This is the story of the only child of a Fulani trader and farmer, Garba Abubaker and his wife, Aisha Kande. Alhaji Atiku was born on 25th November, 1946 in a small village of Jada presently in Adamawa state.
Due to his poor background and his father’s averse to western education, he did not start his education on time till the age of eight when he enrolled at Jada Primary school. In 1960, Atiku was admitted into Adamawa Provincial Secondary School in Yola where he began a five year high School journey.
One of Alhaji Atiku’s lowest moments in life was in December 1957, when his father drowned while trying to cross a small river. Atiku Abubaker was so pained by the loss that he had this to say” I was often sad and lonely, father;s death pained me greatly that I resolved to work hard, remain focused and be successful in life to make my father proud. I wished father had lived long enough to see the benefits of western education in my life”.
After his secondary education, Atiku proceeded to Nigerian police college, Kaduna and couldn’t complete his course due to his inability to get his O-level mathematics results. He later gained admissions into school of Hygiene in Kano in 1966 and graduated with a diploma in 1967. In the same year, he enrolled for a law diploma and graduated in 1969 and was later employed by Nigerian Customs Service.
As a customs officer, Atiku remained one of the few civil servants in Nigeria whose file was filled with recommendations and impeccable service records. He has the enviable record of being among the few Nigerians whose service files had no queries and sanctions in it. His high level of discipline, probity and accountability culminated in him exceeding revenue targets in different posts he held. This sterling qualities made his colleagues to nick name him Murtala Muhammed Jnr because of his no nonsense approach to indiscipline.
FAMILY LIFE:
Atiku Abubaker as a pan Nigerian has a pan Nigerian sort of family. In a way untypical of a core northerner, he married a Christian Yoruba before marrying from his ethnic group and later proceeded to marry an Igbo lady.
On why he chose polygamy, he had this to say “I wanted to expand the Abubaker family, I felt extremely lonely as a child. I had no brother, I had no sister. I did not want my children to be as lonely as I was. My wives are my sisters, my friends and my advisers and they complement one another”.
He was the only child of his parents and his father, Garba Abubaker was equally the only child of his parents so Atiku was determined from onset to break the jinx of loneliness in his lineage and today his, is a large family of three wives, 26 biological children and several adopted children scattered all over the nation. His children have carved a niche for themselves in various fields of endeavours.
HIS BUSINESS LIFE:
Atiku developed a good nose for business and making money at the age of 15, that during school holidays he worked as a clerk in Ganye Native Authority. At such a tender age, Atiku demonstrated his unalloyed love for her mother by buying her a thatched mud bungalow made up of two rooms, kitchen and a bathroom.
In 1974, he applied and obtained a federal staff housing loan of N31,000 naira which was equivalent to his salary of five years, he got a land in GRA, Yola and erected his first house, a bungalow which he rented out and ploughed the proceeds into purchase of a second plot and built his second house and rented it out.
This reaping and sowing attitude continued until he completed eight houses in different areas of Yola within a few years.
His foray in business took a turn around when he met Gabriel Volpi, an Italian business man in 1982 whilst working at Apapa Ports. The Italian business man and the Nigerian Customs officer saw the future of Nigeria in oil and gas and decided to go into oil and gas logistics. That decision gave birth to NICOTES (Nigerian Container Services) which later became INTELS.
In his reaping and sowing approach to growth, he has established several other businesses such as :
PRODECO: A property development company with interests in building, marine and infrastructural construction for various clients in the oil and gas sector.
ADAMA BEVERAGES LIMITED: A manufacturing company incorporated in 2004 which produces FARO water and all kinds of Faro juice.
Due to the need to curtail the ravages of the Fulani herdsmen and their cattles and to bring growth and development to the Nigerian Agricultural sector, Alhaji Atiku Abubaker went into joint partnership with a Portuguese investor, Barreiro Da Silva and established Rico Gardo Nutrition Nig. Ltd with factories in Yola and Abuja.
Rico Gardo factories produces animal feeds of various kinds specially for cattles, small ruminants, horses and poultry. Rico Gardo is Atiku’s answer to the menace of Fulani herdsmen and will complement the plan of the Federal Government to limit and control the movement of cattle using ranches in selected locations across the country.
