How IBB, Abdulsalami tricked Atiku on presidency – El-Rufai

MORE revelations have continued to emerge from the controversial memoir of Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, The Accidental Public Servant, in which he detailed the part played by former Heads of State, Generals Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida and Abdulsalami Abubakar, in the failed bid by former Vice-President Atiku Abubabakar to succeed his boss, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo in 2003.
The two generals as well as a former National Security Adviser, General Aliyu Gusau, according to El-Rufai, in his newly-released book, had in conjunction with Atiku, formed what was known as the G4, a political group allegedly hell-bent on supporting Atiku to stop Obasanjo from becoming the country’s president for a second term, because “the four of them had been meeting to review Obasanjo’s performance and they had concluded that Obasanjo’s first term up to that point had been a disaster.”
El-Rufai revealed that the former vice-president had called the trio of himself [El-Rufai], his political adviser, Dr Usman Bugaje and Thisday publisher, Nduka Obaigbena and told them of how the G4 had allegedly told him (Atiku) that the group would support him to become president as he was the then vice-president, who “should have the first shot at the presidency.”
“Now, it was a well-known fact then that President Babangida harboured a similar ambition. Yet, Atiku believed that Babangida, who is older, would step back for him to have the first shot.
He [Atiku] did not see as a trap. The moment he told us, it did not sound right. As I learned much later, this was Babangida’s ploy to prove to Obasanjo that Atiku, given the slightest opportunity, would stab him in the back. When the four of them began meeting and discussing Nigeria’s problems, Babangida allegedly called Obasanjo and informed him,” the book read in part.
According to the book, which has drawn diverse comments from the public, including Obasanjo and Atiku, revealed that while the G4 meetings were going on, General Babangida was furnishing Obasanjo with details of the meeting while Atiku, who had similarly informed his boss, was alleged to be withholding some information, probably taking insurance against a backlash of his actions.
Atiku, according to the former minister, was also in consultation with a second political group comprising 17 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors “who all wanted him [Atiku] to be the next president, in return for assurances for a second term for themselves.” This group, it was gathered, was powerful because the governors controlled the selection of voting delegates to the party’s national convention which would determine the presidential candidate.
However, the bubbles of General Babangida alleged plot against Atiku burst with one of Atiku loyalist’s suggestion that the former Head of State should be made to walk the talk. Atiku was advised to approach the G4 with information that having begun consultations within the country and got positive feedbacks, he needed to undertake international consultations which would involve the G4, especially the former presidents using their influence on the international scene to sell Atiku to the international forces in France and Germany.
While Atiku’s men, El-Rufai and Bugaje, were to handle consultations with the United States and United Kingdom, he was advised to test IBB by asking him to arrange a meeting with a former President of France and a former Chancellor of Germany where they could broach the topic of an Atiku presidency, a test which the former head of state allegedly failed, as El-Rufai revealed that: “We never got to the point of having those consultative meetings abroad because before they even took place, Babangida had already failed the test.”
Accordingly, El-Rufai went on to write that act of disloyalty and subsequent actions allegedly on the part of Atiku created a wedge between him and his boss further widened the gulf of his ambition to the president of Nigeria.