The presidential aspiration of Nigeria’s erstwhile vice president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is sailing dangerously between rocks, deep sea and violent storms. In just the few days of the new year, his aspiration has taken some double-edged, devastating hits, threatening the whole project a major mishap and total wreck. The first one was from his erstwhile boss and political leader, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the second from an ex-media aide, a certain Mr. Michael Achimugu, while the third tornado was from Mr. Festus Keyamo, an activist-turned-politician. 

While the former president and political leader, Obasanjo released a further damming condemnation of his former vice and poured ice water on his presidential aspiration, Achimugu, an ex-media aide, in a two-part leaked audio and video, simply deflated whatever is left of the vestiges of his integrity and morality. While the Adamawa-born former Customs Officer was battling with the whirlwind generated by the two attacks, Mr. keyamo, the Minister for Niger Delta Affairs, a former prosecutor with the various anti-graft agencies, took the matter further by approaching the Federal High Court, Abuja, Federal Capital Territory, (FCT) seeking an Interlocutory order compelling the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), the Economic and Financial crimes Commission, (EFCC) and the Code of Conduct Bureau, (CCB) to invite or arrest a certain Alhaji Abubakar Atiku and prosecute him for corrupt practices.

Achimugu had alleged that Atiku counselled Obasanjo as the President between the year 1999-2007 to set up a nebulous “Special Purposes Vehicle” (SPV) as a conduit pipe to siphon government funds from the Treasury without trace. 

Before the leaked audio and video, the man Michael Achimugu was perhaps, a long-forgotten face within the Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s political set-up. He was a media aide in a distant past. But while he was with Atiku, he had meticulously scavenged damaging information and kept them securely in his vaults. The information he padlocked safely in his vault damaging materials, most discreetly procured, in readiness for a day the master would pinch him, and h would need to bite back. Today, he has re-emerged as a whistle-blower on his former principal.

Achimugu, who claims to be a former aide to the PDP flag bearer, accused him of using the Special Purpose Vehicles to usurp funds when he was Nigeria’s Vice President between 1999 and 2007.

The PDP and Atiku countered him immediately alleging that he was being sponsored by the rival All progressives Congress, (APC). A spokesperson for the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) Presidential Campaign Council, Senator Dino Melaye accused the APC and its presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of sponsoring one Michael Achimugu to blackmail the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar. His disclaimed him, saying the Michael Achimugu was never an aide to the PDP presidential candidate.

Atiku, a former Vice President and a perennial presidential contestant, since 1993, is battling heart-rendering betrayals and distractions from all angles in what appears to be his last shot at the presidency. First, his party, the  Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is wretchedly fractured by his emergence as the presidential candidate. The unwritten zoning arrangement of the party clearly gives the ticket to the Southern hemisphere of the country. The arrangement was followed up till the National Convention of the party when the National Chairmanship went to the North Central, with the former Senate President, Dr. Iyorchial Ayu clinching the topmost party’s position. The Southern flank had hoped to produce the presidential candidate, but surprisingly, Atiku emerged victorious at the Convention held at the Eagle’s Square ground in Abuja, Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Ever, since his shock emergence, a large chunk of the party’s stalwarts, especially from the South, have been lukewarm to both party and the candidate’s activities. A most vociferous vocal group is led by the Rivers State Governor, Mr. Nyesome Wike. Wike and four others – Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Samuel Ortom (Benue), Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu) and Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia) had withdrew their support for Atiku following the alleged failure of the former vice president to prevail on the National Chairman of the party, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, to relinquish his position to a Southerner. Their grouse was the emergence of both the party’s presidential candidate of the party, Atiku, and the national chairman, Ayu, from the same zone – the North. 

The group, known variously as the Integrity Group or the G-5 has been relentless in their demand that for them to back the aspiration of the presidential candidate of the party, Alhaji Atiku Abubaker, the National Chairman, Dr. Ayu must stepped down and a southerner replaced him. 

Aside this vocal group of governors a vast majority of the party’s members and sympathizers from the Southern hemisphere of the country are not fully warmed up to the candidature of Atiku. While the Eastern zone, where the party, PDP, used to harvest bountiful block votes have turned their protest to backing the Labour Party (LP) and its candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, the South South zone may no longer be there for the PDP again to garner blinding figures during elections. South West is propping up one of its own, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressive Congress (APC). This scenario may have practically shut Atiku and his party, PDP off the bulk of the almost twenty eight (28) million Southern votes.

Before the Machuga’s leaks, Atiku’s former leader, President Olusegun Obasanjo (1999-2007) drove the first dagger of betrayal in the heart of Atiku’s presidential aspiration. His New Year’s Day letter to the Nigerians was more of total condemnation and rejection of his Atiku’s candidature; a recourse to his belligerent views of 2014 and pre-2018 before the intervention of some clergymen led by Bishop David Oyedepo of the Living Faith Church, (winners Chapel), Rev. Fr. Hassan Kukah of the Sokoto Diocese of the Catholic Church, Sheik Gumi and others.

That Obasanjo now went ahead to endorsed Mr. Peter Obi over Atiku showed clearly that despite the trojanic efforts of Bishop Oyedepo, Sheik Gumi and others in 2018, the former President still rates his former deputy in a very low esteem. 

