How I Saved Obasanjo From Death Twice—Atiku

How I Saved Obasanjo

 

OpenLife News reports that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has revealed how he saved former President Olusegun Obasanjo from death twice.

Atiku, 79, a Fulani, who hails from Jada Local Government Area in Adamawa State, served as deputy to Obasanjo between 1999 and 2007.

At the time of rounding off their 2nd tenure in the Presidency, Atiku who is currently the 2027 presidential candidate of Action Democratic Congress, had fallen out of favour with his principal, Obasanjo.

Since that time to now, Obansajo uses every available opportunity to tell sour stories about Atiku except in 2019 general elections when he supported the Adamawa politician as Peoples Democratic Party, PDP presidential candidate against late President Muhammadu Buhari .

Immediately after the election in which case Atiku could not unseat Buhari, both statemen went into separate political paths. Obasanjo has since remained one of Atiku’s most vocal critics, repeatedly urging Nigerians to prioritise competence, integrity and national interest in the choice of future leaders.

Flowing from that bitter relationship, Obasanjo, on Friday, July 31, described his decision to pick Atiku Abubakar as his running mate in the 1999 presidential election as the biggest mistake of his presidency.

Obasanjo made the remark in Lagos during a fireside conversation with veteran entertainer and activist Charles Oputa, popularly known as Charly Boy, at the public presentation of Charly Boy’s foundation and memoir, 999: A Memoir in Tribute to Late Justice Chukwudifu Oputa.

The former President said although every leader makes mistakes in office, his choice of vice president remained the one decision he regretted most, saying he would never have chosen him had he known then what he later discovered about his former deputy.

A video of the event, later published by iWitnessLive TV on YouTube, captured Obasanjo reflecting on his years in office after Charly Boy asked him to identify the greatest mistake he made as president.
“What I have found in my own life is that mistakes that could have been fatal, God had taken care of them for me,” he stated.

Pressed to identify one specific mistake, the former President responded, “The man I picked as my running mate, my number two. If I had known him as I came to know him later, I would not have picked him.”

When Charly Boy sought clarification on whether he was referring to Atiku, Obasanjo replied, “My vice president. I don’t know what name you want to give him, but my vice president, I mean that.”

He maintained that with the benefit of hindsight, he would have made a different choice.
“Of course, what I know about him later… I would not have picked him. Thank God that God did not allow his actions and reactions to overwhelm me, divert my focus from Nigeria or harm Nigeria,” he said.

The former President, however, insisted he harboured no personal resentment against Atiku despite their turbulent political relationship.

“There’s no bitterness because he did what he believed he should do, and God did what God had to do, which enabled me to achieve what I was able to achieve,” he added.

Also, in his memoir, My Watch, published in 2014, Obasanjo accused Atiku of corruption, disloyalty and placing personal ambition above national interest.

Atiku dismissed the allegations, accusing his former principal of attempting to rewrite history and portraying himself as the victim of political persecution during the closing years of the Obasanjo administration.

However, in a post on Saturday on his Facebookwall, veteran journalist and activist, Richard Akinnola 11 recalled his encounter with Atiku in 2008 where the former Vice President revealed two occasions he saved Obasanjo from death.

Titled Loyalty: Between Obansajo And Atiku, Richard Akinnola 11 wrote:

In 2008, when Baba Obasanjo spoke about Atiku Abubakar not being loyal to him, l called Garba Shehu, who was then Atiku’s spokesperson, drawing his attention to what Obasanjo said.

Garba said he would want me to meet with Atiku to state his own part. He arranged for a breakfast meeting in Lagos.

At the meeting, l asked him to respond to Obasanjo’s allegation. He said he wouldn’t go into details of other instances of his loyalty but would mention just two.

In 1995, when Abacha wanted to arrest him over the phantom coup, Atiku said he got the intel and rushed to Ota to hint Obasanjo, asking him to leave the country immediately. Shortly thereafter, Obasanjo was arrested.

Th second instance, Atiku said was when his leader, Major-General Musa Yar’Adua (rtd) was forcefully injected in prison by “Dr death”, a Lt-Col. He said Yar’Adua contacted him to inform him of the strange injection when he was not ill (which eventually led to his death in prison).

Atiku said he immediately dispatched a message to Obasanjo in Yola prison not to allow himself to be injected in case “Dr death” came to him. Eventually, when “Dr death” came to see Obasanjo, Atiku said Obasanjo told him he shouted :”I’m not sick o, I’m not sick o”. And that was how he escaped being injected to death.

Atiku now concluded that if he was not loyal but saved him from death, he wondered what loyalty meant…..”

– Richard Akinnola 11