Posted by Idowu Samuel and Kayode Akinmade on
THE British Government has rated the Vice-President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, as 'deeply corrupt." According to a report made available to Saturday Tribune on Friday, the British Government based its decision not to support Abubakar to succeed President Olusegun Obasanjo in May on the alleged corrupt nature of the vice-president.
THE British Government has rated the Vice-President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, as 'deeply corrupt." According to a report made available to Saturday Tribune on Friday, the British Government based its decision not to support Abubakar to succeed President Olusegun Obasanjo in May on the alleged corrupt nature of the vice-president. The conclusion of the British Government, it was learnt, was based on the outcome of an independent survey commissioned by Her Majesty's Government (HMG) in 2005 on the candidates for the 2007 presidential election.
The survey was conducted by the African Department (Equatorial) with the major aim of assisting Britain in making projections concerning its dealings with Nigeria and other African countries. The report states in part, 'President Obasanjo is in the last two years of his second four-year term.
'Orthodoxy suggests that his successor will be a northerner. 'The two obvious candidates for 2007 are Atiku Abubakar (his deeply corrupt vice-president) and Badamasi Babangida (former military dictator)."
The report, however, blamed Obasanjo for allowing corruption to fester. Britain said it was bothered about the situation in Nigeria because any instability would result in increase in migration to the United Kingdom, adding, 'Crime, particularly serious financial and organised crime, has a significant impact on stability, governance and poverty levels in Nigeria, while the UK is major target for
Nigerian criminals, and so the UK itself suffers major criminal harm." The report also suggests the frustrations by Britain in helping Nigeria to reduce her crime rate, stating, 'Our reputation through alleged handling of the proceeds of crime, and through practical obstacles to the prompt and effective freezing and return of stolen assets, are at fault in the Nigerian eyes."
The report said it was frustrating that Britain had failed in its effort to help Nigeria benefit from the reform agenda of the Obasanjo government through a more secure and profitable environment for foreign investment.
According to the report, Nigerians have been abusing the policies by the British government on immigration control and asylum.
But the Action Congress, Abubakar's platform for the election, in a related development on Friday, said that the Presidency was hasty in calling for the trial of the vice-president based on his indictment by the Senate ad-hoc committee headed by Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba.
The party in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said, 'The biggest problem with this Presidency is that it is seriously deficient in brilliant minds, who would have been discerning enough to know that the committee report can only be valid when it is adopted by the entire Senate.
'With small minds and empty barrels like Uba Sani and Nasir el-Rufai calling the shots, we are not surprised that the Presidency has been so diminished that it is now the butt of ridicule."
The AC said it was confident that the shoddy work of the Ndoma-Egba-led committee would be thrown out by the Senate, especially with the revelation by a member of the committee, Senator Titus Olupitan, that some of its members had been so compromised they could not be trusted to act fairly.
The party said it was also gratified at the widespread condemnation of the report, which arrived at ‘tailored' conclusions that had no link with the committee's findings and the testimonies given at the public hearing.