Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s political career is a story of victories and vilifications

Atiku Abubakar, former vice- president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a man of courage who has weathered a lot of political storms through his survivalist instinct. Against all odds, he has continued to struggle to remain politically relevant even though his influence in the Nigerian polity has dwindled.

Since he retired from the Nigeria Customs Service in 1989 as deputy director and went into politics, he has had a full dose of political fame and vilifications. He has been in the vortex of every history-making process in Nigeria since 1992 when he cut his teeth in politics under the tutelage of the late General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua.

During the 1992 political transition programme initiated by the then military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida, Abubakar ran for the office of the governor of Adamawa State on the platform of the defunct Social Democratic Party, SDP. But Babangida cancelled the election when it was almost clear that Abubakar was cruising to victory. Undaunted by the temporary setback suffered by his political career, Abubakar remained in the political camp of the late Yar’Adua, helping him to consolidate on his political dynasty. Together, they formed the Peoples Democratic Movement, PDM, which became a formidable political platform.

After the death of Yar’Adua, Abubakar became the undisputed leader of the PDM. When the late General Sani Abacha attempted to transform himself into a civilian president, the Adamawa born politician teamed up with other top politicians to form the G34 which later metamorphosed into the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

In 1999, Abubakar contested and won the Adamawa State governorship seat and was waiting to be sworn in when Olusegun Obasanjo, who had just secured the PDP ticket for the presidential race, chose him as his running mate. Their joint ticket eventually won and Abubakar became the vice-president.

During their first tenure, Abubakar had a robust relationship with Obasanjo. However, events leading to the 2003 presidential poll had negative impact on the political marriage between him and Obasanjo. This was because in the countdown to the presidential primaries of the PDP in 2002, Abubakar had strategically placed his protégés in strategic positions. This became manifest when majority of the then PDP governors rallied round him and urged him to dump Obasanjo and switch his support to Alex Ekwueme, former vice president who was also in the race. In the alternative, Abubakar’s loyalists asked him to run for the office himself. Abubakar resisted the temptation but that was after Obasanjo had literarily begged him on his knees.

However, the harm was already done. Obasanjo perceived him as a very ambitious man and vowed to stop Abubakar from succeeding him. Although the Obasanjo/Atiku ticket won the 2003 presidential poll, Obasanjo did not forgive his deputy. To get his pound of flesh, the former president let loose the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC, on Abubakar and his business interests. His company, Intels, an oil lifting subsidiary, was closed down. His aides were provocatively sacked by the president.

The feud between Abubakar and Obasanjo reached a crescendo at the beginning of 2006 when both men engaged each other in verbal exchanges. Abubakar accused Obasanjo of hatching a plot to extend his tenure beyond 2007. And Obasanjo fired back, accusing Abubakar of disloyalty and corruption.

Since Abubakar had been nursing the ambition to succeed Obasanjo as president, he joined the anti-third term campaigners to truncate the tenure elongation project. This angered Obasanjo the more.

When the third term dream was eventually killed by the National Assembly on May 16, 2006, Obasanjo further vent his anger on Abubakar. There were several attempts by Obasanjo’s lackeys to vilify Abubakar and portray him as unfit to be president. The face-off exploded on September 6, 2006, when Abubakar was forced out of the federal executive council, FEC, meeting through a humiliating presidential marching order. It was after he had been sent out that Obasanjo presented the report of Abubakar’s indictment by the Administrative Panel of Enquiry and the EFCC over the Petroleum Technology Development Fund, PTDF, scandal. A few days later, the federal government gazetted the report. He was equally dragged to the Code of Conduct Tribunal for violating the code of conduct for public officers.

But inspite of Abubakar’s travails and attempts to nail his political coffin, he remained undaunted and employed the rule of law to hold his traducers at bay. His aides also released photocopies of cheques issued in favour of Obasanjo’s acolytes to support their argument that Obasanjo was neck-deep in the PTDF scandal for which Abubakar was being persecuted.

In a bid to extricate himself from the allegations of financial scandal, Abubakar went to court. While he was still struggling to get the court to quash his indictment, the PDP leadership dealt another deadly blow on him. On September 28, 2006, the National Executive Committee, NEC, of the PDP slammed a three month suspension on him. The ban which was to expire in December 2006 after the party’s national convention was meant to take him further away from realising his presidential ambition. But like a Trojan, Abubakar refused to be cowed. Quietly and tactically, he made an alternative arrangement to remain in the 2007 race to Aso Rock.

On December 20, 2006, Abubakar picked the presidential ticket of the Action Congress, AC. Incidentally, on the same day, he won a major legal contest. A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja voided the 18-count charge of illegal diversion of public funds and gross abuse of office preferred against him by the federal government before the Code of Conduct Tribunal.

Apparently jolted by Abubakar’s deft moves, the PDP leadership expelled him and asked the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to declare his seat as vice-president vacant on the ground that he had joined a rival party. That marked the beginning of the real battles by Abubakar to remain in office and also vie for the 2007 presidential race.

Between January and April 21, 2007, when the presidential poll was held, Abubakar dragged his opponents to court for more than four times. And for almost the same number of times, he won his case. First, the Appeal Court ruled that contrary to the federal government’s declaration that his seat had become vacant, following his defection to AC, Abubakar remained the vice president. He secured yet another legal victory on January 22, when Federal High Court in Abuja, granted an injunction which restrained INEC from its planned verification of the embattled politician. However, on March 15, 2007, when INEC released the final list of 24 candidates for the presidential election, Abubakar’s name was conspicuously missing. This was contrary to an earlier court ruling that INEC does not have the power to disqualify candidates.

But Abubakar headed for the courts the following day to get his disqualification upturned despite the claim by INEC that it will be impossible for him to contest even if he gets a judgement in his favour. INEC’s position was that it would be logistically impossible to reprint the ballot papers for the presidential poll to add Abubakar’s name before the April 21, 2007 poll.

On April 16, which was just five days to election, the Supreme Court ruled that INEC has no power to disqualify candidates. Based on the ruling, INEC was compelled to add Abubakar’s name on the ballot papers. It was a sweet legal victory for Abubakar who eventually contested 2007 presidential poll.

He, however, lost to Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, who was Obasanjo's 'anointed candidate’. But Abubakar faulted the result and headed for the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal to challenge it. Although he lost round one of the legal battle, earlier this year, Abubakar still took the case to the Supreme Court. The apex court has now fixed October 23, this year as the date for hearing on his appeal against Yar’Adua’s election.

Born on November 25, 1946, in Jada, Adamawa State, he became an orphan at the age of eight. But through perseverance and hardwork, he overcame poverty and was educated at the Ahmadu Bello University, ABU, Zaria. He later joined the Nigerian Customs from where he retired in 1989 and went into politics. He is married to four wives and has many children