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA is Atiku response to the falling standard of education. It offers American style higher education programs at the undergraduate, graduate and professional levels. It is the only American styled University in sub Saharan Africa. Atiku Abubaker was motivated on the need to broaden the Nigerian educational space to accommodate new and alternative curriculum that will stimulate questioning our national challenges and proffer speedy ways of overcoming them. The university is a development university that ignites the entrepreneurial spirit in our students and make them job creators and not seekers.
Alhaji Atiku Abubaker story is a story of a man from rags to riches, from grass to grace and from the valley to the top. There is nothing wrong with acquisition of wealth when the owner can justify it. In the words of Late Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu in his book “Because I am Involved” he said “That wherever signs of wealth becomes conspicuous, the owner should be considered guilty until he has proved himself innocent. If during investigation, he produces the goose that lays the golden eggs or point out the trees whose leaves are N20 naira notes, we should not hesitate to rejoicing with the wealthy and his good fortune. There is nothing wrong with wealth, the danger lies only in the method of its acquisition, that method must be clearly visible and acceptable”
ATIKU AND HIS MANY STRUGGLES/ALLEGATIONS OF CORRUPTION WOVEN AROUND HIM
Atiku’s struggles dated back to 1994 after the cancellation of June 12 election. He joined the pro democracy group that gave serious headache to the government of Gen. Sani Abacha. In a gestapo manner, his Kaduna house was raided and almost led to the killing of his son, Adamu. He proceeded into exile along with other activists to campaign against the brutality of Abacha regime.
Not satisfied with the raid, Abacha proceeded in seizing Atiku Abubaker’s Company,(NICOTES) divested him of his shares and renamed the company-INTELS
It took several protests to General Abdusalami Abubaker regime for the company to be released to him.
It is not news that the allegations of corruption woven around Atiku started after the Jos presidential primaries of 2003 and reached its climax after Atiku teamed up with pro democracy elements in the national assembly to stop Obasanjo’s third term agenda. Atiku was easily won the Adamawa governorship election of 1999?.
Every keen political watcher knows that the web of corruption around Atiku was woven by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and cohorts to stop the presidential ambition of the man they couldn’t tame. Atiku remains the most investigated vice president in the annals of our history.
What did they not do to Atiku Abubaker? Ministers were allowed to insult him at Federal executive council meetings. His official aides were relieved of their appointments without consulting him. His business and political associates were constantly harassed in order to sway their loyalty. He was denied not only the pecks attached to his office but also the use of the presidential jet for official functions, he and his loyalists were harassed out from the party, trump up charges were brought up against him just to stop him from realising his political ambition, his seat was declared vacant. In all, Atiku emerged triumphant.
In examining the plethora of corruption allegations woven around the former vice president, I would like to take it from the point of view of Atiku ‘s harshest critic and the governor of Kaduna State- Mallam Nasir El-Rufai.
In his widely disputed autobiography “The Accidental Public Servant” Mallam El-Rufai spoke with both tongues in cheek but any intelligent reader can read in between the lines and clearly come out with no other judgement than “This Atiku Abubaker constantly accused of corruption by EL-Rufai has been exonerated by the same accuser in his book” In page 93 of the book, the writer narrated his encounter with Captain Abdul who claimed to be fronting for Atiku in the purchase of a guest house for council members of the privatisation programme. He narrated how Capt. Abdul boasted of his closeness to Alhaji Atiku and his sure footedness that Mallam El-Rufai must buy the house he presented to him because of his perceived connection with Atiku and his determination to sell it at a determined price. When the matter got to the vice president, the following interactions ensued between him and El Rufai as reproduced below;
Atiku: Nasir, about this guest house business, I know Abdul, I know him, he brought the house, he wanted it purchased. I heard you were looking for a guest house and I said I would introduce him to you but he said he knew you from Kaduna. I thought you were friends?
El-Rufai: I know him. That is all
Atiku: I have no hand in determining at what price the house should be bought and I did not encourage him to insult you in anyway.
El-Rufai: Well, Mr. vice president, he said you got him a diplomatic passport because he does many things for you, he said I would buy the house at his own price, he said he will show me power.