To further distract Atiku, Festus Keyamo, a Minister of the Niger Delta Affairs and a spokesman of the Asiwaju Tinubu’s Campaign Council Tuesday (16 January) personally sent a strong worded petition to the anti-graft agencies, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC) the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, (ICPC) and the Code of Conduct Bureau, (CCB) The petition is based solely on the audio and video leaks from an ex-aide of Atiku, Mr. Machunga. Keyamo wants the PDP’s presidential candidate arrested and investigated over the serious damaging corruption allegations contained in the audio and video leaks.

The activist-turned politician had given the major anti-graft agencies in the country a seventy-two (72) hour ultimatum to either arrest or invite, interrogate and prosecute  one Alhaji Atiku Abubakar for:

1. offences against the code of conduct for public officers
2.     offence of money laundering.
3.     offence of  criminal breach of trust and criminal misappropriation
4.     offence of conspiracy

The PDP presidential campaign spokesperson, Senator Dino Melaye replied by accused the APC of orchestrating “lies from the pit of hell” having realized that Atiku is a “leading presidential candidate” for the February 25 presidential election.

According to Melaye, Atiku remains the most investigated Nigerians as of today but has never been indicted or tried for corruption by any court in the country.

Labelling Achimugu as a “blackmailer” who has three ongoing cases of blackmail in court, Melaye said neither him nor anybody from the PDP Presidential Campaign Council would again comment on the issue as they intend to focus on more serious issues concerning the upcoming election.

But in a swift reaction, Keyamo countered Melaye saying: The spokesperson of the Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign Council, PCC, Festus Keyamo has maintained that the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC and its presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu have no alliances with Michael Achimugu, who is said to be a former aide of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar.

He denied any relationship or alliances with Achimugu, saying, “we’ve no alliances with Mike Achimugu. What do you expect them to say? They have no modicum of shame. They have no iota of shame. These are the types of people, who are asking Nigerians to vote for them. No iota of shame for them.

“I am going to court and so, if they wish this thing away, it will not go away, I will continue…I do this under three capacities; I’m a member of the inner bar; secondly, I’m an ordinary concerned Nigerian, who has the right to bring perpetrators of crimes to book”, the Minister said.

Festus Keyamo made good his threat Friday (20 January) when he approached the Federal High Court, Abuja, Federal Capital Territory, seeking an interlocutory order compelling Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Code of Conduct Bureau,(CCB) Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, (ICPC), and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to appear before the honorable Court.

While all these darts keep coming, Atiku’s campaigns seemed to have thawed down considerably. His visits to Kwara, Kogi, and Ekiti were not impressive at all. The faithful’s seemed to have turned their backs. In Ekiti, two-time former governor, Ayo Fayose did not attend the campaign and no official reason was given. Of the two governors of the party in South West, Oyo and Osun, none attended the campaign. It was rudderless, to say the least.

Former president Obasanjo had in his new year letter, surreptitiously directed at the youths, who constitute almost forty per centage of the voting population, had said: “Let me say straight away that ‘Emi Lokan’ (My turn) and ‘I have paid my dues’ are one and the same thing and are wrong attitude and mentality for the leadership of Nigeria now”.

He continued: “My dear young men and women, you must come together and bring about a truly meaningful change in your lives. If you fail, you have no one else to blame. Your present and future are in your hands to make or to mar. The future of Nigeria is in the same manner in your hands and literally so. If for any reason you fail to redeem yourself and your country, you will have lost the opportunity for good and you will have no one to blame but yourselves and posterity will not forgive you. Get up, get together, get going and get us to where we should be. And you, the youth, it is your time and your turn. ‘Eyin Lokan’ (Your turn).

“The power to change is in your hands. Your future, my future, the future of grandchildren and great grandchildren is in your hands. Politics and elections are numbers game. You have the numbers, get up, stand up and make your numbers count.

“Let me say it again, loud and clear, Nigeria has no business with insecurity, poverty, insurgency, banditry, unemployment, hunger, debt, division and disunity. We are in these situations because advertently or inadvertently, our leaders have made the choices. They have done the best they could do. Let them take their rest deservedly or not and let them enjoy their retirement as Septuagenarians or older.

“Youth of Nigeria, your time has come, and it is now and please grasp it. If not now, it will be never. I appeal to you to turn the tide on its head and march forward chanting ‘Awa Lokan’ (Our turn) not with a sense of entitlement, but with a demonstrable ideological commitment to unity and transformation of Nigeria.

“None of the contestants is a saint but when one compares their character, antecedent, their understanding, knowledge, discipline and vitality that they can bring to bear and the great efforts required to stay focused on the job particularly looking at where the country is today and with the experience on the job that I personally had, Peter Obi as a mentee has an edge. Others like all of us have what they can contribute to the new dispensation to liberation, restoration and salvaging of Nigeria collectively”.

Atiku, unlike the APC’s candidate, did not respond to his former boss letter. But on Wednesday, (18 January) he was in Abeokuta to campaign and held a Stakeholders meeting with the Ogun State’s leaders. He lodged in an hotel less than one kilometre to Obasanjo’s Presidential Library’s home in Abeokuta, but unlike his practice in the past, when he would first visit the former leader, he did not bother to call on his former boss. During the campaign, he did not even mentioned his name. He total snubbed the former president.

A political analyst, Dr Edmurd Okolie told www.focusmagazineonline.com in Lagos that “as with his silence on Obasanjo’s letter, so it is with Micheal Achumgu’s video. The claims that his thirty one children are all angling on their father’s presidency to “live big”, are scarry enough, even more than the creation of another “Special Purpose Vehicles” (SPV) for siphoning funds out of the Treasury without forensic detection”.

www.focusmagazineonline.com (C2023)