Tag: atiku

MANY months ago, this column beamed the searchlight on former vice president Atiku Abubakar, decrying his political flip-flops and suggesting that had he been more stable in his political loyalties, he would probably have achieved much more in politics. There was nowhere in the searchlight where his person was denigrated, only his politics. In the view of this column at the time, Alhaji Atiku was believed to be inscrutable, brave and indomitable. He had traversed virtually every serious political persuasion in Nigeria, from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) where he was a formidable aurochs, to the Action Congress (AC) where he romped as a bird of passage, and then back to the PDP in the classical mould of an opportunist, and finally to the All Progressives Congress (APC) where the brightest and the bravest political gladiators and rebels of the day fomented a political rebellion against the presidency of Goodluck Jonathan. In every situation and everywhere, Alhaji Atiku was present, pertinacious, consummate and indescribably accommodating and wholly without malice.

It was, therefore, not surprising that early this week, the current edition of Zero Tolerance, the quarterly magazine of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), published the former vice president’s damning views on a number of political personalities, chief among whom were ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo, Governor Nasir el-Rufai and former EFCC boss Nuhu Ribadu. His incendiary views measure high on the Richter scale. Three years after leaving the PDP after a bruising battle with Chief Obasanjo, Alhaji Atiku had in 2009 visited his former boss in Abeokuta, capital of Ogun State, to seek ways of rejoining the PDP. The cause of the initial disaffection was Chief Obasanjo’s open plot to perpetuate himself in office through the notorious third term agenda. In the Zero Tolerance interview, Alhaji Atiku reiterated his view that even beyond third term, Chief Obasanjo had in fact plotted to rule indefinitely. The interview, not to say the former vice president’s exposition on the real intentions of his former boss, is certain to stir controversy once again. Chief Obasanjo, the country knows, never lets anyone have the last word.

Alhaji Atiku’s account of his relationship with Mallam Ribadu is even less flattering. He suggests in the interview that Mallam Ribadu came privately to apologise for publicly describing the ex-vice president as a corrupt politician. “When he came to ask me for forgiveness, I said if you want me to forgive you, Nuhu, go to the same television stations where you said I was corrupt and say you now (have) realised that I am not corrupt,” the former vice president said. “Then he said ‘sir, you have forgiven so many people who have offended you publicly without them going to TV stations to apologise to you’ and I said, ‘your case is different because first of all, I helped to found the EFCC’. I was instrumental to your appointment, so, I believe I have contributed to your development and this is how you are paying me back. In any case, he kept on apologising, and I said, ‘okay, no problem. That closed the chapter’.” It is not certain that Mallam Ribadu would like to controvert Alhaji Atiku’s account of their private meeting.

The former vice president was even more scathing on the controversial stormy petrel of Kaduna politics, Mallam el-Rufai, who had pointedly accused him of bribing senators and aborting trips to the United States in order to avoid arrest over corruption allegations. “Did he give any evidence or prove where I was corrupt?” snorted Alhaji Atiku. He then goes on to offer more details: “Again, this is the same el-Rufai whom I was instrumental in bringing into government and making him Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, and eventually a minister. You also forgot that it was the same el-Rufai and Nuhu that my boss used in cooking up the indictment that was eventually thrown out. So, where is the evidence of corruption? It’s just not fair for you to say somebody is corrupt without substantiation. This is the same el-Rufai who testified on TV that he worked with me as DG of BPE for four years and there was never a time I asked him or instructed him to do anything unethical in those years. So, how am I a corrupt person? This is the same el-Rufai and others who incorporated Transcorp during my time as Vice President and offered me shares and I declined. I wrote them officially to say it was unethical of me to have accepted those offers. So, where is the corruption toga coming from?”

Unlike Chief Obasanjo who may want to measure his response, particularly the timing and occasion, and Mallam Ribadu whom age and experience have apparently taught the virtues of restraint and taciturnity, the impetuous and intemperate Mallam el-Rufai exhibits no such constraints. Immediately the substance of the Alhaji Atiku interview came out in the EFCC magazine, the Kaduna governor drafted his response, as foul and abusive as ever, and flung it into the public space. He vigorously denied offering Alhaji Atiku any Trasncorp shares, and complained that the former vice president’s media machine was let loose on him to soil his reputation. “Despite the viciousness of the attacks,” croaked Mallam el-Rufai against Alhaji Atiku’s media machine, “they did not contest or explain away his (Atiku’s) shenanigans that were detailed in (my) book, from the Ericsson manoeuvre, to the Abuja water treatment plant contract and his obsession with marabouts and their assurances of the political big prize.”

