Ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar yesterday fired a fresh broadside at former President Olusegun Obasanjo for the alleged attempt to extend his tenure beyond two terms in 2007.
Atiku said he resisted the plot and Nigeria is reaping the fruits today.
The former vice president who recently dumped the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to actualize his presidential ambition in 2019 said: “I was largely frozen out in the second term of our tenure, and I regret that we had that disagreement with my boss.
“Some say I was disloyal, but I looked at the events in Zimbabwe recently, and it gives me confidence that I did the right thing fighting the attempts to elongate the presidential tenure beyond eight years.
“If I did not win that fight, do you think we would be having a discussion on young people getting into leadership today?”
He was responding to an open letter written to him by popular comedian, Francis Agoda, better known as I Go Dye following Atiku’s return to the PDP.
I Go Dye had told Atiku to stop “using sentimental empathy on the youths to express his political ambition.”
He added: “Sir, you are one of those that have immensely benefited from Nigeria since your birth in 1946.
‘’Having worked for 20 years with the Nigeria Customs where you retired at the age of 43 in 1989 as Deputy Director, your bucket list sure looks good because you were obviously employed at youth 23.
“In 1999 you became governor of Adamawa and ultimately the Vice President, all of these you achieved at 53. What did you do during your time in that exalted position?
“ When will the youths like in your time get a chance? I am motivated to speak, based on your statement: A party that does not take the youths into account is a dying party. The future belongs to the young. Please which of the future?
“Remarkably, between 1999 and 2007 that you were the vice president of Nigeria, it is recorded that tertiary institutions witnessed several strikes that wasted 17 months ,three weeks and three days. Within this period, what did you do?”
However,Atiku writing on his Twitter handle said: “As VP, I can only be judged on the responsibilities I was given. A VP obviously is not the driver of government. For example, you can’t blame Professor Osinbajo for all that is going on with the current government. He can only do what he’s allowed to do.
”As VP, I assembled what is arguably the best economic team ever in Nigeria. It was made up of young, world-class professionals who came home to work. Some of those professionals are now political leaders, governors and world leaders in their own right.
“You mentioned that I never brought young people into leadership, but my record speaks differently. I have a proven record of bringing young, unknown professionals into service.
“Many of the professionals and ministers I brought in were in their 30s and early 40s. Some of those young leaders have become governors in their states.
“ I went to the World Bank and met a bright lady, convinced her to come back home, and she became a star in our government. To show you we had effective leadership, the same lady could not replicate her exploits under a different government.
“I was also in charge of privatization and I have witnesses that I never interfered with the process. I never bought anything belonging to the government.
“I was quite wealthy before coming into government, with declared assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars in 1999 (which was put in a trust when I became VP); so it was understandable that many of the wealthy Nigerian business people who participated in the privatization programme were my friends.
“Did I use my influence to get them better deals? No. As the then DG of BPE testified under oath, I never used my position to interfere with his work.
“My legacy as vice president, I would say is the banking consolidation process, which I gave political backing. Many big people were putting a lot of political pressure to not change the status quo, but we knew that if that consolidation was not done, Nigeria could not grow. Because of that banking consolidation, Nigerian banks don’t fail anymore the way they used to.
“I oversaw the telecoms revolution, which is why young people like you, I Go Dye, now have a flourishing career. Under our tenure, we witnessed a large repatriation of Nigerians back to Nigeria, driven by the hope of the recovering economy. It is sad that many of those young people are heading back abroad now — this is to show you that leadership matters.
“I know many of these have been forgotten because it was a long time ago, and successive administrations did not follow up on the progress we made. But that is also not to say we were blameless. I was largely frozen out in the second term of our tenure, and I regret that we had that disagreement with my boss. Some say I was disloyal, but I looked at the events in Zimbabwe recently, and it gives me confidence that I did the right thing fighting the attempts to elongate the presidential tenure beyond eight years. If I did not win that fight, do you think we would be having a discussion on young people getting into leadership today?”
On Intels of which he is a part owner, Atiku said: “It was the Shagari government that started the Onne Port and later abandoned it. In summary, my business partner and I saw an opportunity to build Nigeria’s oil industry using world-class infrastructure, but driven by Nigerians. We went out and took loans to build the facilities, but as we went on, more opportunities opened up, which allowed us access to even more capital. We ended up borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars, mostly from Europe, to build the port, singlehandedly charting the course of Nigeria’s oil industry.
”I Go Dye, I’m not a messiah. I do not promise Eldorado or $1 = N1. But I always ask to look at the economic progress we made under my leadership and what I am doing in private business and judge me by those. People say I became rich in government. It’s a lie. I had hundreds of millions of dollars in assets declared in 1999. My businesses (my shares of which were held in a Blind Trust while I was in government) continued to grow since then. I was able to personally bankroll the PDP back then, so surely I was not poor. But I understand it is politics. So it’s normal to be called names. But how come in all these years, none of my opponents has found any evidence to indict me?
The people who are afraid of me changing the status quo they enjoy will always try to frighten young people about me.”
