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Babsajayi@yahoo.com Toronto, Ontario, Canada

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ATIKU ABUBAKAR: A CHARLATAN'S LECTURE AT CHATHAM HOUSE

f the topic given to Atiku Abubakar to speak on at the Chatham House, the self-styled independent thinking body in the United Kingdom, was "Challenges for Nigeria after the elections," then I am afraid to report that Abubakar spoke on something else: My Plea to the United Kingdom - Make Atiku Abubakar the President of Nigeria. There is no doubt that most attendees at the lecture must have left the Chatham House disappointed and wondering why Chatham House executives brought a charlatan to speak to them. The executives of Chatham House must have been left flustered by the emptiness of Atiku's lecture; the lack of facts, the absence of substance and the dearth of any laid out vision backed by data.

He spent the first four pages of an eight page lecture on historical review and blandly compared events in Nigeria today- for which he is a major negative contributor and bad actor - with what took place between Joseph Kasabuvu and Patrice Lumumba in Zaire now Congo and the emergence of Joseph Mobutu as a spoiler, the events in Rwanda which resulted in a genocide and the recent troubles in Ivory Coast. As for Zaire, Atiku Abubakar is obviously not aware that it was treachery such as what he has played out at Aso Rock in the last two years and greed, as he is familiar with, that destroyed Zaire and led to the coup which brought Joseph Mobutu to power.

It will be educative to inform Mr. Abubakar that external influence and the involvement of Belgium and the United States, who's then President Dwight Eisenhower, ordered the Central Intelligence Agency (the CIA) to eliminate Lumumba that ruined Congo and cost Patrice Lumumba his life. A CIA chemist Sidney Gottlieb was the man who packaged a poison and made it look like a toothpaste. The CIA, as part of Project Wizard, made several hush-hush payments to President Joseph Kasavubu, Joseph Mobutu, Senate President Joseph Ileo and five others in its efforts to eliminate Lumumba. All the eight men had a hand in the eventual removal and murder of Lumumba. But while that plan failed there were clear indications that Belgium had a hand in the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, and the Cold War was central to the decision to eliminate Lumumba.

Lumumba was arrested and eventually moved to Elizabethville in Katanga on January 17, 1961. Katanga was then the stronghold of Moise Tshombe, an opponent of Lumumba, and the Belgians and the Katangan soldiers formed an execution squad that murdered Lumumba and two of his comrades with President Tshombe in attendance. A lap dog of the West and Belgium in particular, Tshombe was protecting his vast business empire and interest, a scenario that is very familiar and similar to that of Atiku Abubakar. The only difference is that Tshombe inherited the business from his father while Atiku's source of wealth is questionable. But this is not a Nigerian Custom's wily-dilly wharf/airport rat issue, dealing with grabbing imported materials and cash kickbacks from travelers, business people and importers, so I do not expect Atiku to know anything about African History and Politics.

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It is not a good thing to be half-literate and half-illiterate; half-education will always do more damage and destruction to a man than any known disease. The lizard will not gain entry into your yard if the walls remain tight and the people in your house do not let them in; betrayal and love of money were central to the problem in Congo, and what Atiku has done in over two years with the Petroleum Technology Development Funds (and the now well-known MOFAS accounts at various banks), documents and his disregard for confidentiality actually put him in the same league as President Joseph Kasavubu, Moise Tshombe and Joseph Mobutu.

The lame duck Vice President briefly mentioned the word 'change' in his lecture. He did not elucidate on the change and how the change will be achieved after the elections. He only said

"I will offer Nigeria a new kind of leadership. A leadership that is neither hampered nor constrained by the regressive politics of the past, nor the unproductive ideologies of the present."

Unfortunately he is very much part of the past and the present that Nigeria should avoid like a plague and get rid of. His contribution to the situation Nigeria is in today is significant and negative. He went on:

"… I am proven, committed, and experienced, and I know how to reinvent government to help solve the real problems facing our people today."

