation, General IBB will, in his humble manner, formally inform his host or guest the reason why.
“The publication under reference, therefore, is utterly out of place and a concocted one aimed at putting the two elder statesmen in bad light. We hope the media will take correction and reflect these views accordingly and with similar prominence.”