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ALHAJJI A. R. ABDULWAHAB is an Action Congress (AC) chieftain who has a tremendous respect for the immediate past Vice Preisident Atiku Abubakar whom he described as his father-figure. In this interview, ALHAJI ABDULWAHAB spoke extensively on the relevance of the former Vice President to the country’s politics, how the myth surrounding Obasanjo’s anti-corruption crusade was broken by shocking revealations at the power probe and why he thinks Atiku could not be held responsible for the misrule of the last regime. Excerpts:

What is your relationship with Atiku Abubakar?

Well, in the first instance, I’m a card-carrying member of Action Congress (AC), and as you well know, he is the leader and presidential candidate of the party. So, he’s my party leader. He’s also like a father-figure to me. I have tremendous respect for him. Also, you will recall that he was Vice-President of this country for all of 8 years. His comportment and carriage in that high office endeared him to me and I consider him a role model of sorts.

What credentials do you think Atiku possesses to make him relevant to Nigerians?

Atiku possesses one of the richest political pedigrees in this country today. This man was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Anyone conversant with his biography will recall that he lost both parents at a very tender age. Clearly, we are dealing with a man with an acute sense of self-preservation, and who by sheer dint of hardwork, industry, political and entrepreneural avvy lifted himself up to he commanding heights of Nigeria’s political class. In the public sector, Atiku retired almost at the peak office in the Customs. Thereafter, he made a phenomenally successful foray into the business terrain.

He was one of the founding fathers of the PDM, an association in which he was the closest associate of Geneneral Shehu Musa Yar’ Adua. We all know that the eventual birth of the PDP in 1998 was predicated on the PDM platform. What all these translate to is that in contemporary Nigeria, Atiku’s political antecedents is one of the richest in the country. He went to serve as Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, a role in which he steered the nation’s economic ship for 4 years. As we all know, things fell apart between him and his dictator principal, President Olusegun Obasanjo, when Atiku’ s pre-eminence and influence became glaringly obvious during the presidential nominatons for the 2003 elections. Atiku could have gotten the PDP nomination on a platter of gold, but instead opted to display uncommon loyalty by swaying the PDP governors in favour of Obasonjo.Obviously, Obasanjo felt humiliated by all these. And then to add salt to injury, Atiku came out to publicly dissociate himself from Obasanjo’s third term bid. Atiku’s principled stand against this potential travesty of the nation’s constitutional integrity will stand as his singular most significant contribution to the evolution of the Nigerian nation-state. Against all odds and despite threats to his businesses and to his life,this man stood firm against the forces of injustice and anarchy, and Nigerians today remain grateful for this almost-superhuman effort. So, from all these antecedets, how can Nigerians forget Atiku in a hurry? Indeed, can Nigeria’s history possibly cannot be accurate and complete without a treatise on the man Atiku?

Senator Waku recently said that with the loss of the Adama wa election, Atiku has gone out of political relevance. How do you situate this statement within contemporary realities?

At sixty plus, Atiku is in his political prime. Earlier, I asked rhetorically, can Nigeria’s political history ever be complete without substantial mention of Atiku? I believe that this country is abundantly blessed because of people like Atiku. Please do not misconstrue that statement to mean that Atiku is the only good thing that has happened to Nigeria. My humble submission is simply that his country should not allow the wealth of experience and the accumulated wisdom of people like Atiku to go to waste. The patriotic zeal with which Atiku fought Obasanjo’s third term bid to a standstill is an obvious indication that he loves this country passionately and if it is the will of ALLAH, he will still find himself in the proper role in which he can both articulate and prosecute his vision for this great country. Do not forget that, subterraneanly, Atiku’s support base is still formidable and his political family remains intact.

Senator Waku is quite entitled to his political views. Having said that,it is quite possible that he is suffering from a case of sour grapes. Dont forget that some political opportunists will always cry foul when they fail to squeeze out largesse of one form or the other from people 1ike Atiku. Let’s ca11 a spade a spade and by no other name. We all know what happened in Adamawa. I was there. The whole exercise was rife with electoral malpractices. There was electoral violence. There was electoral disenfranchisement. The results of the election did not reflect the true state of affairs. I can categorically state that, for example, there was snatching of the ballot box of Ndarakudiya voting unit in Duhu-Shuwa ward in Madagali LGA just as voting was being concluded. This is just one instance. There were many more. History will judge those who will hold on to power at all costs. This country is bigger than anyone single party.

We Nigerians owe the nation’s judiciary a depth of gratitude. However, just as Audu Ogbe said, the ultimate solution is for Maurice Iwu to leave INEC. That in itself will be the starting point for electoral reforms.

What are your views on the recent revelations on Obasanjo’s administration and how do you relate all these to his much vaunted anti-corruption crusade?

Obasanjo will go down in history as the most corrupt leader this country has ever had. He is a very clever old man. He succeeded in hoodwinking the international community and Nigerians, using this anti-corruption crusade as credible platform to deceive everyone. The worms are creeping out of the rotten wood. Here is a man who should have retired glorious1y as an elder state man. Instead, he has succeeded in earning the opprobrium of all well-meaning people. It is a tragedy. Personally, I am ashamed of the old man. He should be thoroughly investigated and if found to have contravened that laws of the land, the full weight of the law should be brought upon him to serve as a deterent to other people who think they can fraudulently assume the credentials of a latter-day messiah to pillage the resources of this country.

Another thing that must happen to assuage the hurt feelings of Nigerians is that Nuhu Ribadu must come and publicly apologise to Nigerians for deceiving them and taking them for a ride on the rollercoaster of deceit. You wi11 reca11 that Ribadu once insulted the intelligence of Nigerians by saying Obasanjo was the best thing to have happened to Nigerian because of his anti-corruption crusade. He stopped short of calling Obasanjo a saint. Now we all know better. Ribadu should please apologise to this country.

How will you respond to allegations of corruption levelled against Atiku?

Well we are all privy to the information seeping out of the numerous probes going on in numerous sections of our polity. It is instructive to note that Atiku’s name hardly ever come up for mention at these fora. It is an incontrovertible fact that between 2003 and 2007, Atiku was totally isolated trom the mainstream of governance and Obasanjo singlehandedly ran the administration. Atiku was not privy to the many underhand deals that Obasanjo engaged in , Yes, it is true that Atiku is an extremely wealthy man, but remember that this man was already a multimillionaire by the time he went into active politics. Those who are close to Atiku also know that the man is a consumate businessman. Atiku built up his formidable wealth through very wise and well tough-out investment strategies, this shrewdness being in itself a trait that is commonly in most Fulani men. I say all these because people may be tempted to ascribe his wealth to corruption while in office. Nothing could be further from the truth.

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