Wale Elegbede 
Days after former President O l u s e g u n Obasanjo said he decided not to grant Aare Onakankafo of Yorubaland, Iba Gani Adams audience in and out office because his Adams’past ways which negated his standards, Aare Onakankafo yesterday said as a progressive, he did not share similar character or values with the former president, who he alleged rode to power to fight the progressives.
Reports in the media last week had it that a reconciliatory meeting between Obasanjo and Adams was held in the Lagos residence of leader of the Yoruba sociopolitical group, Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo. This, the former president denied, insisting that where he met Adams was not on a reconciliatory mission. Obasanjo had in a statement signed by his Special Assistant on Media, Kehinde Akinyemi, refuted the content of the report, declaring that his visit to Adebanjo, where he met Gani Adams, was not on a reconciliatory mission. He said: “It is true that I paid a personal visit to Chief Ayo Adebanjo at his residence in Lekki Phase 1 on December 2, 2020 and I met Gani Adams there. “I have no quarrel with Gani Adams, but for his past way of life which was not in accord with my standards and principles.
I have in the past, both in government and out of government, refused to grant Gani’s request to visit me.” Apparently miffed, Gani Adams yesterday said that “Baba Obasanjo has the right to say that there was no reconciliation on that day but the only thing I don’t like in that statement was condemning my character.” He went on: “I don’t know what he meant by my character but all I know is that we don’t share the same character because I know that President Obasanjo has never been progressive while he was in or out of office.
“So, definitely, we can’t share the same character. I can’t be in line with a person who is not a progressive. “When he said he doesn’t like my character, President Obasanjo will never like the character of any person who is progressive. For talking about my character in a negative way, if I do not respond, it can affect me and my family.
“I initially didn’t want to attend the meeting when Chief Ayo Adebanjo told me. But I decided to honour the invitation because Chief Adebanjo is one of the Yoruba elders I respect so much. “He stated in his statement that whoever needs a reconciliatory meeting with him should come to his residence in Abeokuta. I don’t have the need for any reconciliatory meeting with him. That one has been foreclosed. I cannot even go to his house.”
