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THE NEW LOGJAM:
BETWEEN OBASANJO AND ATIKU ABUBAKAR

e are back to the rigmarole, a national pastime of Nigerian leaders, predominantly self-appointed and never well meaning characters. Another political logjam is in the making and the signs are bad and dreadful for the common man, the masses of our nation who have so much at stake but have no voice to stress their interests and no vote to make a legitimate claim. The presidential dictator and his deputy are at war. The war is gradually degenerating and will swallow several victims soon.

Obasanjo and Atiku in better times, or so we thought

Within a short radius of the Federal capital and right inside the Presidency that is popularly known as Aso Rock, a war is taking shape with wood and oil making the fire thick from President Obasanjo's sidekicks and Atiku Abubakar's messengers of destruction exchanging hot verbal missiles about what is and what is not between their two bosses, about the reason behind the visit of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to Atiku and Jennifer Abubakar's palatial home in Potomac, Maryland, United States, about Obasanjo's self-succession plan, and about who swore to whom and who is right and who is wrong. It is very un-presidential for tirades and exchanges of this nature at the Presidential palace. At the end of the day one must have to make way for the other, as there are two captains in this ship as it were.

As this logjam develop and gather full momentum of destructive dimension, there is the need to make it clear that the Nigerian people have gone through a lot and are still faced with so much difficulties in their individual lives, difficult and rough enough to be forced into some new political struggle and game of musical chairs. If indeed President Olusegun Obasanjo is privy to any information about the dealings of the former Customs Officer who is his deputy, then he should not take law into his own hands; he must approach the National Assembly with the evidence and ask the representatives of the Nigerian people to debate the issue and cast a vote to either remove or retain Atiku Abubakar as Nigeria's Vice President. At the moment, our people are not clear on where the president stand and what actually is behind his conflict with his deputy. A lot has been subsumed into the issue to the level that it is being seen as a 'conflict' between Obasanjo and Abubakar. The impression has been sold to the whole world by Atiku Abubakar's pen pushers that the issue at stake is Obasanjo's scheme (or is it hidden agenda) to succeed himself and extend his romance with Aso Rock. A lot of vendetta is being read into the action of the president for the reason that he has not been democratic in the way he does things and in his choice of words; his diction passing easily for a dictator's manifesto of no return and no choice.

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For years, we have wondered about the method President Obasanjo had chosen in dealing with issues, with problems and with people. It is the bolekaja approach, the Oshodi Bus Stop style that is devoid of openness, fairness and integrity, which has up-to-date denied this president the credit he deserves in certain great strides he had made. The bullish approach should be left with the dying force called Fidel Castro. Only Castro can still use such absurd method and get away with it, at least till date, but in a democracy like our own fledging make-believe one, you cannot do as you please and bring out a rod, because these people have rights too. A democratic temper is needed even now than at any other time in the life of this great nation, a nation every idiot has taken and is still taking advantage of in the great tradition of what-is-in-it-for-me.

Chief Obasanjo is no longer a General. If he were he would not be at Aso Rock, because Generals are no longer welcome at Aso Rock, except to take instructions from the elected president of the people. But Chief Obasanjo had always acted like a man at war every time he gets tired of an official (sometime rightly so as in the case of Tafa Balogun). Once he is fed up with any official, political elected, appointed or employed, then it is time to get rid of him or her, often preferring to throw him or her out through the window or immediately flush him or her down the cistern as quickly and as conveniently as possible. That approach is from the military barracks, crude and uncouth, and must be discouraged in a democratic setting. A lot of misunderstanding and misrepresentations will be avoided when Mr. President adopt appropriate methods that ensure that due process is followed. The job of the president would have been done by the time he's cooperated with the American government, obtained all documentation possible, and reviewed what he has before him. It is these documents and his cover letter that will go to the National Assembly, if what Obasanjo is fighting Atiku Abubakar over is the latter's suspected acts of corruption and unfaithfulness to the Nigerian people and his oath of office.

As things are today, if President Obasanjo fail to set a good example before leaving office, if he subscribe to abusing and raping the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, if he showed disregard for the laws of the land and opted to use surrogates to insulate himself in power for another four years or even for a day beyond his current term, then we are in trouble as a people and the door is flung open for the coming of monsters and deadbeats to occupy Aso Rock. At the receiving end of the chaos and impasse that will follow will be the poor and struggling masses of our people, mostly women and children. It is for this reason that President Obasanjo must be careful and calm down. No one is saying that he should not act and respond to things, but he must do these within the law and with a great sense of responsibility.

