Atiku reopens old wounds, speaks on Obj’s life presidency project

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has revisited the lingering rift between himself and his former boss, ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Atiku, a chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) revealed that unknown to Nigerians who thought Obasanjo wanted a third term in office, such was not the case.

Atiku revealed in a recent interview with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) that what former president Obasanjo actually planned to do was amend the constitution to enable him be president for life.

The two men have been having a running battle ever since they served a second term as president and vice, with each giving the other cold shoulders for not supporting the other to achieve their political goals.

It is widely believed that Obasanjo wanted to continue as president after his second term in office, though the constitution allows only two terms of four years each, and that he tried tinkering with the constitution to achive his aim but failed.

His grouse with Atiku is that he was among those who opposed his dream to continue as president.

On his part, Atiku wanted to be president after eight years as serving as a vice under Obasanjo, but his boss would have none of it, rather Obasanjo threw his weight behind the late Musa Yar’Adua who went on to be president.

Atiku in his interview with ‘Zero Tolerance’, the in-house magazine of the EFCC said that: “My offence was simply that I disagreed with him on the amendment of the Constitution to remove tenure or term limits or what was popularly called third term agenda. In fact, Obasanjo sent the then Attorney General of the Federation, and Jerry Gana to my office to bring me the draft of the amendments to the constitution.

“After going through, I found out that tenure limits had been removed. In other words, he could be president for life. I now asked them, ‘if I send you to the President can you deliver this message’? And they said ‘yes’. I said ‘go and tell him I will not support it and I will fight it.”

Read also: Atiku teams up with Tinubu, says ‘Oyegun you erred’

Atiku also opened up on the rift between himself and two of his erstwhile protégés; the incumbent Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-rufai and a former EFCC, Nuhu Ribadu.

According to him, he was the one who brought Ribadu into the Obasanjo government to receive an appointment, but that the two men never showed any appreciation for what he did for them, but rather they allegedly connived to work against him.

On queries that Ridadu alleged that  he was corrupt, Atiku said Ribadu later came to him to apologise, but that “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 realised that I am not corrupt.

“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’.”

 

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