Atiku: Abdul was lying. I am sorry Abdul spoke to you in that way. I am going to cut Abdul off. Go and decide whatever you wanted to do about the purchase of the house.
El-Rufai: We will offer to buy the house, our staff like it but we will buy it at our price-one that we can defend before anyone on behalf of the privatisation council.
Atiku: whatever you decide is fine. I just want you to know that I am not involved in anything to do with the house or Abdul conduct in this instance.
In page 99 of the book, the writer enumerated on his Bureau of Public Enterprises encounter with the senate committee on power and privatisation led by Senator Nnamdi Eriobuna and the committee request of a lobbying fee of five million dollars in order to ensure speedy passage of electricity bill. In the words of El-Rufai as he said “The vice president as always became shocked when I briefed him on what the senators demanded. He(Atiku Abubaker) said flat out that no such transaction would take place instead he suggested we took the committee members on a study tour abroad to appreciate the intricacies of power sector reforms” The chairmen and deputy chairs of the electric power sector committees in the senate and house of representatives were therefore sponsored to Chile and Canada to observe the functioning of a privatised electricity markets at a cost of about seventy six thousand dollars in March 2002. As for Senator Nnamdi Eriobuna who demanded for the five million dollars kick back, the author was reliably informed that Atiku ensured that PDP did not re nominate him to contest that senate seat and he has not been seen or heard from since then in the political space.
On the author’s encounter with Chief Mike Adenuga, Mallam El-Rufai detailed in page 108 how Chief Michael Adenuga sent Charles Osuji on a thank you visit with twenty-five million naira and one hundred thousand dollars and how his entreaties to Charles to return the said money fell on deaf ears until Charles pointedly told him that according to Mike Adenuga, Atiku was consulted before offering the gift.
El-Rufai then went to the Vice-president office and told him the story “ Your administration is verbally fighting corruption and encouraging this kind of offers? El-Rufai said.
The vice-president appeared shocked, “Nasir, he is lying. It is not true”
“Well, Mike sent Osuji to tell me that you knew about the cash offer”
So he picked up his landline and said “Get me Mike Adenuga”, on getting a connection, he put Mike on speakerphone
“Mike, how are you? Did I ever discuss Nasir El-Rufai with you?”
“Yes Sir”, said Adenuga through the speaker
“And what did I tell you? Asked the vice-president
“Sir, you told me he is a straightforward person and that I should not try to give him any money or try to thank him in anyway”
“So why did you send him money even though I told you not to”
“I am sorry sir, I just thought they did a good job and I ought to thank him as the leader of BPE. I am sorry sir”
The vice-president hung up the phone, turned to me and asked, “Now do you believe that I told him to do it?”
“Well sir, what do we do now?”
“Well, Charles must be fired immediately. You should bring a memo immediately to approve his disengagement”
Charles was a deputy director, so I could not fire him. I had to bring a memo immediately to approve his disengagement and Osuji’s appointment was terminated.
In page 101, the author detailed their efforts to privatise African Petroleum. We advertised the sale and received responses from a handful of companies interested in participating in the bidding process.
BP South Africa, Sadiq Petroleum owned by Peter Okocha –a close friend to Atiku and a third company which then bowed out before we even got under way.
The author narrated how BP South Africa pulled out of the bidding process leaving only Sadiq petroleum as the only preferred bidder “ A single bidder situation would send the wrong signal, particularly if that single bid came from the friend of the Vice president. We therefore decided to be cautious because if there is only one bid, there can only be one winner which will defeat the entire purpose of competitive bidding at this early critical stage of our programme.
“Mr. vice president, we have ended up with only one bid. Our recommendation would be to cancel the auction and advertise again at a future date”
“But why? You went through all the required steps” he asked
“Yes” Akin said “but you know, if we end up with only one bid and the winner is your friend, it will look like it was prearranged so it is not in your interest as the Chairman of the privatisation council for us to go ahead with this”
“Atiku agreed with both of us that we should cancel and rebid in the near future. He suggested we bring the matter to the privatisation council for discussion and ratification.
