Between Von Batten-Montague-York, L.C, the Washington-based lobbying firm hired by perennial presidential contender, Atiku Abubakar Atiku Abubakar, now of African Democratic Congress (ADC), and his famed Cameroonian marabouts, it remains an open contest of which between the two players, would yet score a hit.
The former, hired by Atiku in March under a 12-month, $1.2 million lobbying contract to help strengthen his reputational standing in the U.S., has been reported as knocking just about every door at the Capitol, and the White House, not to burnish his image but to ensure that his nemesis is knocked off the ballot even before the process begins; the latter, apparently, on a long-lasting retainership to deliver the presidential medal. Between them, the die is cast.
I recall thinking at the time that the self-proclaimed democrat may have sought to use the American firm to finally settle the issues highlighted in the 323-page document by the United States Senate permanent subcommittee on investigations, which established that he, Atiku Abubakar transferred $40 million into 30 U.S. bank accounts, opened by Jennifer Douglas, his fourth wife, from offshore corporations, with $25 million transferred by Guernsey Trust Company, Letsgo Ltd. and Sima Holding Ltd. to majorly Douglas’ U.S. Citibank account.
And then of course the subcommittee’s additional finding of wire transfers by Letsgo Ltd. of $13.1 million, and Guernsey Trust Company, $900,000, totalling $14 million –offshore transfers paid by Abubakar to the American University helping him found his own American University of Nigeria (AUN) in Yola in 2003.
Not forgetting the matter of U.S. Congressman William J. Jefferson, sentenced to 13 years in prison for bribery and corruption following investigations conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in which Atiku was also cited and for which, according to his principal, Olusegun Obasanjo, he practically became a fugitive from the United States’ justice system.
That was the situation until 2018. The same Obasanjo is alleged to have played a “critical” role in getting the American government to issue Atiku a visa, while a certain Brian Ballard, publicist of U.S. President Donald Trump, worked behind the scenes to get the visa ban relaxed.
Talk of the former hunted struggling to assume the role of hunter; now he wants President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s knocked off the ballot apparently by means fair or foul, including, if it comes to that, democratic subversion, since all is fair in war!
You then ask: what has Atiku’s famed Cameroonian marabouts got to do with this? Again, talk of the different shades of the same story – the story of an individual’s obsession for power – a toxic mix of greed, ambition and shamanism.
Only a while back, Obasanjo, Atiku’s principal, had brought up the subject – Atiku’s reliance on diviners – as a huge motivational factor in his politics; however, it was Nasir El-Rufai, vide his book, The Accidental Public Servant that would give the subject its most generous treatment.
According to El-Rufai, it started with a not-so-minor matter: an alleged demand by senators of N54m bribe to facilitate his clearance for a ministerial position. He had, according to him, approached the former president to intervene and perhaps settle the matter.
“No, I am not handling this senators’ thing. I have done my part and nominated you. You should go and tell the vice-president about whatever has transpired. He will handle it,” El-Rufai recalled the former president as telling him when they met to discuss the matter.
Frustrated, he turned to Atiku as instructed.
As he walked into Atiku’s office, El-Rufai reported Atiku as saying: ‘Where are you going? You can’t leave. We are about to have the whole thing’. This was supposed to be Atiku’s response to El-Rufai’s threat to quit.
“I was taken aback as I was not sure what he meant. What do you mean sir?” – he would recall telling Atiku.
Atiku then mentioned a marabout based in Cameroun who he said, had always predicted with accuracy the results of all his political contests. He said the marabout had even foretold that he would win a governorship election in Adamawa but will not govern the state.
“Nasir, this mallam has been consistently right in his predictions” – said the former vice president, apparently in excitement.
“Wow, that is very interesting sir, but what does this have to do with my resignation?” he had asked Atiku.
“Because the same mallam said that Obasanjo would not complete his term,” he quoted Atiku as saying.
“So, why do you want to go? When I am president, we are going to take charge of this place and fix it and I will need you. You are one of my best people….” That was Atiku, perhaps in his elements.
