Posted by By CHRISTIAN ITA (okpa40@yahoo.com) on
Nigerians may soon see President Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku Abubakar ‘dance naked' in the market square following a vow by Dr. Usman Bugaje that associates of the Vice President would soon go to town with Obasanjo's alleged sleazy dealings in office.
Nigerians may soon see President Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku Abubakar ‘dance naked' in the market square following a vow by Dr. Usman Bugaje that associates of the Vice President would soon go to town with Obasanjo's alleged sleazy dealings in office.
Bugaje, himself a close ally of Atiku is peeved by Obasanjo's accusation that Atiku had been disloyal to him, saying the president would soon be exposed for who he is and not the picture of piety he sells to the public.
The chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs told Sunday Sun in an exclusive interview that the accusation by president Obasanjo that Atiku had been disloyal to him was not only false but also a calculated attempt to scuttle Atiku's presidential ambition.
The federal lawmaker, who until 2003 was a Special Adviser to Atiku, said the Obasanjo's presidency is plagued by the same malaise (corruption) as the regimes of Ibrahim Babangida and late General Sani Abacha.
Here are excerpts of the interview:
Are there moves to get the National Assembly to impeach the Vice President on account of his face-off with President Olusegun Obasanjo?
We are not aware of any attempt in the National Assembly to impeach the Vice President. I am aware that it has always been their wish- that is the president and his folks. It has always been their wish to see if they can impeach the vice president. It has not come to the National Assembly yet. I will like to say that if anybody is going to be impeached by the National Assembly, it is going to be the president himself because we have got all the records that are necessary for us to impeach him.
National Assembly is the battle ground for all these because you can't remove the vice president unless you come to the National Assembly. So, we wait and see how they will come to the National Assembly.
Do you think there is a political undertone to the search carried out in the Maryland, United States of America residence of the Vice president?
This is too obvious. This is something that took place almost a month ago. It has been in the public domain in the internet, the Washington Post, a number of newspapers in the United States have already written about this congressman, William Jefferson who is actually the man the FBI is trailing because in that same week, when the house of the vice president was searched because Jefferson visited it, seven other houses in the vicinity of Maryland were all searched. These were all the houses Jefferson had gone. Four weeks after, that is no news anymore. What makes it a headline four weeks after? Except there is a particular connivance. This is something that has been in the public domain and so why make it news now?
Until 2003, when you got elected into the House of Representatives, you were a Special Adviser to Atiku. President Obasanjo last Sunday accused Atiku of disloyalty. How true is this?
Put it the other way round. We have seen disloyalty from the president. Disloyalty is not a one-way traffic, loyalty begets loyalty. The president is not only disloyal to the vice president but he has been ungrateful. This is a man who was saved from the claws of death in prison where he was languishing and forgotten. Some of us who were then in the civil society were sticking our neck to save democracy and save these people who were being victimized. The vice president and his machinery along with others that I don't have to mention now worked together to get this man out of prison, worked day and night to get him a presidential pardon, they worked together to rehabilitate him, worked together to give him a political platform. Together they went round this country asking people to support even when his people did not want him and this man has now taken power, the first thing he did when he came for a second term was to drop the names of the very men who were instrumental to his getting to that place.
This kind of ingratitude is something very strange. No human being in his senses could pay back what is being done to this man. This is where the whole thing started and so what is the president talking about? It is terrible. When the time comes, we will tell you what this president is. At the moment, I do not want us to lose sight of the bigger issue now.
What is the big issue?
The big issue that is facing this country is that for the last three decades, the country has been held to ransom by the consuming greed of leaders who don't simply want to leave their seat.