After the council approved the cancellation of the bid process, the Vice-president made some comments before the council that struck me as quite strange but commendable for its openness
“I am happy, the council has approved the cancellation of this process and we particularly appreciate the efforts of the Chairman of the technical committee and the director general for having the courage of conviction to bring this recommendation to the council” He continued “let me tell you a story, just before this council meeting started, the president called me and said one of the members of this council and he was not going to reveal who it was, went to him yesterday and said, “Mr. President, Sadiq is the same name in Arabic as Abubaker, so Sadiq Petroleum is owned by the vice-president whose names happened to be Atiku Abubaker. One of the members, one of the people sitting here, went to the president and said I owned this company. I hope the person will go back to the president and say that I presided over the cancellation of an open and fair process which this company would have undoubtedly won”
In page 135 of the book, the author documented the discussions between him, senators Ibrahim Mantu and Jonathan Zwingina prior to his senate confirmation screening exercise which I reproduced in dialogue form:
Mantu: you know in your current job at BPE, you have been selfish, you sold all these companies to your friends, you took care of yourself but you did not spread the goodies around. The feeling is that you made a lot of money as head of BPE but you did not share it. You and Atiku bought everything, cornered all the companies and you did not consider other interests in the legislature
El-Rufai: Well, I think those who say that are wrong because I have not made any money in BPE and as far as I know, Atiku bought nothing from BPE.
It is ironic that a man who has exonerated Alhaji Atiku Abubaker of corruption in several of their dealings and went ahead to document those dealings in his autobiography as a lasting legacy should be in the fore front of people labelling Atiku as a corrupt politician. Is Mallam El-Rufai disputing himself from his own autobiography or was the book written in error? It is on record that Atiku was one of the few cabinet members in Obasanjo government who did not buy any government guest houses and other houses put up for sale even when the Vice-president guest house which was later bought by El-Rufai was offered to him for purchase, he declined on grounds of principle.
Chief Olusegun Obasanjo used his position as the president to appropriate more than two hundred million shares of Transcorp. Shares were offered to vice president Atiku abubaker, he declined on grounds of principle.
Pundits, had it that Atiku was a corrupt Customs officer who corruptly enriched himself during his service years, it is true that INTELS was established during his service years but he was limited to shares ownership which government rule at that time permitted. It is only by sheer grace, vision and hard work that a small logistics company founded in 1982 grew into a conglomerate. If INTELS had collapsed after one year, Atiku would have been labelled a failure so why jealous his profound ability to nurture and create wealth.
If Atiku was a corrupt customs officer, he would have compromised on the issue of the 53 suitcases. As a deputy director of customs then, his directorate had one of the highest revenue returns to the government.
If he was indiscipline and corrupt as a customs officer, why was there no query throughout his service year? Was is it easy to steal from Customs in 1984 at the height of Buhari/Idiagbon war against Indiscipline and corruption?
In the PTDF saga, the law establishing it made it mandatory that money can only be spent from interests accrued to the fund so Atiku placed these funds in a private bank in the name of PTDF. His only crime was that the bank, ETB involved belongs to his friend, you can imagine that! When Chief Obasanjo cried to the rooftop that PTDF money was stolen, Atiku brought the money back with interest.
Chief Mike Adenuga, the chairman of Equatorial Trust Bank was hounded out of Nigeria into Ghana because he refused to agree to their charges against Atiku.
Otunba Johnson Fasawe was locked up by Nuhu Ribadu EFCC for six months without charge for refusing to collaborate with EFCC on their charges against Atiku.
On these, Atiku had this to say “ I have the highest regard for my boss. He gave me eight years to serve Nigeria under him. We had our differences but we both tried our best. But on the issue of corruption, I have challenged anyone, anywhere, who has any evidence of corruption against me to come forward. I ‘m sure they would have combed everywhere trying to find anything incriminating against me, but they have not found it or they are still searching. I’m throwing that challenge again, let them bring out whatever they have on me..”
Eleven years after his vice-president, Atiku has no single case of corruption in any court in Nigeria either from EFCC, ICPC or Code of conduct bureau.
