From Jide Orintunsin in Minna, 09.26.2005

Speaking to newsmen in Minna yesterday after attending an all stakeholders meeting of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Niger state, Gana said the President was willing and ready to forgive his deputy when they meet one on one.
Gana who said that the misunderstanding was blown out of proportion by the public, noted that the differences would be resolved through the on-going one-on-one meeting between the two leaders.
Though, he said that the substantial part of the dispute was being expanded beyond its scope, Gana maintained that the President was willing to forgive anybody that offended him in the course of discharging his duties, when such a person asks for forgiveness.
“I want to assure you that the President is a highly responsible leader. He is a leader with tremendous respect for unity of purpose. He is willing and able to forgive any of those working with him, who made mistake,” he said.
Gana said that aside from the party’s efforts at resolving the differences, he was aware that there have been several one on one fence mending meetings between the two leaders, saying that “like they have done before, this matter will be resolved amicably.”
He said “the party is handling the matter maturely. It is being handled in such a way that it will not destroy the party.”
Advising the two leaders to sheathe their swords, Gana called for caution among supporters of Obasanjo and Atiku, saying, “ the two leaders are talking . We don’t want to give the reconciliation effort undue publicity, because we don’t want to cause any feeling of humiliation.”
He also said that the call on the Vice President to resign or be dropped was not the position of the PDP, adding “it was an individual opinion, which they are entitled to. I want to assure you that the party will be constitutional in resolving the issues”.
The cold war between the President and his deputy blew open recently when in a television programme, Obasanjo accused Atiku of disloyalty. This followed an interview Atiku had with THISDAY Board of Editors, where he said Obasanjo swore that he had no plan to succeed himself.
It, however, got to a head two Fridays ago when at THEWEEK leadership award ceremony in Lagos Atiku made remarks that were considered critical of Obasanjo.
In an apparent allusion to the public outcry against the recent hike in the prices of petroleum products which culminated in the mass protest march in Lagos and other state capitals, Atiku had said that it behoves a good leader to listen to the peoples outcries against bad policy.
He had said "we have had political leaders all these years but for most of our history we have not had good leadership...we must deepen democracy, we must move away from arbitrariness and impunity that are the hallmarks of military regimes."
Loyalists of President Obasanjo had interpreted this to mean that the Vice President had drawn the battle line with the President.
A PDP presidential aspirant, Brig-Gen Buba Marwa had on account of this called on Atiku to honourably resign as he had demonstrated that he "no longer owes any allegiance to the government he was elected to serve in".