Abiodun Onafuye/Abeokuta

Ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo

President of Guinea Bissau, a West African country, Jose Mario Vas has described Nigeria’s  former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo as one of the greatest African leaders that the continent should be proud of having  this century.

He stated this  when he paid an appreciation visit to  Obasanjo at the Presidential wing of the Muritala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, shortly after the end of the ECOWAS session in Abuja.

President Vas, who arrived aboard Nigerian Airforce Aircraft with number 5N FGN at 5.35pm disclosed that he was in Lagos to see Obasanjo and thanked him for his mediation into the crisis in Guinea Bissau.

President Jose Mario Vaz: thanks OBJ

The President went into a private session with Obasanjo for about one hour.

Vas, who spoke through an interpreter after the meeting with the former President said, “we have come to visit Baba to appreciate him for coming to Guinea Bissau.

“You know President Buhari appointed him special envoy to come and mediate into our crisis and he was able to put everybody on the same level.

“He really played important role in finding political solution to the situation we faced in Guinea Bissau and I told President Buhari that I needed to come and say thank you and wish him a merry Christmas”, the President said.

Vas added that Obasanjo did go a step further to demonstrate his fatherly role in African after he informed him about the need to intervene in Burkina Faso.

 “When I told him about the situation in Burkina Faso. I asked Baba to look into Burkina Faso as he did for Guinea Bissau. I should be frank to say that Baba is one of the greatest leaders in Africa. We must all be proud to have him in this continent”.

The former President later saw his visitor off at about 6:25pm.

In his reaction,Obasanjo said he was appointed by the President Muhammad Buhari as the special envoy, and he was able to contribute his little efforts to bring peace and stability to Guinea Bissau.

“It was just that the President seems not to get all that he wanted and the political party leadership seems not to get what they wanted too.

“But, we were able to resolve all this. I think he is just a man that appreciates such good deeds and that was where he came. I also asked him how far they are now doing and he said everything is going fine.

“He even wanted to go to my village from here, but I said not now, may be another time”, Obasanjo said.