On the US senate report, the report clearly showed that forty million dollars were wired from INTELS account to Dr. Jennifer Atiku Abubaker United States account for payments to American University, Washington DC. The account was legally opened and money transferred from a known source(INTELS). INTELS is a legitimate conglomerate and on the instructions of their director made the needed transfers when he wanted to pay for his new university so I see no crime. Only that we are in an era where any money that comes from Nigeria into America is a suspicious fund. The report never said the funds were illegal, the only reason Atiku was cited was because he was a public office holder.
On William Jefferson case, William Jefferson was acquitted on the charge of trying to compromise Atiku proving there was no improper relationship between him and Jefferson as evidenced in the trial other than the customary diplomatic courtesies between two elected officials.
On why he can’t travel to the United States, Atiku had this to say “it is the sole prerogative of the United States to determine who they want in their country or not. I’m not running away from America. I applied and they have only said, my application is going through administrative process. This is not peculiar to me. For about 15years, Buhari could not enter America on account of religious considerations. The current Indian prime minister, Modi, suffered the same fate for years. Today, he is being treated to red carpet reception in America. I fly to different parts of the world, including Europe, if America wanted me, it would be so easy to reach out to their allies” it remained clear that Alhaji Atiku Abubaker is not on the wanted list of US government neither does he have any pending criminal case in the United States court.
Yes!, he has been a recurring decimal in Nigerian presidential elections since 1993, criscrossing different political parties in search of a platform to realise his heart desires the presidency. He has been lampooned as a serial defector, an over ambitious politician who has no ideology thereby creating perception issues on who he is and what he stands for.
On this Alhaji Atiku had this to say “ there is nothing wrong with it. Ours is a fledgling democracy of barely two decades since the end of the last military regime. What it means is that the political parties are yet to mature and are going through constant transformations and changes. That is why even President Buhari has been able to move from party to party including ANPP, CPC and now APC. And for those who read about world history and political books like I do, they will know that Abraham Lincolm, Sir Winston Churchill and others went through so much before achieving their dreams”
THE MAN WHOSE TIME HAS COME
The best chance Atiku had in becoming the president was in 2003 when the trio of Governors Orji Uzor Kalu of Abia state, James Ibori of Delta State and DSP Alamiesegha of Bayelsa state led the rest of PDP governors in prevailing Atiku to run against his boss, the impending disgrace sent cold shivers down the spine of Obasanjo that he did everything to cort Atiku’s loyalty. Nigeria being a one party state and Atiku emergence as the PDP candidate would have given him the presidency but considering the disaffection it would cause to North/South relationship, Atiku had to queue behind his boss with a strong loyalty to Obasanjo/Atiku ticket until victory was achieved.
In 2007, Atiku had an immense goodwill having emerged out of his feud with Obasanjo, a hero and an icon of democracy but Obasanjo presidency in cahoot with EFCC and INEC did everything to frustrate his ambition. A kangaroo investigation was carried out by EFCC, an administrative panel of enquiry was hurriedly set up by Obasanjo government with one and only clear mandate “To indict Atiku by all means possible” He was indicted by the administrative panel and the indictment report was gazetted by the government and INEC adopted the report and banned Atiku from contesting. Three weeks to the general election, Atiku was still in court whilst others were busy campaigning, trying to quash the indictment until he succeeded. The implications were that INEC had to reprint another ballot papers in order to feature Atiku name thereby wasting the already printed ballot papers that had no Atiku name. The pressure of time made INEC to forgo the serializing the new ballot papers thereby causing widespread rigging and electoral malpractices in the 2007 elections. An election in which the winner humbly admitted was greatly flawed. The Nigerian nation lost not only resources but credibility before the international community because of OPERATION STOP ATIKU.
In PDP Circle of that time, his loyalists were either expelled or deregistered from the party. Not satisfied, they went ultra vires in declaring his seat vacant against the spirit of the constitution leading to litigations that finally gave him victory.
Truly, he was under pressure throughout, he lost the flawed 2007 election but won the icon of democracy of that era. YES! Several cases he instituted in court against the impunity of one man not only helped in deepening human rights struggles but entrenched democracy firmly in our dear nation- Nigeria. Apart from Mr. Peter Obi of Anambra State, no other person in Nigeria has equalled Atiku in deepening democracy within the framework of our judicial system and rule of law.
