This is the story of how former President Olusegun Obasanjo
and former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, first met, and how
their relationship blossomed before nose-diving over political
ambition. In his soon-to-be released auto-biography, ATIKU
ABUBAKAR, THE STORY OF MY LIFE, it is discovered that
whereas Obasanjo appointed Atiku as his running mate in
1999, there are pieces of information before that fact to
suggest that the former may indeed be indebted to the latter.
Below is the complete exclusive report:
He was arrested on March 13, 1995. But before Olusegun
Obasanjo was picked up that day, he had been forewarned. It
was the second meeting between one Atiku Abubakar, then
known as a politician who made massive waves during the
Social Democratic Party, SDP, presidential primaries held in
Jos, the Plateau State capital – the SDP primaries took place
in March, 1993, some two years earlier.
That day, Atiku (who is one of the few Nigerians identified by
their first name) visited Obasanjo at his Temperence Farm,
Otta, Ogun State, in the company of Oyewole Fasawe, a
mutual friend and business partner of both men. They were
there to forewarn Obasanjo about a possible impending arrest
in connection with a coup plot.
In a rare snippet by Vanguard into the soon-to-be-released
autobiography of Atiku, it was found that, contrary to the
generally held belief that prior to the politicking of 1998/1999
which produced the presidency of Obasanjo/Atiku, both men
had never been close; it came to light that their relationship
dated back to 1993. In the book, ATIKU ABUBAKAR, THE
STORY OF MY LIFE, Sunday Vanguard discovered that Atiku
had, indeed, gone to the same Otta for avuncular consultation
with Obj,as Obasanjo is fondly called.
Just some weeks before the landmark June 12, 1993,
presidential election, Atiku, who withdrew at the last minute in
the run-off primaries to allow for Bashorun Moshood
Kashimawo Olawale Abiola gather some gravitas against
Babagana Kingibe, visited Obasanjo. His request was simple:
“Please prevail on my boss, Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, to support
the presidential bid of Abiola at the general election”.
Although Vanguard could not confirm whether Obasanjo
indeed prevailed on the elder Yar’Adua to support Abiola,
Obasanjo’s statement during the crisis that trailed the
disputation over the election, to the effect that “Abiola is not
the messiah” betrayed the workings of the mind of the former
President.
The second meeting between both men, according to the book
on pages 247 – 248, is reproduced, verbatim, here: “The
United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Walter Carrington,
picked up the information on Obasanjo’s impending arrest. He
immediately alerted the former Head of State who was
attending the UN social summit in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Obasanjo returned to the country, confident that he had not
committed any crime.
Atiku had also been tipped off about Obasanjo’s impending
arrest. “He went to the retired General’s farm in Otta, Ogun
State, to alert him. He had hardly finished speaking to
Obasanjo when the divisional police officer in Ota arrived with
some plain-clothes security officers to arrest Obasanjo. “What
has he done? What is his offence? Is this the way to pay him
back for the services to the country?”
Oyewole Fasawe, who was with him at Otta, emembered Atiku
asking the security agents as they led Obasanjo away. “I had
never seen Atiku so angry as he was that day. He was ready to
fight them if we had not restrained him”, Fasawe recounted.
Atiku and Fasawe left Otta to break the news of Obasanjo’s
arrest to many prominent Nigerians. “Obasanjo’s arrest and
detention brought closer international attention to the reign of
terror in Nigeria”.
Obasanjo was tried for being part of the coup plot against the
maximum dictator of the time, General Sani Abacha; he was
sentenced to life in prison. Owing to international pressure,
this was later commuted to 15 years – the pressure came
from friends abroad, including South Africa’s Nelson Mandela,
former US President, Jimmy Carter, and former German
Chancellor Helmut Schmidt.
After his sentencing, Obasanjo was taken to the SSS (now
Department of State Services, DSS) Interrogation Centre in
Ikoyi. From there, he was moved to KIRIKIRI Maximum
Security Prison alongside Shehu Musa Yar’Adua.
But something happened there as you would discover later.
