When talking about treason against, and betrayal of, a nation in modern time the name of the late Norwegian and ex-military Major, Vidkun Quisling, comes to mind. He was the one that visited Berlin in December 1939 and presented to Hitler a plan for German occupation of Norway. When Germany invaded Norway on 9 April 1940, Vidkun Quisling declared himself the head of government of Norway but as it turned out, he could not even go to the toilet in his own country without first getting permition from German military occupants. Yet, and as far as betrayal of a nation is concerned, Vidkun Quisling had a forerunner.
At the battle of Thermopylae between Greece and Persia in 450 BC, Ephialtes betrayed his country, Greece, to the Persians leading to the defeat of the Greeks. Nigerian nation has had a lot of Ephialtes in the past but their upsurge prior to the country's Presidential and National Assembly elections of 23 February 2019 was very frightening even though they were all eventually apprehended as the election results have now shown. Ephialtes are in the main opposition party, the PDP, and they appeared to have adopted their treasonable behaviour from Nicaragua. The PDP's Ephialates never campaigned to attract votes from voters, rather, their campaigns were aimed at discrediting the election before it was held. They strategically accused INEC and security agencies of being partial to the PDP. Without any evidence, they imagined that Buhari's APC could not win election without rigging and with the aid of INEC and security forces. Is Atiku Abubakar a worthy presidential candidate?
Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of PDP in the 2019 presidential and National Assembly Elections was a former custom officer at the Port of Apapa, Lagos. Being a northerner, he rose quickly to the rank of Deputy Director of Custom. In that position it was like making a rat the supervisor of the cheese storage. While retaining his position as a Custom Officer, Atiku Abubakar set up a logistic company with an Italian man to do clearing and forwarding of goods at Nigerian ports. It was an era when saw-durst were imported into Nigeria as machine spare parts. During that era of importing junks into Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar was the first Deputy Director of Customs to become a millionaire. When Nigeria returned to civil rule in 1999, Atiku Abubakar became Vice President to President Olusegun Obasanjo but during their second term, the relationship between the President and his Vice turned sour. The execution of privatisation policy of the PDP government headed by the Vice President was a major cause of their sour relations. Olusegun Obasanjo believed that Atiku Abubakar, to his exclusion, had converted national resources into his private wealth through government's privatisation, deregulation and liberalisation policies. When Obasanjo, in 2006, openly accused Atiku Abubakar of corruptly enriching himself, the latter responded that when Obasanjo came out of Abacha's gulag, he had only twenty-thousand naira left in his bank account and his Otta farm was in ruin. Atiku Abubakar then called on Obasanjo to explain, not only how he got money to revive Otta farm but, how he had suddenly become a millionaire within a short space of time. At the end of their eight years tenure in government Obasanjo blocked Atiku Abubakar from contesting for Presidency on the platform of PDP in 2007.
However, Atiku Abubakar joined Action Congress (AC) in 2006 while at the same time he was sitting in the government on the platform of PDP as Vice President. He contested the presidential election in 2007 on the platform of AC with his running mate Ben Obi and came third in the election which was won by Umaru Musa Yar'Adua of the PDP. While Atiku Abubakar was biding his time in the AC, Umaru Musa Yar'Adua became terminally sick and as it is known, vulture has a very long sight in discovering faraway carcasses. People with conscience may think it is cynical, but Atiku Abubakar considers himself a vulture and sees politics as a carcass. He guessed that Yar'Adua would die before the end of his first term tenure as President of Nigeria, therefore Atiku Abubakar bolted away from AC and re-joined PDP. Atiku Abubakar had calculated coldly that President Goodluck Jonathan would only complete the remaining two years of Yar'Adua's presidency and vacate in 2011 for a Northerner to contest in accordance with PDP zoning arrangement of shifting Presidential office between North and South every eight years. When Yar'Adua died, Atiku Abubakar championed the campaign that power must return to a Northerner in 2011 and as such, Goodluck Jonathan should not contest the 2011 Presidential election. Many Nigerians rose up to proclaim the superiority of the Nigerian Constitution against PDP constitution and internal regulations and on that ground, Goodluck Jonathan had the right to contest the Presidential election in 2011 provided he was nominated by the party through presidential primary election. In December 2010, Atiku Abubakar was among the aspirants for the PDP presidential primary candidates against Jonathan, but he lost and Jonathan did not only win the primary election but the presidential one too. Goodluck Jonathan's Presidency disappointed many Nigerians who had hoped he would lead the country on the path of social and economic development. His failure made most Nigerians to conclude that anybody but not Jonathan should rule Nigeria after the Presidential election in 2015. A major political party, All Progressive Congress (APC) emerged late in 2013 to challenge PDP led government of Jonathan who had decided to contest the 2015 Presidential election in what he considered as his legitimate second term bid. Atiku Abubakar saw that his chance of getting the Presidential ticket of PDP for 2015 was infinitely small, therefore, he absconded from the PDP to join the newly formed APC which had zoned the party presidential ticket to the North. In December 2014, Atiku Abubakar contested APC presidential primary election against Muhammadu Buhari and others, but he lost to Buhari. Buhari went further to win the Presidential election in 2015.
