Atiku to Obasanjo: Don’t Use the Dead to Settle Political Scores

Chuks Okocha in Abuja 

Former Vice President and presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has faulted former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s latest allegations against him, describing them as a desperate attempt to rewrite history and confer political advantage on his preferred candidate ahead of the 2027 presidential election.

Obasanjo in a statement on Thursday titled, ‘Reply to Your Inaccurate Posture: ‘How Obasanjo Deceived Us in 2003’, where he rejected former Ogun State Governor, Chief Olusegun Osoba’s account of the political events leading to the 2003 general elections, had also alleged that his former Vice President, Atiku, masterminded an impeachment plot against him through the then Speaker of the House of Representatives, the late Ghali Umar Na’Abba. The alleged plot began while he was away from the office on a Friday.

Obasanjo claimed that former Vice President invited Na’Abba to his office and allegedly provided him with N5m to commence impeachment proceedings. “And that takes me to Na’Abba’s impeachment you glowingly talked about. And the way you wrote about it, talking about remorse would suggest stack ignorance on your part or being an accomplice. And both were possible.

“Na’Abba’s impeachment began at the presidency by the Vice-President, who on a Friday when I was out of the office, invited Na’Abba to his office and convinced him, as he had convinced himself and some others but of insignificant number, that I should have only one term as President and this was the act of a man I brought up from governorship to Vice President.

“From the first day as Vice-President, he raised campaigners for his presidency. On the Friday, he invited Na’Abba; he gave him N5 million to begin his impeachment work. It was all noted, recorded and reported to me by my Chief of Staff, a professional intelligence officer,” Obasanjo said.

But in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said the former President’s decision to accuse him of bribing the late Rt. Hon. Na’Abba to impeach him was not only reckless but fundamentally unfair to a man who is no longer alive to defend his name.

“As Africans, we understand the solemn duty of speaking truthfully about the dead. It is therefore deeply troubling that former President Obasanjo has chosen this moment to allege that I gave the late Rt. Hon. Ghali Umar Na’Abba a bribe to impeach him.

“If this allegation were true, why did he never make it while Rt. Hon. Na’Abba was alive? Why wait until the only man who could confirm or refute the claim has departed this world? By invoking a deceased man as the principal witness to such a grave allegation, former President Obasanjo has denied Nigerians the opportunity of hearing the other side of the story.

“The late Rt. Hon. Ghali Na’Abba cannot now defend his own integrity or respond to the allegation that he accepted a bribe. It is unfair to his memory and contrary to our cultural values to conscript the dead into contemporary political battles when they no longer have a voice.”

Atiku noted that the allegations themselves are not supported by any judicial finding or official determination.

“If there was indeed evidence of any criminal conduct as alleged, Nigerians are entitled to ask why no action was taken at the time by a government that wielded the full powers of the Nigerian state.”

The former Vice President said it is difficult to ignore the political timing of the recycled allegations.

“Coming at a time when the political landscape ahead of the 2027 general election is taking shape, the obvious objective is to besmirch my person and reputation and confer an undeserved political advantage on the former President’s kinsman. Nigerians, however, know better. They are too discerning to be distracted by stale allegations resurrected for political convenience.”

Atiku maintained that the roots of the former President’s hostility towards him are well known.

“My offence was that I stood firmly against the unconstitutional third-term agenda. As a democrat, I chose the path of constitutionalism and the rule of law. Rather than surrender democratic principles on the altar of personal ambition, I defended the Constitution and successfully asserted my rights through the courts in a series of landmark legal victories against a sitting President. Those battles are now part of Nigeria’s democratic history. It is evident that the bitterness arising from that defining period has failed to leave former President Obasanjo.”

He said he would not be distracted into exchanging words over historical political disputes while Nigeria grapples with unprecedented economic hardship, rising insecurity, mass unemployment, hunger and disturbing questions surrounding the management of public resources.

“The task before leaders today is not to rewrite history but to rescue the future. Nigerians are more interested in knowing why food prices continue to soar, why public debt continues to rise despite increased revenues, and why scandal after scandal continues to trail the current administration than in revisiting political disagreements from over two decades ago.”

Atiku added that while former President Obasanjo is entitled to support any candidate of his choice, he should do so openly.

“If former President Obasanjo has chosen to take a political position ahead of 2027, he should simply declare it and allow Nigerians to judge it on its merits, rather than attempting to influence public opinion through allegations that can no longer be tested because the principal witness is no longer alive.

“Our focus remains unwavering: offering credible alternatives, defending democracy, demanding accountability and working with all patriotic Nigerians to restore competent, transparent and people-centred leadership to our country. Nigerians deserve solutions to today’s problems, not recycled political tales from yesterday.”