In 2011 election, his candidature was not appealing due to the divine providence that threw up Jonathan and the sympathy Jonathan candidature generated in and outside Nigeria being from Niger Delta, that part of the country whose goose laid the golden eggs Nigeria is enjoying but the owners of the goose have not been allowed to have a taste of power.
Jonathan candidature was so appealing to men and women of conscience in Nigeria because in that candidature laid the panacea to the pronounced violence in Niger Delta so Atiku did not scale beyond the primaries yet he remained committed to PDP victory in 2011 election.
In 2015, another opportunity provided itself but the ACN block in APC had not forgiven Atiku for reconciling with Obasanjo against their wish and defecting back to PDP. They did not only mobilize as the majority shareholder in APC, but ensured that Atiku did not come to be the anointed candidate.
In 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari’s economic mistakes, ethnic chauvinism, religious bigotry and clannishness have made Nigeria realized the mistake of voting APC and Nigeria have begun to look at PDP in coalition with other parties as credible alternative.
The 2019 election is an election in which the major contenders will be from the North in line with the spirit of zoning.
According to Bill Clinton in his book “My Life” “Successful presidential campaigns require three basic things. First, people have to be able to look at you and imagine you as president, then you have to have enough money and support to become known. After that, it’s a battle of ideas, message and issues. Alhaji Atiku Abubaker looks presidential in every aspect, his massive frame depicts how big he is in heart and in size, he remains the only aspirant in PDP with the viable structure, contacts and money to match President Muhammadu Buhari and APC both in naira and foreign currency.
Alhaji Atiku Abubaker is one person in Nigeria that has a strong influence on the business community, he has always enjoyed the financial support of the business class not only because he is one of them but he has a large heart and maintains friendship and keeps to promises. An apostle of restructuring and true federalism who through his manifestoes and assemblage of team since 2007 elections showed he was ever ready for the presidency.
His messages on restructuring though not appealing to the North where he belongs but he remained resolute that it is the only way out, COURAGEOUS INDEED!
Yes! His assemblage of team is superb. Alhaji Atiku assembled the best economic team ever in Nigeria made up of young, world class professionals who came home to work. Some of those professionals are today political leaders, governors and world leaders.
His political sons and daughters cuts across the North and South divides and in all states of the federation which am one of them. Alhaji Atiku Abubaker has maintained political structures and his associates have remained loyal to his cause.
APC is a party that campaigned in poetry but governs in prose. From the way they administers this country, we are convinced that PDP had a heart but their head was in the wrong place but APC has a clueless head but no heart.
The same reasons GMB was removed from power 33years ago are the same things that have resurfaced in this government.
The Fulani herdsmen are on rampage, killing, raping and maiming anybody that stands their way but more disturbing is the conspiracy of silence from the presidency. Benue and Taraba massacres have remained an open sore of a nation but more disappointing is the president attitude in allowing the sore to fester.
The APC promised to create 3million jobs annually and today about 4.58million jobs have been lost according to 2017 NBS report not to talk of the worsening issue of under employment.
APC promised to improve healthcare delivery in the country but today the president and his family are the biggest medical tourists in the world while the state house clinic can’t boast of common paracetamol and syringes despite huge budgetary allocations.
Despite his promise to fight corruption, no major conviction has been secured instead the presidency wrote to the senate defending the grass cutter former Secretary of the federation Engr. Babachir Lawal. it took countless match and protests from the civil society and well meaning Nigerians for the man to be even relieved of his job.
Abdulrasheed Maina- the pension thief who was dismissed from the civil service suddenly found himself back to the country after he fled abroad, he was reabsorbed back into the service and promoted to the rank of director in the live of this administration.
It is very disheartening that a president who didn’t have time to visit Benue state until after three months of the massacre of 73 innocent lives suddenly found time to attend a wedding party in Kano. Benue, Taraba and Dapchi incidences will be the Achilles hill of this government.
In the words of Alhaji Atiku Abubaker “To loose one set of girls to Boko Haram may be regarded as a misfortune, to loose another set looks like carelessness. We already know that Boko Haram has an agenda to cripple western education in Nigeria, so how could we have left those schools unguarded”
Appointments have turned clannish and the presidency and the security agencies highly northernized if not Dauranized.
