Wonderful people working with Jonathan, says Fani-Kayode

After series of denigrating comments about the person of President Goodluck Jonathan and his administration, former aviation minister, Femi Fani-Kayode, gave a surprising positive comment on Nigeria’s presidency on Tuesday, describing the current occupants as ‘wonderful people’.

The former minister made the remark at the Presidential Villa, Abuja where he met with President Jonathan for about one hour behind closed-door on issues suspected to be political.

While speaking with state house correspondents, Fani-Kayode expressed his delight at the meeting, describing it as nothing unusual.

“This is a Presidential Villa, the President is a President of Nigeria and every single person in this country that is a Nigerian is entitled to come here from time to time, when the doors are open to come and pay their respect to the wonderful people that are here. As a Nigerian, I have done that today and I am delighted to be here,” he said.

In the past months, Fani-Kayode had written a number articles as well as made several public comments to cast aspersion on the president and his style of governance.

On his previous criticism of the President and his government, he said the most important thing was for people with different positions on issues to resolve their differences and come together to move the nation forward.

He noted that every right thinking and responsible Nigerian should be able to visit the President from time to time and help to move the nation forward.

He, however, declined to give details of what he discussed with the President during the meeting.

Fani-Kayode had consistently drummed support for the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC, which, according to him, was the only alternative party to save Nigeria from its socio-political and economic doldrums.

His recent comments on possible emergence of a combination of two Muslims to vie for President and Vice President on the APC platform in the 2015 election revealed a sharp disagreement between him and the party leadership.

The former minister said he was yet to decide whether to leave the APC or not even as activities on 2015 general elections pick gradually.

“The step that I will take will be made known to Nigerians at the right time.

“The most important thing and I think you are fully aware of this is that I cannot and I will not be associated with a situation whereby any group of people is promoting a religion above another.

“I think all of us have gone past the stage of religious politics in this country. We must treat the Muslim community with utmost respect and we must treat the Christian community in the same way and even the non-religious,” he said.