Posted by By FEMI BABAFEMI on
Chieftain of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Senator Joseph Waku, has said that whatever travails General Ibrahim Babangida and Vice President Atiku Ababukar face
Chieftain of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Senator Joseph Waku, has said that whatever travails General Ibrahim Babangida and Vice President Atiku Ababukar face in the pursuit of their presidential aspirations have long been foretold by the late former Special Duties Minister, Alhaji Wada Nas.
Waku told Daily Sun that the clampdown on Babangida and Atiku by the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration was a manifestation of Nas' prophesy contained in a letter to the duo warning them to be wary of the antics and game plan of the president.
In the letter being referred to, the former special duties minister, who died last January, had said that:
'There had been a lot of handwritings on the wall for Atiku to have read that the very person whom he helped to come to power will spell waterloo for his political future.
'As Atiku is being bashed, IBB should learn how to take cover sooner than later, particularly that he is one of the interests Dangiwa (Col Umar) represents and also that there has been a systematic weeding out of all those who stood by General Obasanjo over the years," the letter said.
Apparently linking the content of Nas' statement to the on-going stand-off between President Obasanjo and Atiku as well as EFCC's probe of Babangida's estates, Waku said that Nas has been vindicated.
According to him, 'Wada Nas and some of us had seen this coming. Irrespective of the evidence or allegations of corruption against Atiku today, it was obvious, for a long time, especially with the kind of intrigues that went with the 2003 PDP primaries, that Atiku would only be allowed to float in the party. They won't allow him to achieve or realise any ambition beyond the vice presidential seat he has attained as far as Obasanjo remains in charge of PDP and the presidency.
'So, Wada Nas of blessed memory can be regarded in this situation as a man who saw tomorrow. He rightly warned both IBB and Atiku to forget their ambition as long as Obasanjo remains in charge of the affairs of this country.
'And I believe some of us have added our voice in warning not only Atiku but Nigerians of the kind of difficulty and challenges that lie ahead of us. In my own case, when I alerted the nation then as a serving senator about the trend in the polity, I was tagged a coup plotter because a magazine said I called for military intervention.
'The warnings are all coming to pass now. We will still face more challenges between now and the handover date in 2007," he said.
Waku said that though Babangida seems to have laid low, Atiku's responses to the missiles thrown at him indicated that he must have equally prepared for what he is currently facing.
'In his heart of heart, Atiku knows he has the battle of life to fight and unfortunately he seems to be the only one left in the ring to take all the punches. But his responses have shown that he has equally taken all the warnings before now and prepared for the scandals playing out now and which I think have not ended," he stressed.