The economy is in total shambles that even with the claim of “Out of recession” there is nothing to show for it, businesses are continually closing down, widespread hunger, high exchange rate and bad economic projections are the order of the day, no thanks to PMB pseudo economists policies.
Brothers and sisters, he who cannot create wealth cannot manage wealth. It takes more than integrity to rule a nation.
We have a president who openly admitted in an interview that he doesn’t know how to make money.
Poor economic and financial mentality should not be celebrated as integrity but should be known for what it is “Unproductivity”.
A President that deployed full military force on IPOB and their peaceful agitations but treat herdsmen killing with kids gloves.
A president who treats corruption from the opposition with insecticide but treats corruption in the presidency with deodorant
From middle Belt to Southwest. From South west to South East and South South people are disenchanted with this regime.
This regime is a colossal failure, they have borrowed eleven trillion naira in three years while PDP borrowed 6 trillion in 16 years yet nothing commensurate to show for it.
The Boko Haram they technically defeated is still on rampage. The DAPCHI abduction not only exposed the failure of our intelligence system but reveals the porosity of our security networks.
I have no doubt that Obasanjo as a matter of clairvoyance has seen Alhaji Atiku’s chances in 2019 and has suddenly started his advocacy on coalition for Nigerian movement that will be anchored by the youths of this country
The fact remains that the Nigerian political system is highly money driven to give the Nigerian youth a chance. No Nigerian youth can afford the quantum of money the system demands in order to clinch the presidency unless if thrown up by circumstances. Somebody like Obasanjo missed the great opportunity he had to reform our political system in pursuit of his selfish third term agenda.
I am a youth and I strongly believe that it is time we take up leadership positions in this country but the system we are operating remains an obstacle. Alhaji Atiku Abubaker remains that option that can send Buhari back to Daura, reform our polity that will usher in the desired class of youthful leaders needed in Nigeria. True! He is a grandfather but youthful in heart, he moves with the trend, he is the greatest issue on facebook, twitter and Instagram with millions of followers on social media listening and interacting with him on contemporary issues. In the words of Reno Omokri whilst commending Atiku physical fitness he was as succinct as Reno nuggets “ Atiku Abubaker, the type of leader Nigeria needs. Fit in body. Astute in business. Broad minded and accommodating to people of other ethnicities and religious groups”
He has the financial muscle, his money spinning machine Intel’s has every big oil company as its customer. INTELS operations cuts across other African countries and INTELS rake in as close as two billion dollars every year.
In Adamawa state, Atiku is the biggest employer of labour after the government with more than 50,000 direct and 250,000 indirect workers in his payroll.
In Rivers state and the rest of the Niger Delta, Atiku is the biggest employer of labour after the government and international oil companies. His wealth cut across ethnic divides. This man puts food on the table of at least 150,000 families in this country.
“I know what I want for my country” Alhaji Atiku said “ I have served Nigeria in different capacities and I am one of the most experienced leaders around today. There is no part of Nigeria I am not familiar with. I have friends everywhere. They know me and I know them. The benefit of being around for so long is that they have come to know me for certain principles and know that I have a rich knowledge of Nigeria and what it would take to move us to the height of greatness. They can also trust me that I’m not coming to government to steal their money. God has blessed me with business acumen. How can you run a nation if you cannot run your own business? I run my businesses to international standards. Let any of those who wants to compete with me show what they have managed successfully. I have lifted over 45,000 families out of poverty through my microfinance company in my state Adamawa and we have empowered mostly women. The good news is these women have been very honest. Returns on our loan have been about 98 percent. They have not disappeared with the loans given them, we plan to replicate this nationwide”
His friends and philanthropy cut across the North and South. He is one northerner with a nationalistic view and has a polished approach to governance.
Alhaji Atiku Abubaker candidature has never been so appealing and acceptable more than now so more efforts should be galvanized by both him and his supporters not to waste this golden opportunity. He has a lot of work to do in President Buhari strongholds and he stands a better chance than any other Northern aspirants to clinch the PDP ticket. And recent refusal of president assent to Nigeria Peace Corps Bill will be catastrophic to APC government in 2019 elections.
O.S.A NWOKAFOR is a Political Scientist and an entrepreneur