Following the victory of APC in the Presidential and National Assembly Elections in 2015, PDP that had governed Nigeria for sixteen uninterrupted years was in disarray. PDP had two national Chairmen and while a faction had Ali Modu Sheriff as the chairman, the other faction had Ahmed Makarfi as its chairman. At Nigeria's judicial free market, each faction of the PDP purchased judgements at different courts of equal status recognising it as original PDP. Finally at the Supreme Court, Ahmed Makarfi's faction of PDP was legalised and national convention of the party was held to elect a new chairman and other national officers. Uche Secondus became the Chairman of the PDP and the new national working committee under his chaimanship decided, in 2017 to zone to the North the Presidential candidate of the PDP in the 2019 general election. Mohammadu Buhari had been sick and hospitalised in London for most of the first half of 2017 and it was rumoured that even if he survived the illness, he would not seek re-election in 2019. By October 2017, Muhammadu Buhari had recovered completely and there was no doubt that he would seek second presidential term in 2019. Once this fact became obvious to Atiku Abubakar, he absconded from the APC in December 2017 to join the PDP for the third time within 19 years. In January 2018, Olusegun Obasanjo wrote a letter to express his objection against Buhari seeking re-election in 2019, even though he, Obasanjo, was never a card carrying member of APC. Furthermore, he advocated for the emergence of a third force political party to terminate the dominance of both the APC and PDP from political arena in Nigeria. On 11 August 2018, Olusegun Obasanjo said in a public statement that God would never forgive him if he should support the Presidential ambition of Atiku Abubakar which then had become publicly known. By the end of October 2018, majority of PDP members that joined the APC in 2014 had returned to the PDP. The absconders from APC to PDP complained of money drought during Buhari's tenure which means that money from the government was no longer raining into their pockets. Buhari had told them that even if the world price of crude oil had not dwindled enormously, he would still have used it for the common goods of all Nigerians instead of sharing it among few political elites. Therefore, PDP presidential primary of November 2018 in Port Harcourt was dominated by absconders from APC returning to their former party, the PDP. Thus, major contenders for the presidential primary election of the PDP in Port Harcourt were Atiku Abubakar, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, the elected Governor of Sokoto State under the platform of APC, and Bukola Saraki.
The gathering at the PDP presidential primary election in Port Harcourt, November 2018, was a congregation of voracious hyenas which surprisingly included Olusegun Obasanjo who had torn into pieces his membership card in PDP, in 2014, and announced his exit from the party forever. Starting from Presidential aspirant Bukola Saraki, he is a qualified physician, born, bred and educated in the UK. From the first day he set his feet on the Nigerian soil, he has never practised medicine. He worked as an executive officer in Sociéte General Bank which eventually went on liquidation. He was a two term PDP Governor of Kwara State from 2003 to 2011 after which he proceeded to the National Assembly as a PDP Senator. When the image of the PDP was badly damaged in 2014, he crossed over to join the newly formed APC on which platform he contested to the senate in 2015 and won. He led a parliamentary coup in which the senate rule was forged and by aligning eight APC members with 49 PDP to get himself elected as Senate President having manoeuvred away 52 APC members from the meeting. In the same vein, he ceded the Deputy Senate President to the opposition PDP. Thenceforth, he was an elected APC member of the Senate but PDP in all his actions. He returned to PDP in 2018 to contest the presidential primary election of the party for 2019.