It is the responsibility of the president to protect the nation, shield the national coffers from looters and demonstrate zero tolerance for corruption. Corruption is a big problem in Nigeria and is the cause of our under-development, because we are not a poor nation; we have been held back solely by corruption, graft and looting of Ghana-must-go proportion. The people expect Mr. President and, by extension, his deputy to be above board. Many efforts have been taken and still being taken in this direction, including the sacking of some ministers and the prosecution of one sitting minister, two ex-ministers and some top government functionaries. But unfortunately, this administration cannot lay claim to decency; being clean has not been in its character, and a lot of the top wigs of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at all levels of government are champions of corruption, greed and graft. If it is true that Atiku Abubakar owns the large house in Potomac, Maryland, United States, he should just resign and get out of Aso Rock.

Newspapers already reported that Atiku Abubakar's family released a list of documents taken from his house, the same house at Potomac, Maryland, which confirmed that the Vice President owned the house and bought it almost two years after assuming office as vice President. With this confirmation in the public domain, it will be in the interest of all and in the interest of Atiku Abubakar himself to resign now - go now, Atiku Abubakar and avoid disturbing the peace of the nation and its stability. Atiku should approach President Obasanjo and agree to a soft landing and a quick departure. He should not wait for Obasanjo to ask the National Assembly or delay like Jacob Zuma did in South Africa and subsequently forced President Tambo Mbeki to sack him. This matter is too straight and direct and too hot and on front burner; it won't go away and there is nowhere to hide for Atiku Abubakar.

Public office holders are expected to declare their assets and update the declaration regularly. Did the Vice President included this palace in his asset declaration form after the 2003 election or is the property in the name of Jennifer Atiku Abubakar who is a student and earn less than $500 a month? The first time I came in contact with Jennifer Abubakar and the house in Potomac was when I visited my cousin and her family in Maryland in May 2005. Dele Momodu had featured Jennifer Abubakar in one of his editions of Ovation, and there was a mention of the house and in fact the photographs were taken in the house as Jennifer hosted a few people there. Posh and well located, the house must be worth so much. At $1 million it will translate to over 130 million naira! No be small! How does a public servant get the money to buy such an expensive house? Atiku Abubakar has been a civil servant most of his life and as such cannot claim to have worked so hard to provide so much for one wife in Maryland, for Titi and her children and then for his third wife who is a Director-General in one of the Northern states. How about the hundreds of cars and the supposed billions of naira Atiku is said to have put aside to 'fight' the presidential elections in 2007? We do not need the likes of Atiku Abubakar and his customs man mentality, which is essentially one of taking what does not belong to you with a straight face.

It has also been circulated that Atiku Abubakar and Jennifer Abubakar have some cool $600 million at the Union bank of Switzerland. $600 million will be equivalent to 81, 000, 000, 000 naira! It is easy to see why essential services and utilities are not available to Nigerians, why our people are so blessed and yet so poor. How was Atiku Abubakar able to gain so much access to the nation's wealth? Are there so many loopholes in our systems that make it possible for elected officers to use their fronts, sidekicks and family members to loot the treasury, to award contract to themselves, sell government owned companies and agencies to themselves and to be the sole supplier of goods and services to the same government that they serve? Whatever happened to open tender and transparency being touted at the inception of this administration! What kind of president will Atiku Abubakar be if he ever assume the position of president of Nigeria? It will be Ghana-must-go galore, the go-on soun business as usual way.

But notwithstanding the facts at Obasanjo's disposal, he must allow the due process to take its course. We know we have a National Assembly full of legislooters and representathives, but he still must follow due process and let the two Houses of the National Assembly handle this, take a vote and decide Atiku Abubakar's fate. They National Assembly have a good opportunity to shoot itself in the feet or to stand up tall this one time and defend the nation, protecting her from the cash and carry mentality that has held us down and that is still holding the nation down. We cannot allow the people in the West to keep having fits of laughter and jokes each time Nigeria is mentioned, a nation of fraudsters, corrupt leaders and criminals that defy every economic theory.