Posted by By YINKA FABOWALE on
The exchange of words and wits between President Olusegun Obasanjo and his deputy, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar inches up another grade, with a vehement denial by the vice president that he nursed treasonable intent with his disclosure of a purported $2 billion arms deal by the president which, allegedly was to quell restiveness in the Niger Delta region.
The exchange of words and wits between President Olusegun Obasanjo and his deputy, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar inches up another grade, with a vehement denial by the vice president that he nursed treasonable intent with his disclosure of a purported $2 billion arms deal by the president which, allegedly was to quell restiveness in the Niger Delta region.
Presidential spokesman, Mr Uba Sani, had accused the vice president of incitement and plans to destabilise the country, while reacting to Atiku's disclosure during the commissioning of his campaign office in Abuja on Tuesday.
But an alarmed Atiku, in a statement by his campaign organisation yesterday, alleged that Sani's statement was part of the president's desperate ploy to rope him into a fabricated coup plot, and thereby bar him from contesting the April presidential election.
Specifically, he claimed that his adversaries planned having him arrested and tried for treason, a charge he would be making for the second time.
He also took a swipe at the National Deputy Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George, for uncomplimentary remarks the politician made concerning him over the issue. He described George as 'a dirty clown."
Atiku's reaction comes on the heels of a public demonstration suspected to have been sponsored against him in Abuja yesterday.
The vice president expressed surprise that the police allowed the demonstration by what he called a 'hired crowd," not only to go on, but to even get to his official residence in the Aso Villa, while barring his supporters from organising a welcome rally for him on return from vacation in the United States.
The Atiku Campaign Organisation which spoke on his behalf described as unfortunate, the Presidency's categorization of the Vice President's expose of government's weapons deal as a plan designed to incite the people of the Niger Delta in order to scuttle the transition programme.
This allegation is 'false, wicked and baseless," it said in the statement. 'Vice President Atiku Abubakar has never incited and will never incite anyone or group. He is not in league with any individual or group to destabilize the country using the Niger Delta as a launching pad.
He is a strong believer in dialogue as a means of addressing real or perceived grievances. It is, therefore, mischievous and ludicrous for the Presidency to accuse him of treason on the basis of comments made in his capacity as the presidential candidate of the Action Congress (AC) from whom Nigerians expect an alternative vision," the statement added.
The Atiku Campaign Organisaion said it took strong exception to the incitement charge. As the leading presidential candidate, the group argued, Atiku was at liberty to offer the people of Nigeria, and the people of the Niger Delta in particular, his programme for resolving the myriad of serious social and security problems of the region.
'Atiku has said that he does not believe that the answer to the Niger Delta violence is to offer more violence. Rather than procure weapons to kill and maim our own people, Atiku believes that it makes more sense to channel such huge resources to development of the region. The two billion dollars, if spent wisely, will make a big difference in the living condition of the people.
'President Olusegun Obasanjo is currently personally leading PDP campaign to persuade Nigerians to vote for the party candidate on the basis of the policies and programmes of the Obasanjo administration. Is it not reasonable to expect that in the same campaign, such policies and programmes would come under the issues that any serious opposition candidate would examine and offer alternative points of view?"
The coming elections will be won and lost on issues which affect us as a people and the candidate Atiku Abubakar has rightly identified and elevated the problem of the Niger Delta as a priority issue. There is nothing treasonable in disagreeing with the government's point of view on Niger Delta, the statement said.
Alluding to Sani's claim that the vice president was insincere about the Niger Delta cause, as he was always absent at the Presidential Forum designed to discuss the problems, the statement said: 'If Atiku has not been attending the presidential forum on the Niger Delta, it is not because he does not care about the region as falsely claimed by the Presidency. It is because the presidential forum has become a hollow, time-wasting television show where serious contributions are ridiculed and participants are harangued and shouted down by an all-knowing and comical moderator.
Rather than waste his time at such hollow rituals, Atiku has spent his time bringing together respected stakeholders to draw up proposals for solving the problems of the area as encapsulated in his policy document."
On the public demonstration against their boss the Atiku camp hoped to 'see this fundamental freedom of assembly and freedom of expression promoted by the government and security agencies during this campaign period and beyond." In doing so, the campaign said it hoped to see an end to what amounts to double standards.
'The fact that the police looked the other way when the demonstrators were at work indicates that the rallies received official sanction. If the federal government in its entire wisdom can inspire such campaign of calumny against the number two citizen of the country, with the full cooperation of the police and all other security agencies, then government should in the same token allow anti-government demonstrations to also take place without let or hindrance," the group stated.
The Atiku Campaign Organisation also frowned at what it called Chief George's 'insulting, callous and irresponsible utterances against the person and office of the vice president" in commenting on the raging issue.
It noted that George had not forgiven Atiku since he reminded Nigerians and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of the selective prosecution of the war against corruption 'in which Plateau State legislators have been in and out of detention for duly collecting N3 million each as a constituency allowance," while George allegedly indicted in the plundering of Nigeria Ports Authority to the tune of N83 billion, walked the landscape like a collosus.
'He has realised that it is only by playing the role of a praise-singer and a jester in Obasanjo's court that he can be saved from prosecution," the group said.