Aminu Waziri Tambuwal was a PDP member who revolted against his party zoning arrangement for the Speaker of House of Representatives in 2007, to become Speaker himself. In 2014, while still the Speaker of the House on the platform of PDP, he joined the APC on which platform he contested for the Governorship of Sokoto state in 2015 and won. As Governor of Sokoto State, he was known to have pardoned five defendants in 2017 while still undergoing corruption trial of N15 billion along with the former Governor of the State (1999-2007), Attahiru Bafarawa at a Sokoto High Court. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal is said to be a lawyer and as such ought to know that a Governor can only pardon a convicted criminal and not a person under trial. Yet, he pardoned criminals undergoing trial in court and strangely enough, Sokoto High Court accepted the pardons that paved way for the discharge and acquittance of the looters of Sokoto State of the sum of 15 billion naira between 1999 and 2007. Since treasury looting is not a crime for Tambuwal it means he is not on the same page with Buhari and APC as far as war against corruption is concerned. Therefore, it was not surprising that he too returned to the PDP in 2018 and aspired to be the party presidential flag bearer in the 2019 Presidential election.
As it was stated earlier, Atiku Abubakar joined the PDP for the third time at the end of December 2017 which most Nigerians regarded as political halotory. Since only thieves can trace the foot-prints of other thieves on the rock, no one is better qualified to profile Atiku Abubakar politically than Olusegun Obasanjo under whom Atiku served as Vice President for eight years. Obasanjo testified to why he prevented Atiku from succeeding him as President in 2007 thus : What I did not know, which came out glaringly later, was his (Atiku's) parental background which was somewhat shadowy, his propensity to corruption, his tendency to disloyalty, his inability to say and stick to the truth all the time, a propensity for poor judgement, his belief and reliance on marabouts, his lack of transparency, his trust in money to buy his way out on all issues and his readiness to sacrifice morality, integrity, propriety, truth and national interest for self and selfish interest. Maybe some of these traits and poor attributes are not easy to see until you work with the person concerned. And those who should tell would keep quiet so that they would not be accused of running others down. For instance, until later, when a distinguished chief from Bauchi pointed out to me the value of pedigree, queried Atiku's pedigree and blamed me for making a wrong choice (in choosing him as the Vice President), I did not pay attention to Atiku's parental background. Furthermore, until all efforts to help Atiku change had failed - and having stumbled upon a report of enquiry carried out on him - I asked one of my predecessors why he did not inform me of how bad the report was and he said that he thought I knew. He said, "This is a man I wanted to dismiss and jail but for the intervention of Shagaya and Shehu Yar'Adua." I took him at face value. However, if his appointment (as Vice President) was an error, I fully accepted responsibility for the genuine mistake. And knowing all that I discovered about him, what would have been unpardonable mistake and sin against God would have be to foist him on Nigeria (to succeed me as President, p.32, Vol.2, My Watch by Olusegun Obasanjo). In our country, Nigeria, blessed with educated men and women without character; in our country, blessed with men and women of excellence without integrity; in our country, Nigeria, blessed with men and women who call themselves honorables without honesty; and in our country, Nigeria, where people become millionaires, not from any visible work through ownership of factories and manufacturing industries but, through connections with the centre of government power and crude oil wealth administration, one could not be shocked at the emergence of Atiku Abubakar as the presidential candidate of the PDP in the February 2019 general election.