The Kaduna governor continues: “He (Atiku) might also consider a full reckoning for what he and his acolytes did with public funds in the PTDF imbroglio, rather than indulging the usual bold face of the Nigerian big-man. As a federal public servant, my oath of allegiance appropriately stood with the Federal Republic of Nigeria, not the big men whose conduct I was privileged to witness at close quarters. People like Alhaji Atiku think that loyalty to them should be the goal of a public officer, and that it should trump the oath of allegiance to the country…Alhaji Atiku is already running for 2019, and he thinks that he can make people like us collateral damage in his attempt to rejuvenate his image…This obsession for power inclined him to support the rebellion against the party that manifested in the National Assembly, and is continuing with obvious disrespect for the incumbent president.”

The Alhaji Atiku interview was done in June, but published in November. It is not too clear that he meant the interview and his statements as a precursor of a presidential race. But nothing can be ruled out. However, there are also unverified suggestions that Mallam el-Rufai might be interested in the 2019 presidential race should the president decline to run. Again, this cannot be substantiated. But while Alhaji Atiku does not fawn at anyone’s feet, regardless of his other faults, Mallam el-Rufai is on the other hand reputed to ingratiate himself with those who could advance his ambition while also possessing a spectacular ability to pull the carpet from under the feet of his mentors. He protests his innocence of all the allegations against him, but none among Chief Obasanjo and Alhaji Atiku, nor even Muhammadu Buhari whom he now serenades, has not attracted his bitter lampoon at one time or the other.

Nigerian politicians, as Alhaji Atiku, Chief Obasanjo and President Buhari demonstrate uncannily, do not leave bad enough alone. Chief Obasanjo can never cure himself of the third term (or what his former vice president describes as life presidency ambition) malady; Alhaji Atiku can never live down the corruption label slammed on him irrespective of his most valiant effort; and President Buhari can never erase doubts about his puny democratic credentials. In the same way, Mallam el-Rufai can never disabuse anyone of his fickleness and acerbity. What is most intriguing, however, is Alhaji Atiku’s proclivity for raking controversy and meeting his opponents (he says they are never enemies, a point Mallam el-Rufai will probably dispute) with a combativeness that belies his unquenchable interest in the presidency, an interest allegedly fuelled by marabouts.

If Mallam el-Rufai has interest in the presidency, he shows neither the talent for both the race and the office itself nor the temper and wisdom that inculcate gravitas in presidential aspirants. Chief Obasanjo and President Buhari were lucky to have won the great office, for they also showed neither the democratic principles nor the deep ideological or even pragmatic convictions necessary to hold down the top office. The campaign to vilify Alhaji Atiku as a corrupt politician has stuck. There is hardly any Nigerian of note who thinks the campaign is overdone, despite the absence of evidence or conviction, and despite towering head and shoulders above the last three occupants of that great office. If this inscrutable exemplar is to make a headway in 2019, given the interest he has appeared to indicate, he will need twice, perhaps even thrice, the good fortune Chief Obasanjo, Dr Jonathan and President Buhari had to win the highest office. Nay, he will need more than his iconoclastic combativeness and candour to win, perhaps a miracle even.

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, said yesterday that no member of his family ever reached the age of 70.

He spoke in Yola at an event to mark his 70th birthday by students of American University of Nigeria Academy and Primary schools.

“It is a milestone in my life because nobody in my family has ever lived up to 70 years,” Abubakar said.

He lauded the students for “the surprise of a birthday bash’’ and reiterated his commitment to continue to support education in the country.

The former vice president called on the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to suspend the ongoing warning strike for the sake of Nigerian students.

He said that education was the backbone of development, stressing that nothing should be done to jeopardise education

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has said that he has not visited the United States since 2007 on personal grounds.

He said his not travelling to the US had nothing to do with either alleged laundering of $40million  or the $100,000 bribe allegation over which a Congressman, William Jefferson, was convicted.

Atiku said the $40million was his legitimate cash which he transferred to the United States.

He said since his wife, Jennifer, was no longer living in the US, he had no reason to go there.

Atiku is said to own a mansion in Potomac which he has not been to in the last nine years.

He cleared the air also on the rumour that former President Olusegun Obasanjo knelt down for him to get the second term ticket  of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2003.

Atiku, who opened up on the allegations against him, said he was not corrupt, contrary to some perception created around him.

He bared his mind in an interview with Zero Tolerance, the in-house magazine of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC).

He reacted to a 2010 United States Senate report which accused him of laundering over $40million in suspicious funds into the U.S. between 2000 and 2008 with his wife, Jennifer.

