'EXCLUSIVE' - The Atiku Abubakar Interview
Published on December 15th, 2009
* I TRIUMPHED IN MY CONTENTIONS WITH OBASANJO* NOBODY HAS ANY CLUE ON WHAT IS WRONG WITH YAR'ADUA
* I DID NOT STEAL WHILE IN OFFICE
Our team kept a gruesome three day vigil to get him to render account of his stewardship as one time Vice President of one the world’s biggest democracies, Nigeria. Atiku Abubakar, as it turned out, is not for the show. Iin true life, he is soft-spoken, accessible and ever ready to defend his tenure.
He granted an exclusive audience to sharpedgenews.com’s team of Editor-In-chief, OLADIMEJI ABITOGUN, Editor-At-Large, JUMOKE ALAO and EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT, PELUMI ADEMEFUN, during which he explained his much criticised “heightening of tension” on account of President Yar’adua’s absence, his brawly squabble with former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the race for 2011, which he says “is not yet official”. Excerpts:-
You are back in the race?
What race?
2011 presidential race.....
Ban has not being lifted, but we are trying our best to concern with State and future of our Nation.
Talking about the State of our Nation, yesterday, you raised our temperature by some notches when you said that absence of Mr. President has thrown Nigerians into mourning mood. Is that a clear and fair assessment from you or you were trying to heighten tension?
Certainly not. My statement has the effect of dousing tension and cooling the tensed situation. What I’m saying is that we are all worried. We would want to see our President back and working.
We are also worried because without the President and Commander-In-Chief nothing moves. This is a Presidential system of government; everything flows from the President down. If there is no President, it means the country is at a stand - still. I think that is the summary of what I want to say.
You are still privy to some intelligence estimates as the former Vice-President and I am sure that going by normal global standard, some things still get revealed to you. What is the real situation with our President because we all love him?
I mean if there is no official report from the Presidency, how do we know what is wrong? We don’t have any clue, nobody has told us what is wrong.
And no personal communication with you on anything?
No… No.
You are known to be meticulous, business-like in your approach to politics and you are a weighty quantity in the Political calculus of these country. How, why and at what point did you lose out? Why did you fall out with your former boss?
(Pause)...I don’t know whether you can actually describe it as losing out. As far as I am concerned, I think I have succeeded in all the struggles. The courts have vindicated me in all the disagreements I was having with my former boss and I was vindicated in all respects and areas of contention with him. I didn’t have to be President as long as what I believed in was actualized. It is not a question of losing out, the issue is whether in areas of contention I actually triumphed; which I did.
What was the contention?
Constitutionality and tenure of office.
Apart from your cool composure, unruffled, can anything ever shake you up?(Laugh)... Nothing ever brings me tension, absolutely nothing tenses me up, and even let heaven fall apart, I would remain the way I am.
You went into office as Vice-President, you were investigated and you said you were vindicated. The people of Nigeria, home and abroad, want me to ask you how that could be possible. Are you a smooth operator or what?
No. I am not a smooth operator. The only thing is that I swore that I would not steal public money, because I don’t need it, and in any case I don’t even need any money. What for? I swore that I would not steal public money; I don’t need public money to survive. Neither do my children need public money to survive. I am contented with what I have.
You look me eyeball to eyeball, Mr. Vice-President, no disrespect, through eye contact with me, look Nigerians in face. Are you saying you have never stolen a dime of our money?
No-No. Absolutely not.
You are involved in the so-called democratic initiative, some other past leaders are involved, and some presidential candidates are involved. What is the purpose of this coming together of these seeming strange political bedfellows?
I don’t think there are strange bedfellows in politics. Politics is always about interests on issues, and we are all very concerned about the State of our Nation. We believe that things are not going in the right direction. We believe that we have a duty as people regarded as leaders to try and close our ranks and bring our country back on track, so that we can have progress.