I do not see any evidence of Atiku's commitment to the nation. I know he is committed to himself and to his family, and of course his pocket, but with what we saw of him and his mismanagement of the funds of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), which made the Federal Government to indict him of corrupt malpractices and blacklist him, Atiku Abubakar is least equipped to solve any problem. He not only lacks the ability, he also lacks the moral clout to do so. Claiming to have been "humbled by the ravages of debilitating poverty" and to also "know what it means to be hungry" are mere desperate efforts to win his English audience over and present himself as a compassionate person. A compassionate person would have done so much at the PTDF. He would have also left behind a great legacy with the billions of Naira and hundreds of millions of dollars available to him to make a difference at the PTDF. He was in charge of the PTDF for several years and the interests and successes only accrued to him and his friends. He misused the opportunity to use the PTDF to create development, create jobs, and improve the economy and the lots of the people.

During his time as head of the PTDF his personal postmaster (this must be new to the British) and personal assistant Umar Pariyah successfully moved hundreds of millions of Naira on behalf of his boss while he also tossed around PTDF funds to be used by his friends. Atiku did not mention any of these in his lecture. He is the saint who wants to resque Nigeria and he needs the help and support of the United Kingdom. But when has Atiku ever shown any interest - talk less of concern - for the plight and hardship the Nigerian people are going through? A man who has never worked for the people, though employed by them as a civil servant for most of his life and today a billionaire, will do worse than can be imagined.

Nigeria can and will do well without Atiku. He should not even be allowed to get close to the seat of power, he and his postmasters. A man who is not fit to run a local government wants to rule over Nigeria! Obasanjo may have done some things wrong, but a man like Atiku will be worse off and portend danger for the future of our nation. His disqualification by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) along with some other corrupt politicians is appropriate and in the interest of the people. There have to be some measures put in place to ensure that criminals, corrupt elements, tax dodgers, fraudsters, looters and thieves are prevented from gaining control of the treasuries at the local, state and federal government levels.

When he spoke about addressing "the power supply and other infrastructure deficiencies," you will expect him to throw in some details, but no, not Atiku. He lacks the depth and the ability to get things straight. The trip to the United Kingdom was for him a sign of British acceptability and their willingness to help him hijack the Nigerian presidency. He found it convenient to talk about the Niger Delta and his desire to

"…appoint a cabinet level minister for the Niger Delta to directly oversee and implement all Federal Government initiatives in the region including the development of a region wide master-plan, the floating of a Niger Delta Bond issue to increase the amount of funding available, the development of critical infrastructure such as township roads …."

I wonder if any thinking went into this. A minister of Niger Delta based in Abuja becomes another easy conduit pipe for looting billions of Naira. The real problem is how to get rid of crooks and looters from getting close to the corridors of power, so that funds allotted to projects will not end up in foreign accounts. The derivation funds and excess crude oil funds being shared monthly among the state and federal governments in Nigeria, recently stopped by the Federal government, has no impact on the lives of the people. Atiku Abubakar went on to deceive his audience that he was the main force "behind the conceptualization, establishment and initial funding of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)." It is true that he facilitated some initial loans to the EFCC but he has very little to do the conception of the Agency.

Dishonesty is one thing you can always give to a Nigerian politician, particularly a desperate one. Atiku Abubakar wants the United Kingdom "to actively support," "help bring about," "prevail upon our president" and "ensure that a new, freely elected, government is sworn-in on the 29 May." He simply wants the United Kingdom to facilitate his anointing as president the same way the US and its CIA helped Mobutu Sese Seko and sustain him in power for decades, the very way the French and their multinational solid minerals and oil companies have imposed, encouraged, and sustained dictators in Central Africa. To ask that the British government interfere in the internal affairs of a free nation like Nigeria is treasonable and Atiku Abubakar hates Nigeria far more than he loves and craves power. His lecture at the Chatham House was so wishy-washy that no High School pupil would deliver such in a Social Science class presentation. Babs Ajayi.