On Saturday, 23 February 2019, Nigerians voted in the Presidential and National Assembly elections. The following day, PDP urged INEC, in a public letter, to declare Atiku the winner of the 23 February presidential election. In the letter which was copied to the United Nations, the European Union Commission, the US Embassy in Abuja, the UK High Commission in Nigeria and President Emmanuel Macron of France, PDP wrote, "Our position is predicated on clear and verifiable results across the nation, showing that Atiku is in clear lead both in spread and total number of votes cast. Intelligence available to us is that INEC is delaying the announcement of results following directives by the Muhammadu Buhari Presidency and APC which are bent on altering the figures from the polling centres and allocate fictitious figures for President Buhari." https://www.punchng.com/2019-election-declare-atiku-winner-now-pdp-urges-inec/
In what appeared to be a pre-arranged script between the PDP and Christopher Henry Smith,, a US Congressman and a Ranking Member of the House Sub-Committee on Africa, the latter posted on Sunday, 24 February 2019, on the US House Website partly as follows, "Yesterday, Nigerians voted. Today, votes are being counted. I am very concerned by credible reports that the vote is being tampered with. To avoid any manipulation of the tally, it is critical that the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) announce without delay actual results - which are certified by party agents and observers at each polling unit as the vote is tabulated. ….//…. The eyes of the United States, of Africa and the world are upon Nigeria and INEC. I also ask Secretary Michael Pompeo to hold accountable anyone who seeks to cheat the Nigerian people - who have waited patiently - of their votes or foments violence." It is not unlikely that Congressman Christopher Henry Smith is one of the hired lobbyists by the PDP in the US. Mr Smith's US House Website post was reposted on USA Africa Dialogue Serie on Monday, 25 February 2019, by Chidi Anthony Opara, who in a separate post on the same day wrote, "Whatever result INEC announce would be rejected and fiercely contested. The stakes are high, it is not just about oil and gas, it is also about the huge markets and profits from ports concessions. The fight is actually between big businesses from Russia/ China axis, and those from U.S.A./UK/EU axis." The fact is that neither Russia nor China had issued a statement in support of any of the Presidential candidates in the Nigerian general election unlike U.S.A., UK, and EU which had openly intervened in support of PDP and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar. It is also on record that Atiku Abubakar was granted a waiver visa to visit US in January 2019 since being declared wanted in 2007 for money laundering in the US (see page 141, chapter 36, titled - ATIKU AND US JUSTICE ENTANGLEMENT, in MY WATCH by Olusegun Obasanjo). Atiku's visit to the US in January 2019 is comparable to Vidkun Quisling's visit to Berlin in 1939. Just as the slave ships of the olden days that anchored in Africa never sailed from and returned to Russia's and China's sea ports to offload African slaves, so are Nigeria's crude oil earnings stolen nowadays not kept in Russian or Chinese Banks. Therefore, drawing Russia and China into the Nigerian election is a distractive smokescreen aimed at shielding those who have always supported and contributed to the economic and industrial underdevelopment of Nigeria.
Later in the afternoon of the same day that Mr. Opara posited that whatever result INEC announced would be rejected and fiercely contested, the Chairman of the PDP, Uche Secondus, on Monday, 25 February 2019, rejected the results being announced even though the announced results covered less than one-third from 36 states. https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/316163-just-in-pdp-rejects-presidential-election-results.html
 | Nigeria's main opposition party, PDP, has rejected the yet to be concluded result of the presidential election. The results are currently being announced in Abuja with less than a third of ... www.premiumtimesng.com |
Nigerians were not interested in voting 16 years experienced looters back to power in 2019 after four years of flushing them out of office. But the PDP, among others, relied on internet Baba-grammar from Atlanta, Georgia U.S.A. who had serially cooked viral diets of victory for PDP in the 2019 presidential election. In his cooked viral diet of Saturday, 3 February 2019, Baba-grammar dubbed Buhari's presidency as unexampled incompetence. On Buhari, Baba-grammar wrote, "He descended from the zenith of 'Sai Baba' to the slope of 'Baba go slow' and finally to the nadir of Baba Stand-still." Nigerians are very intelligent than Baba-grammar therefore they think that if the deity cannot improve their lot in life, it should keep them as they are. Thus, they voted for Baba go slow instead of a pack of gluttonous carnivores whose intention is to privatise the national patrimony to themselves and their friends abroad. Apart from Ephialtes and Vidkun Quisling, those PDP goons should add Esau to their names since they are prepared to sell our collective birth-rights to foreign powers for a pot of porridge. Atiku has gone to the court to challenge the victory of Buhari over him at the polls but his venture is just like that of an effigy in Yoruba fable who would never hearken the voice of restraint not to swim in the river until after a spell in disgrace.
S. Kadiri
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