Atiku said: “It(the $40m) was an allegation which wasn’t proved. It was my legitimate money which I transferred to the U.S.; there was nothing about it.

“More so, I was not indicted in that report. They only said suspicious funds but I proved before the Senate committee that they were not suspect.”

On the alleged $100,000 bribe in which he was implicated with  Jefferson, he denied any relationship  with the jailed ex-lawmaker.

The encounter is as follows:

Your friend, the Louisiana Congressman William Jefferson…?

He was not my friend

He was said to be close to you?

Never! He was not close to me.

Okay, what was the relationship between you and William Jefferson?

There was no relationship whatsoever.

Then tell us why he was linked to you?

“The man wrote a letter to my office on a communications project, and for God’s sake, I was not the minister of Communications; so I endorsed the letter to the minister of Communication to address as his purview.

“After that, I travelled to the United States and he came to see me to bring the same copy of the letter. I told him, ‘well, I got a copy of this letter and have forwarded it to the ministry of Communication to get in touch with you’, and he left.

“That was all we discussed. Apparently, I didn’t know he had duped a lady and collected “marked money” from her in my name; unknown to him the FBI was on his trail.

“But, of course, there was no way he could give me money because, what was $100,000 to me? Eventually, my wife’s residence was searched and nothing was found there, but when his residence was searched, of course the money was found there; and he was convicted. I was not even called as a witness.”

The former VP said he was never under any travel restriction to the U.S..

He said: “There is no travel restriction on me to the United States. After leaving office, I’ve been to the U.S. several times to visit my family, which has eventually relocated.

Asked of the last time he visited  the U.S., and why he doesn’t go, he simply replied: “The reason why I always visited the U.S. was because of my wife. She is no more in the U.S. So, I don’t have compelling reason to visit the U.S. now.”

Atiku dismissed the insinuations that he is  corrupt.

He said: “Well, if Atiku Abubakar was corrupt, he would have been found guilty of corruption by all the panels and probes and cases that were brought before the courts.

“I remember the only corruption indictment against me was a white paper which was cooked up by our own administration overnight, including the very EFCC that I helped found, and other cabinet ministers, which I challenged in court.

“The court rightly dismissed all those indictment as being mere political; and till today nobody has ever indicted me of corruption.”

Atiku debunked insinuations that Obasanjo knelt down for him in 2003.

He added: “It is not true that he knelt for me. Of course, he came to my house and I refused to see him. He started it. How can you go and declare your candidacyand refuse to declare that you will run with your running mate?

“So I had to fight back to remain on the ticket. Eventually he declared that he was running with me and then came to my house and we made up.”

On whether he suggested the “Mandela option”, to succeed Obasanjo, the ex-Vice President said there was nothing like that..

He said: “Absolutely not true. Rather, he accused one of my aides of promoting the ‘Mandela option’.

Atiku spoke of his respect for Obasanjo, irrespective of the disagreement he had with the ex-President in office.

He said: “I still thank God and him for nominating me as his Vice President which gave me the opportunity to experience governance at the highest level. We had political disagreement quite rightly so. I never shied away from political disagreement; we quarrelled and where we couldn’t make up, it became public knowledge.

“But still, I respect him as my former boss. The fact that we disagreed politically is no reason why we should be at loggerheads all our lifetime. In any case, as far as politics is concerned I don’t have any enemy; I could have an opponent. Enmity is too strong a word to use in a relationship that is purely political.”

On whether or not it was morally appropriate of him to have established a university as a  vice president, Atiku said: “You need to have studied the structure of the university.

“ More than 20 years ago, I started with a nursery school, then a primary school before I established the university. The whole institution is a trust and non-profit foundation.

“Till date, I still don’t make any profit, and I have continued to subsidise the education being offered in that place. It is a complete educational community from kindergarten to the university based on the American system in one place which doesn’t belong to me or the family.”

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has said that he has not visited the United States since 2007 on personal grounds.

He said his not travelling to the US had nothing to do with either alleged laundering of $40million  or the $100,000 bribe allegation over which a Congressman, William Jefferson, was convicted.

Atiku said the $40million was his legitimate cash which he transferred to the United States.

He said since his wife, Jennifer, was no longer living in the US, he had no reason to go there.

Atiku is said to own a mansion in Potomac which he has not been to in the last nine years.

He cleared the air also on the rumour that former President Olusegun Obasanjo knelt down for him to get the second term ticket  of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2003.

Atiku, who opened up on the allegations against him, said he was not corrupt, contrary to some perception created around him.

