Posted by From ERIC OSAGIE, Abuja on
Wife of former vice president, Mrs. Titi Atiku Abubakar, has revealed intimate power games in Aso Rock during the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, sensationally declaring that the former president would have been only too happy to have his estranged deputy dead.
Wife of former vice president, Mrs. Titi Atiku Abubakar, has revealed intimate power games in Aso Rock during the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, sensationally declaring that the former president would have been only too happy to have his estranged deputy dead.
Speaking exclusively with your favourite Saturday Sun in Abuja, Mrs. Abubakar insisted that the family faced real danger in the events leading to the anti-third term war.
'At a stage, we couldn't sleep with our two eyes closed,' Mrs. Abubakar recalls, adding: 'Because we were afraid for our lives. It was that bad, it was very bad, that we had to even leave the Villa at one point in time. We were quite scared. We were scared because we knew the former president was after us. He sent his security after us. You, yourself, know it was a tough period for us. He set up different panels, EFCC, ICPC, overnight administrative panels that was set up against him, just to nail Atiku. But God vindicated us because he knew we were innocent of the charges against us.'
Mrs. Abubakar denies that the Atiku propaganda machinery tried to hoodwink the public on the travails of the former VP.
'What kind of propaganda?' she asks, raising her voice slightly. 'No, it wasn't propaganda. You were in this country. Obasanjo wanted to destroy us. He declared my husband's seat vacant while he was in the United States . He sent soldiers to our house to come and remove our property. My brother, it was total war against us. But God fought for us. Out of the 17 cases my husband instituted in court against Obasanjo, Atiku won everything. God fights for the innocent. God vindicated us,' she said.
Asked to provide insight on what could have led to the schism between the once jolly good friends (before they fell apart), Mrs. Abubakar retorted: 'I think you have to ask former President Obasanjo what happened. Yes, they were very friendly initially because they started on a very good note…Then, all of a sudden, things started changing. Only Obasanjo can tell us what went wrong.'
Mrs. Abubakar, however, blamed the estranged relationship on Obasanjo's aborted third term ambition.
She said: 'You know he wanted something so bad (third term) and my husband said he couldn't have it. And he was not happy. And he decided to fight him to the last…You see, Baba calls me his daughter. But people had so infiltrated him and sown the seed of hatred against him (Atiku) that people told me that if I go to him (to say what's going on), he would not listen to me. You know, like I said earlier, my husband prevented him from becoming something and he was very bitter against him. So, every body knew that even if I go to him, he would not listen to me.'
Mrs. Abubakar revealed that even her husband didn't actually plan to be Obasanjo's deputy but for providence.
'In 1999, if you recall, he wanted to be governor of his Adamawa State and actually won the governorship election. But the party saw his contributions and felt he would be a good deputy to Obasanjo and picked him. He never really wanted to be anybody's deputy. After the 1993 presidential primary in Jos, he was supposed to be Abiola's running mate based on an agreement between Abiola and the Yar'Adua camp to which my husband belonged. But Abiola didn't keep the agreement and went ahead to pick Babagana Kingibe. Since that time, he didn't want to be anybody's deputy again. That's why he ran for his state's governorship poll with Boni Haruna as his deputy. He just wanted to serve his people at home,' she said.
Mrs. Abubakar debunked the view that the former vice-president backstabbed Obasanjo by trying to run against him in 2003.
'It's not true he wanted to run against him,' she says. 'When some governors saw what was happening (in the country), they asked him to (run for presidency). But, eventually, he refused. So, it's not true that he wanted to.'
Founder of the anti-women and child trafficking coalition, WOTCLEF, Mrs. Abubakar, who hails from Ilesa, Osun State, but grew up in Lagos, where she lived her teenage and adult years, also spoke on her love life with Atiku, her passions and life outside power, including her pet project, WOTCLEF.
On her romance with Atiku, she says: 'He wooed me for two years…. I had pity on him at a point and agreed to marry him. We had a secret registry wedding.'