Mind you, the recent controversy over character, leadership
and integrity was ignited by Obasanjo at the 4th Annual
Ibadan Sustainable Development Summit organised by the
Centre for Sustainable Development of the University of
Ibadan, an engagement in collaboration with the African
Sustainable Development Network.
The former President, characteristically, waxed pontifical when
he declared that the younger generation of leaders under
50years has betrayed the nation because they lacked integrity.
He mentioned the likes of Atiku, whom he said he picked as his
deputy but was soon to “show his true colour”.
Obasanjo also took on Bola Ahmed Tinubu, referring to his
controversial scholarship and academic qualification, insisting
that it was not different from the scandal which led to the
removal of Speaker Imam Salisu Buari in 1999. However, what
Obasanjo did not mention was the fact that he fought tooth
and nail to retain Buari as Speaker of the House of
Representatives, even in the face of Buari’s glaring folly of
claiming what he was not. Back to Atiku! Obasanjo launched a
sweeping diatribe against Nigeria’s younger generation of
politicians whom he accused of lacking the integrity, character
and credibility to lead Nigeria to progress and development.
According to Obasanjo, he didn’t know Atiku well enough and
that the former Vice President had not met his expectation as
a credible successor. Now, at the risk of holding brief for the
former Vice President, the questions are:
Is this claim altogether correct? Was Obasanjo trying to be
economical with the truth? What degree of familiarity was
Obasanjo talking about? At what point did he realize his
knowledge of Atiku was not comfortable enough? Did he
complain to Atiku at any point that this lack of familiarity could
disqualify the former Vice President from succeeding him?
What degree of personal familiarity could qualify a politician to
be nominated to become a running mate to a presidential
candidate of a political party?
What is the length of time needed by one politician to trust
another? Did Obasanjo not invite former governor of Rivers
State, Sir Peter Odili, to Aso Rock Presidential Villa for
morning prayers after which the former broke the news to the
latter that he should drop out of the presidential contest?
Could all those Obasanjo bullied out of the presidential contest
be described as lacking integrity too? As earlier stated,
contrary to Obasanjo’s claim, he and Atiku had met twice
closely before 1999.
In any case, pray, Could an enemy have visited an adversary
to warn him about the imminent risks to his life or freedom?
Could an enemy also have extended such goodwill fraternal
visit? How many years would an individual need to know a
man who had wanted to put him out of harm’s way? Yet
again, destiny played a fast, very fast one on both men.
Vanguard learnt from very authoritative sources that Atiku it
was who arranged for and warned Obasanjo, as an inmate (a
prisoner), not to allow himself to be injected or his blood
taken. Sunday Vanguard gathered from very impeccable
sources that “this warning became necessary following
confirmed reports that the late Major Akinyemi and Shehu
Musa Yar’Adua were both injected with lethal viruses that
eventually led to their untimely deaths”.
In fact, dependable sources close to the family of Major
Akinyemi confided in Sunday Vanguard that the sentiments
being expressed in favour of those who operated at the very
top echelon of the security machinery of the late General Sani
Abacha junta is misplaced because the officers devised very
sinister ways of eliminating those they considered as
troublesome subjects.
In the instance of Akinyemi, the now infamous military medical
doctor through whom a series of eliminations was carried out,
walked into his cell in the company of another serving military
officer and demanded to extract blood from the incarcerated
Major. He refused. They pressed him. “But he maintained”,
according to a source close to the family, “that he had neither
complained of any ailment nor was he afflicted by any. His
refusal almost led to a scuffle.
But the serving military officer simply looked outside the cell,
nodded to two body guards who were waiting in toe, and gave
them instructions to subdue Akinyemi. “Worse still, rather than
extract the so-callled blood from the Major, the military doctor
brought out a syringe that was almost filled with some form of
solution. Having been held down by the bodyguards, the
doctor injected the Major”.
Vanguard was made to understand that it was later learnt that
the solution injected into the body of Major Akinyemi was
nothing but the Human Immuno-deficiency Virus, otherwise
known as HIV. By the time the Major was released from
prison, it had developed into almost full-blown Acquired
Immune Deficiency Syndrome, AIDS. He gave his life to Christ
afterwards and began a ministry which ministered to
prisoners. Sunday Vanguard was told that during one of his
ministrations, Major Akinyemi returned to Kirikiri where he
again met with the serving military officer who superintended
the administration of the lethal injection on him but was now
doing his own time.