Well, Obasanjo not only completed his two terms of eight years, he actually made a failed bid for a third! More than two decades later, the divination still hangs in the air – unrealised and unrealisable. Instead, Atiku’s curriculum vitae (CV), now ghastly, have lengthened his frustrations.
In 1993, he competed in the Social Democratic Party (SDP) primaries but lost to Moshood Abiola. In 2007, he ran on the Action Congress (AC) presidential platform but came third. In 2011, he contested the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primaries but lost to Goodluck Jonathan. In 2015, he joined the All Progressives Congress (APC) but lost the presidential primaries to Muhammadu Buhari. In 2019, he returned, not unlike the prodigal son, to the PDP and became its presidential flag bearer and then lost to Buhari. He got the same PDP ticket in 2023 only to be shellacked by Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the APC candidate. For the 2027 presidency, he had to literally steal the party, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) to have a shot.
Surely, if his preference for the ballot has, understandably worn thin, his voyage to Donald Trump’s America in pursuit of God-knows-what goes beyond a mere repudiation of democratic credentials or even his now familiar pastime of electoral delegitimisation; it seems to me the ultimate expression of political illiteracy, an astoundingly poor if not entirely false reading of contemporary history.
It certainly confirms the truth of the saying that most of our politicians neither read nor pay attention to contemporary events. Most are probably overrated.
For whereas Atiku, like many of our politicians, have sought a saviour in a Donald Trump dalliance, a country like Hungary has proven to stands tall when its national prestige is at stake. For the people, Hungary’s problem is for Hungarians to solve. Contrast this with the story of the Nobel Prize winner and Venezuela’s opposition leader, María Corina Machado. She wanted Venezuelan former president, Nicolás Maduro and wife, Cilia Flores out of their Miraflores Palace, in Caracas by all means. Both have been taken out alright by President Trump; but this hasn’t got her closer to the presidential throne any more than her long advertised restoration project is near realisation.
Now, Atiku seeking Trump and U.S. Congress help to push that lifelong project that the Cameroonian marabouts have fallen short using a paid lobbyist? Such desperation! And that’s a man who wants to be seen as the ultimate democrat!
Nigerians should pity him.
Between Von Batten-Montague-York, L.C, the Washington-based lobbying firm hired by perennial presidential contender, Atiku Abubakar Atiku Abubakar, now of African Democratic Congress (ADC), and his famed Cameroonian marabouts, it remains an open contest of which between the two players, would yet score a hit.
The former, hired by Atiku in March under a 12-month, $1.2 million lobbying contract to help strengthen his reputational standing in the U.S., has been reported as knocking just about every door at the Capitol, and the White House, not to burnish his image but to ensure that his nemesis is knocked off the ballot even before the process begins; the latter, apparently, on a long-lasting retainership to deliver the presidential medal. Between them, the die is cast.
I recall thinking at the time that the self-proclaimed democrat may have sought to use the American firm to finally settle the issues highlighted in the 323-page document by the United States Senate permanent subcommittee on investigations, which established that he, Atiku Abubakar transferred $40 million into 30 U.S. bank accounts, opened by Jennifer Douglas, his fourth wife, from offshore corporations, with $25 million transferred by Guernsey Trust Company, Letsgo Ltd. and Sima Holding Ltd. to majorly Douglas’ U.S. Citibank account.
And then of course the subcommittee’s additional finding of wire transfers by Letsgo Ltd. of $13.1 million, and Guernsey Trust Company, $900,000, totalling $14 million –offshore transfers paid by Abubakar to the American University helping him found his own American University of Nigeria (AUN) in Yola in 2003.
Not forgetting the matter of U.S. Congressman William J. Jefferson, sentenced to 13 years in prison for bribery and corruption following investigations conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in which Atiku was also cited and for which, according to his principal, Olusegun Obasanjo, he practically became a fugitive from the United States’ justice system.
That was the situation until 2018. The same Obasanjo is alleged to have played a “critical” role in getting the American government to issue Atiku a visa, while a certain Brian Ballard, publicist of U.S. President Donald Trump, worked behind the scenes to get the visa ban relaxed.
Talk of the former hunted struggling to assume the role of hunter; now he wants President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s knocked off the ballot apparently by means fair or foul, including, if it comes to that, democratic subversion, since all is fair in war!