Ibrahim Babangida tried to remain in office as long as he could, even as we had never seen that type of suffering during those 8 years of the devaluation of the Naira, poverty, and destruction. Abacha came and he did the same thing, he tried to stay on at the expense of so many things. How many people were killed from the Babangida administration because of this inordinate desire to remain in power for which they are prepared to spend just anything and are prepared just kill anybody to remain in power. One of your colleagues during the Babangida era was blown off in pieces. During Abacha, how many people were killed? Yar' Adua died, Rilwane died, God knows what killed Abiola, but it cannot be unconnected with this particular thing. You can see how many people we are losing, how much money, how many opportunities we were losing. The country is stagnating and de-developing, our educational system is crumbling all because some people, who now it would appear, have some mental problem, insist that they must continue forever as if this country is their own father's property. This is the big issue and it is what we are facing now. We faced it during Babangida, it is what we faced during Abacha and it is what we are facing now. People come to power and do not want to leave, even as they have done nothing to impress the people. Of course, if he had delivered, many people would be happy for him to stay but where is the delivery?
Ask the ordinary Nigerian; let him tell you what they are going through. As they say, the taste of the pudding is in the eating. What is the ordinary Nigerian seeing? Rise in the price of fuel, retrenchment, de-industralisation, closure of industries, no work for graduates, under payment in the teaching and medical professions, strikes every now and then. Is this what we are getting for democracy? Many people are beginning to wonder if it is worth it.
Those of us who are out to fight against any extension or continuity are not doing so because we have somebody who stands a chance of becoming president. Only God knows who is going to be the president of this country. But people have to appreciate that what we are doing is essentially to ensure that democracy continues. It is only in democracy can we find hope and it is only in democracy can we hope to find a change. It is democracy that offers us that opportunity.
Do you think 2007 has any bearing on what is happening to Atiku at the moment?
It is because of 2007. The vice president is the greatest threat to the president's plans for 2007. He can't dismiss him because they were elected together. President Obasanjo was elected because of the vice president not the other way round. Where is the president's political machinery? Somebody, who could not even get his own local government, some even said he could not get even his ward, could not deliver his ward in the first term. In the second term, he may have delivered, but you know what the Appeal Court said about the election in Ogun State.
Some Nigerians, including Senator Arthur Nzeribe believe the one way to address the face-off between Obasanjo and Atiku is by separation. That perhaps Atiku should quit office. Do you agree?
You know who Nzeribe is. He is a mercenary, he has always been. So, I don't take his statement seriously. You in the press should find out how much he might have been paid to make that statement.
But do you not think if Atiku refuses to quit, the problem will linger and this would certainly affect governance?
That the feud could affect governance is not true. Even without the frost, governance has not been good. Budgets have not been implemented, the rules have never been respected, the party is run in breach of its own constitution, so what are you talking about, what is going to change, what is going to improve?
How is Atiku taking what is happening?
He is not losing any sleep. He is staying firm because he was elected by the people of Nigeria and was not appointed by anybody and he would remain there. He is not surprised by what is happening because he knows the president well enough; he is capable of doing this kind of thing.
The vice president is a seasoned politician. This does not rattle him at all and he knows so much about the president than the hawks running up and down. He is a fighter and has demonstrated a large heart to accept all the things they are doing to him and keeping quiet. I don't think he will join issues on these little things. That will come out eventually.
Can the PDP broker a truce?
The party at the moment is in the pocket of the president. I don't think the party has the capacity to arrange a truce. I understand that the secretary of the party issued a statement literally indicting the vice president. Let us see how far they can go.
The party is supposed to have conducted its ward congresses last month but nothing happened. This has heightened fears that the national convention may not hold in November?
The party is being run by the president not by a constitution, by people. You remember he removed Solomon Lar and brought Gemade. Barely two years he removed Gemade, he brought Audu Ogbeh. Ogbeh was removed, some reports suggest at gunpoint. He brought in Ali. Ali has come and barely six months; he is out of favour. What kind of party can have five chairmen, including Ekwueme in six years? I have never seen a party like it Africa, at least in recent times.
But we in the party have the right to fight this abuse and breach of the rule of law.
The so-called registration of members is just a fraud. How can you say you have just simply dissolved the registration of people? It means the chairman himself is not even a member of the party. It is all part of the gimmick to weed out those perceived to be against them. You don't run a party on that basis.
Rumour was rife even before the current face-off with the President that Atiku and members of the PDM including some state governors may dump the PDP. Any truth in this?
No but every politician will keep his options open. That is what politics is about; pragmatism but I have not known of any decision to break away. We are members of the PDP, we will remain there, and we will fight it there.