He bared his mind in an interview with Zero Tolerance, the in-house magazine of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC).

He reacted to a 2010 United States Senate report which accused him of laundering over $40million in suspicious funds into the U.S. between 2000 and 2008 with his wife, Jennifer.

Atiku said: “It(the $40m) was an allegation which wasn’t proved. It was my legitimate money which I transferred to the U.S.; there was nothing about it.

“More so, I was not indicted in that report. They only said suspicious funds but I proved before the Senate committee that they were not suspect.”

On the alleged $100,000 bribe in which he was implicated with  Jefferson, he denied any relationship  with the jailed ex-lawmaker.

The encounter is as follows:

Your friend, the Louisiana Congressman William Jefferson…?

He was not my friend

He was said to be close to you?

Never! He was not close to me.

Okay, what was the relationship between you and William Jefferson?

There was no relationship whatsoever.

Then tell us why he was linked to you?

“The man wrote a letter to my office on a communications project, and for God’s sake, I was not the minister of Communications; so I endorsed the letter to the minister of Communication to address as his purview.

“After that, I travelled to the United States and he came to see me to bring the same copy of the letter. I told him, ‘well, I got a copy of this letter and have forwarded it to the ministry of Communication to get in touch with you’, and he left.

“That was all we discussed. Apparently, I didn’t know he had duped a lady and collected “marked money” from her in my name; unknown to him the FBI was on his trail.

“But, of course, there was no way he could give me money because, what was $100,000 to me? Eventually, my wife’s residence was searched and nothing was found there, but when his residence was searched, of course the money was found there; and he was convicted. I was not even called as a witness.”

The former VP said he was never under any travel restriction to the U.S..

He said: “There is no travel restriction on me to the United States. After leaving office, I’ve been to the U.S. several times to visit my family, which has eventually relocated.

Asked of the last time he visited  the U.S., and why he doesn’t go, he simply replied: “The reason why I always visited the U.S. was because of my wife. She is no more in the U.S. So, I don’t have compelling reason to visit the U.S. now.”

Atiku dismissed the insinuations that he is  corrupt.

He said: “Well, if Atiku Abubakar was corrupt, he would have been found guilty of corruption by all the panels and probes and cases that were brought before the courts.

“I remember the only corruption indictment against me was a white paper which was cooked up by our own administration overnight, including the very EFCC that I helped found, and other cabinet ministers, which I challenged in court.

“The court rightly dismissed all those indictment as being mere political; and till today nobody has ever indicted me of corruption.”

Atiku debunked insinuations that Obasanjo knelt down for him in 2003.

He added: “It is not true that he knelt for me. Of course, he came to my house and I refused to see him. He started it. How can you go and declare your candidacyand refuse to declare that you will run with your running mate?

“So I had to fight back to remain on the ticket. Eventually he declared that he was running with me and then came to my house and we made up.”

On whether he suggested the “Mandela option”, to succeed Obasanjo, the ex-Vice President said there was nothing like that..

He said: “Absolutely not true. Rather, he accused one of my aides of promoting the ‘Mandela option’.

Atiku spoke of his respect for Obasanjo, irrespective of the disagreement he had with the ex-President in office.

He said: “I still thank God and him for nominating me as his Vice President which gave me the opportunity to experience governance at the highest level. We had political disagreement quite rightly so. I never shied away from political disagreement; we quarrelled and where we couldn’t make up, it became public knowledge.

“But still, I respect him as my former boss. The fact that we disagreed politically is no reason why we should be at loggerheads all our lifetime. In any case, as far as politics is concerned I don’t have any enemy; I could have an opponent. Enmity is too strong a word to use in a relationship that is purely political.”

On whether or not it was morally appropriate of him to have established a university as a  vice president, Atiku said: “You need to have studied the structure of the university.

“ More than 20 years ago, I started with a nursery school, then a primary school before I established the university. The whole institution is a trust and non-profit foundation.

“Till date, I still don’t make any profit, and I have continued to subsidise the education being offered in that place. It is a complete educational community from kindergarten to the university based on the American system in one place which doesn’t belong to me or the family.”

 

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar yesterday blamed dictatorship and corruption in most African societies for the centralisation of too much power and resources in the central governments.

He warned that the continent would not go far in achieving freedom, and growth in the societies, unless the countries decentralise power and resources.

He spoke at the African Veterinary Association/Nigerian Veterinary Medical Association Congress in Enugu, with the theme: “Towards Economic Diversification and Sustainable Development in Africa”.

He made it clear that if economic activities were diversified without modernising them, the African continent would not go far.

