Posted by From Bolaji Adebiyi in Lagos and Kola Ologbondiyan in Abuja on
The frosty relationship between President Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku Abubakar resonated at the National Assembly yesterday as the President breached protocol by recognizing the Senate President, Chief Ken Nnamani, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Masari, before acknowledging the Vice President.
The frosty relationship between President Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku Abubakar resonated at the National Assembly yesterday as the President breached protocol by recognizing the Senate President, Chief Ken Nnamani, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Masari, before acknowledging the Vice President.
By the order of protocol, the Vice President, who is the nation's number two citizen, takes precedence over the Senate President and the House Speaker, who are numbers three and four citizens of the country.
But presenting the 2006 Appropriation Bill to the joint session of the National Assembly in Abuja, the President skipped the Vice President's name in the order of protocol. It was, however, unclear if the action was deliberate as he was reading from a prepared speech.
The President had walked into the hallowed chamber of the House, venue of the joint session, at 11.05 am. In tow were the Vice President and other Aso Rock top officials. After the opening prayers, followed by a brief remark by the Senate President, Obasanjo took the floor to present the bill.
He cleared his throat and began his presentation with protocols. He started acknowledging the presence of notable personalities, but rather than start with the Vice President who was seated in the front row, next to the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Dr. Ahmadu Ali, he started with the Senate President.
It was after he had acknowledged three other personalities that he apologized and said, "I have made a little mistake in the protocol." Obasanjo then acknowledged the presence of Atiku before he continued his presentation.
Top aides of the Vice President, however, said yesterday that they were unable to comment on whether the breach of protocol was deliberate or a slip.
The relationship between the two leaders went sour over their post 2007 political future. While the President had been speculated to have a third term ambition that contradicts the provision of the country's 1999 Constitution on tenure of office, the Vice President had not hidden his desire to succeed his boss.
The two mutually exclusive ambitions had snowballed into an open conflict in August when Atiku in his celebrated interview with THISDAY criticised the reforms in the PDP, contending that they were undemocratic and in clear breaches of the constitution. He hinted that the whole reforms were aimed at frustrating his ambition to succeed his boss.
Obasanjo replied his deputy a week after the publication of the interview and accused the Atiku of disloyalty, subsequently attracting sharp criticisms from the Vice President at public functions. Although a ceasefire was negotiated by the college of former Heads of State, the thaw relapsed into hostilities with the revalidation of membership and registration of members and the conduct of party congresses in September and October, with Atiku and his supporters skillfully schemed out of the party machinery.
On Monday, the dispute took a new dimension with the suspension, by the Federal Government, of a lucrative concession granted INTEL Nigeria Limited, a company Atiku has interests, to operate, on behalf of the Nigerian Ports Authority, the facilities at Onne Terminal Port in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
The suspension of the company coincided with the release of a statement, personally signed by the Vice President, declaring that despite the frosty relationship between his boss and him, and mounting calls that he should quit, he would not resign from office.