You then ask: what has Atiku’s famed Cameroonian marabouts got to do with this? Again, talk of the different shades of the same story – the story of an individual’s obsession for power – a toxic mix of greed, ambition and shamanism.
Only a while back, Obasanjo, Atiku’s principal, had brought up the subject – Atiku’s reliance on diviners – as a huge motivational factor in his politics; however, it was Nasir El-Rufai, vide his book, The Accidental Public Servant that would give the subject its most generous treatment.
According to El-Rufai, it started with a not-so-minor matter: an alleged demand by senators of N54m bribe to facilitate his clearance for a ministerial position. He had, according to him, approached the former president to intervene and perhaps settle the matter.
“No, I am not handling this senators’ thing. I have done my part and nominated you. You should go and tell the vice-president about whatever has transpired. He will handle it,” El-Rufai recalled the former president as telling him when they met to discuss the matter.
Frustrated, he turned to Atiku as instructed.
As he walked into Atiku’s office, El-Rufai reported Atiku as saying: ‘Where are you going? You can’t leave. We are about to have the whole thing’. This was supposed to be Atiku’s response to El-Rufai’s threat to quit.
“I was taken aback as I was not sure what he meant. What do you mean sir?” – he would recall telling Atiku.
Atiku then mentioned a marabout based in Cameroun who he said, had always predicted with accuracy the results of all his political contests. He said the marabout had even foretold that he would win a governorship election in Adamawa but will not govern the state.
“Nasir, this mallam has been consistently right in his predictions” – said the former vice president, apparently in excitement.
“Wow, that is very interesting sir, but what does this have to do with my resignation?” he had asked Atiku.
“Because the same mallam said that Obasanjo would not complete his term,” he quoted Atiku as saying.
“So, why do you want to go? When I am president, we are going to take charge of this place and fix it and I will need you. You are one of my best people….” That was Atiku, perhaps in his elements.
Well, Obasanjo not only completed his two terms of eight years, he actually made a failed bid for a third! More than two decades later, the divination still hangs in the air – unrealised and unrealisable. Instead, Atiku’s curriculum vitae (CV), now ghastly, have lengthened his frustrations.
In 1993, he competed in the Social Democratic Party (SDP) primaries but lost to Moshood Abiola. In 2007, he ran on the Action Congress (AC) presidential platform but came third. In 2011, he contested the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primaries but lost to Goodluck Jonathan. In 2015, he joined the All Progressives Congress (APC) but lost the presidential primaries to Muhammadu Buhari. In 2019, he returned, not unlike the prodigal son, to the PDP and became its presidential flag bearer and then lost to Buhari.
He got the same PDP ticket in 2023 only to be shellacked by Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the APC candidate. For the 2027 presidency, he had to literally steal the party, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) to have a shot.
Surely, if his preference for the ballot has, understandably worn thin, his voyage to Donald Trump’s America in pursuit of God-knows-what goes beyond a mere repudiation of democratic credentials or even his now familiar pastime of electoral delegitimisation; it seems to me the ultimate expression of political illiteracy, an astoundingly poor if not entirely false reading of contemporary history.
It certainly confirms the truth of the saying that most of our politicians neither read nor pay attention to contemporary events. Most are probably overrated.
For whereas Atiku, like many of our politicians, have sought a saviour in a Donald Trump dalliance, a country like Hungary has proven to stands tall when its national prestige is at stake. For the people, Hungary’s problem is for Hungarians to solve. Contrast this with the story of the Nobel Prize winner and Venezuela’s opposition leader, María Corina Machado. She wanted Venezuelan former president, Nicolás Maduro and wife, Cilia Flores out of their Miraflores Palace, in Caracas by all means. Both have been taken out alright by President Trump; but this hasn’t got her closer to the presidential throne any more than her long advertised restoration project is near realisation.
Now, Atiku seeking Trump and U.S. Congress help to push that lifelong project that the Cameroonian marabouts have fallen short using a paid lobbyist? Such desperation! And that’s a man who wants to be seen as the ultimate democrat!
Nigerians should pity him.
NOTE: Views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of Theliberationnews