The officer saluted Akinyemi in military style and apologized
for what had happened about a decade earlier. The Major was
said to have laid his hands on the now-jailed officer, prayed
for him and told him that he was forgiven of the dastardly act.
It was gathered from multiple sources last week that had
Obasanjo “not heeded Atiku’s warning, only God knows how
they would have dealt with him too”. At least, if they could do
that to Yar’Adua, they could do it to anybody. God used Atiku’s
to save Obasanjo’s life”, the source concluded. Beyond that,
however, Sunday Vanguard learnt of the details of how Atiku
and some associates engaged a strategy that ensured that
Obasanjo was moved from Kirikiri Prisons in Lagos to far
away Yola Prisons.
The thinking of those in the corridors of power at that time was
that Yola, considered distant, would serve a more punitive
purpose. However, what Atiku and his people actually schemed
was for Obasanjo to be close to the former’s base in Yola,
Adamawa State.
Indeed, there were reports that there was a systematic
engagement strategy that was perfected by that regime to
eliminate known opponents of the military junta.
According to mutual friends of both Atiku and Obasanjo, the
claim by the latter that he did not know the former until a year
into their tenure of office is equally beyond comprehension,
considering the facts as written in at least two earlier
unchallenged books that Atiku and others made life easier for
the former the President in his stay in prison by arranging his
meals and doctor’s visits. Obasanjo’s late wife, Stella, was
said to have been privy to these arrangements.
In truth, Atiku got ever closer to Obasanjo in 1999 when his
Peoples Democratic Movement, PDM, threw its weight behind
Obasanjo to become the PDP presidential candidate. Obasanjo
invited Atiku to become his running mate immediately after the
Jos convention of the PDP.
He sought reassurance from Atiku that he would be loyal if he
made him his running mate and the Turaki Adamawa, who
was then a governor-elect of Adamawa State, pledged his
allegiance. Perhaps, Obasanjo should have told Atiku that
loyalty included supporting constitutional breaches. Indeed,
Obasanjo, in a self conceited manner, junked an earlier
consensual agreement by leaders of the PDP on how to select
his running mate, by unilaterally picking Atiku.
The beginning of the distrust between both men started with
the botched impeachment attempt on Obasanjo – an attempt
which was alleged to have been masterminded by Atiku.
Then came Atiku’s politics of attrition which dragged into the
eve of the presidential primaries of the PDP sending jitters
down Obsanjo’s spine when he threatened to contest for the
ticket against his boss – Atiku actually set some state
governors against Obasanjo and the agenda to dump the then
President almost succeeded. But the third term agenda of
Obasanjo in 2006 brought their mutual disdain into full public
glare. Atiku openly disagreed with his boss over the attempt to
extend his constitutional term limit of eight years.
It remains plausible that any other Vice President could have
faced the same hostility from Obasanjo once he had opposed
the idea of the third term project.
The man Obasanjo
Obasanjo has his qualities. Here was a man who has
accomplished much more than most African leaders. Here was
a man who, while the great Nelson Madiba Mandela was in
prison, bestrode the African continent and the globe like a
colossus.
Here was a man who, as co-chair of the Commonwealth
Eminent Persons Group, EPG, a journalist had thought he
could embarrass Obasanjo by accusing him of bias in the
report of the group sometime in the late 1980s, citing
Obasanjo’s nationalisation of British Petroleum, BP, (which
became African Petroleum, AP), but got more than what he
bargained for.
Obasanjo’s response was simply that had he seen and known
what he saw and got to know during the tour by the EPG,
while he was a military head of state, he would have done
more to hurt the British. That was the end of the discussion for
the journalist.
Again, here was a man who could have refused to hand over
power but did so – even if under duress – to the consternation
of his peers in Africa in 1979.
spacial report from
www.proudlyboys.com
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