He said: “If we diversify sources of government revenue but continue to concentrate too much power and resources in the central governments in African diverse societies, then we won’t go far in achieving freedom, development and advancing our societies.”

The former vice president regretted that five decades after most African countries gained political independence, their economies remain mostly mono-crop economies, largely dependent on export of single primary commodities, such as minerals and agricultural products.

Atiku observed that the prices of these commodities were determined internationally by factors over which the African countries have little influence and the prices often fluctuate rather widely, making the economies very vulnerable to externally induced shocks.

He noted that reliance on single primary commodities retard industrialisation and manufacturing, add little value to the economy and high consequences for politics of African societies.

“These include the preponderance of rent-seeking, state dominance of economic activities, vicious struggles for state power and the attendant corruption and trends towards dictatorship.

“And we continue to have challenges with poor infrastructure and insecurity, both of which discourage investment and tourism, deteriorating educational system and inadequate support and promotion of research and innovation.

“But our potentials are enormous if we truly want to turn our fortunes around. And we must. The diversification of African economies is obviously critical and one thing around which we have consensus in Africa and within our various countries,” Atiku said.

He described diversification of the economy as a genuine change in policy and practice that results in the promotion of diverse economic activities by citizens and corporations in ways that contribute significantly to economic growth, employment, rising incomes and government revenues through taxation and other resources.

“As you deliberate, consider these issues. And consider the role of democratic governance in the quest for the diversification of Africa’s economies? Does it help or hurt for people to have a say in how they are governed, including economic governance, policy development and the accountability of leaders?

”As professional bodies, AVA and NVMA have critical roles to play in improving African agriculture, especially veterinary health and the quantity and quality of our animal protein intake as well as the prospects of our earning vital foreign exchange from exporting meat and dairy products to the rest of the world,” Atiku said.

On the position of Africa on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and what extent Africa should embrace it as a way to improve agriculture and nutrition and the risk if any,  Atiku urged the participants to help with evidence-based advice to Africa’s governments rather than one governed by fad, fear or paranoia.

He however urged the veterinarians not to forget to work hard to improve their profession, starting with improvements in veterinary education and training, and professional regulation to ensure high quality and ethical practices.

The highlight of the event was the presentation of awards of excellence to the ex-vice president, Enugu State Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi and Eddie Agbo, the inventor of urine-based malaria test kit by the African Veterinary Association.

 

 

 

Former Vice President and Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Atiku Abubakar, has described the release of 21 Chibok girls as a sign of things to come and a ray of light on the fight against insurgency in the country.

Similarly, the Buhari Media Support Group said the release of the girls was an attestation of the pragmatism of the Buhari government in resolving issues that had become national challenges for Nigeria and Nigerians.

In a statement from his media office in Abuja, the former Vice President said the news of the release of the 21 girls was a clear indication that hope always wins and prays for the release of the remaining girls who are still in captivity.

While congratulating President Buhari for what he called a monumental achievement and a sign of things to come, Atiku said: “President Buhari assured the country that he would return the Chibok girls to their families, and this is the evidence we all need that he is committed to delivering on his promise.”

He was full of praises for “the role played by the Nigerian military, negotiators, activists and campaigners in ensuring that this milestone was achieved. This just shows how much we can achieve as a people when we stand in unity and faith.”

He challenged the government not to relent in ensuring that the remaining 197 girls are released and reunited with their families.

“If we continue at this positive and commendable rate, the rest of the girls will soon be reunited with their families and Nigerians can close this sad chapter in our nation’s history once and for all.”

Meanwhile, the Buhari Media Support Group (BMSG) said the release of the girls is not just cheering news but a clear evidence of President Buhari’s pragmatic approach to resolving national challenges.

In a statement signed by its Chairman, Mallam Muhammad Labo, and Secretary, Cassidy Madueke, made available to The Nation in Abuja, the group commended the President for the achievement and congratulated the parents of the girls for reuniting with their children after over two years in captivity.

The organisation however said that the President should be appreciated for subjecting the dictates of sovereignty that limit negotiation of any sorts with terrorists, officially, to the empathy of parenthood and the soft emotions of a father.

The statement said further that by this singular act, the President has put a smile on the faces of the Nigerian mass by sacrificing the universal doctrine of no negotiation with terrorists for empathy.

The group also said that the release of the girls has further enhanced the people’s confidence in the President as a man who matches his word with action, adding that under 16 months in government, President Buhari has degraded the once dreaded Boko Haram terrorists off Nigerian territory and reduced the once seeming protracted rebellion into a whimper, treacherously seeking out soft targets to register a diminished presence.