At Last, the Bubble Bursts

Comfort Obi

I don't think anybody is surprised that the once beautiful relationship between President Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku Abubakar has come to this sorry pass.
For long, the bubble had been threatening to burst. For long, we had waited, breathless, for the troubled relationship to get to its climax. But the two men wouldn’t oblige us. Instead, atimes, they had deceived us, and kept us guessing. If the two men were actors, their acting skills would have made acclaimed Nollywood stars green with envy. Atimes, I look at the photograph of both men at functions, and, I’m like, they are either deceiving us, or their aides are making a mountain out of a mole-hill. Take the wedding of Obasanjo and Stella’s son which held recently.
At the wedding, President Obasanjo had made way, midway, for Vice President Atiku and his wife, Titi, to preside over the ceremony. But you see, politicians, they have their ways which many of us don’t understand. They can pretend. They can cover up so beautifully that one begins to doubt oneself. That is one of the reasons I said I would never touch politics. Politicians, they laugh when they don’t want to laugh. They smile when they don’t want to smile. They entertain people when all they want is to stay alone with family and relax. Pretenders, all. I mean, that is the only reason Atiku would preside at Obasanjo’s son’s wedding when both men knew, full well, that their relationship was at its lowest. They made liars of many people too.
A couple of weeks ago at a privileged meeting I was invited to, somebody had dropped a bombshell. “Ladies and gentlemen, a security source at the Villa told me that the President had been sending people to reach out to Atiku, just so they can make a deal. He has found out that he cannot stop Atiku.” I doubted this information. But this fellow is somebody high up. So, I didn’t have the courage to tell him that his source of information was suspect. Or, that my own sources were more reliable than his. I let it ride. But I digress.
So, many of us are not surprised at the turn of events. What is surprising, however, is the level to which the President and his Deputy have descended to make their points. Both men are shocking us with their revelations. They are fighting dirty. All their secrets are coming to the fore. And they are just starting. In the process, Nigeria is being debased. The questions I have heard since this scandal, but tried to ignore include: Are these the men who had been presiding over this blessed, but seemingly cursed country? Is this how they have been appropriating our money? Are these the men who have been controlling our destiny? I mean, some of the revelations are scandalous.
I always knew that something was wrong between Obasanjo and Atiku. If I had any doubt, I perished it after attending breakfast and dinner meetings for some media executives hosted by the Vice President in Lagos a couple of years ago. He didn’t have to call the President names like ignorant, tight-fisted, and well, a non-politician. But he more than hinted. It was from him that I first heard about Obasanjo’s suspicion of the real owners of Globacom. It was from him that I heard the true story of how the President stopped late Chuba Okadigbo from being the Senate President in 1999, in preference to Senator Evan Enwerem. On one of such occasions, I asked a colleague of mine, who was present, what Atiku really wanted.
His desires became public when in 2003, he wanted to contest against his boss. I felt that was the height of disloyalty. He humiliated his boss at that convention. And he didn’t hide it. He worsened it when he boasted, in an infamous BBC Hausa service interview, after the elections, that he had three options at the PDP convention – to contest against his boss, run with Dr. Alex Ekwueme (who had promised to step down for him mid-way into their tenure), or run with Obasanjo. He gave the impression, as he had always done, that he was the more powerful of the two; that he had Obasanjo’s political destiny in his hands. I guess, then, he was right. Obasanjo had left most things for him to oversee. In fact, the presidency was being referred to, in some circles, as the Atiku presidency!
Obasanjo learnt his lesson in a hard way. It hurts when somebody you trust betrays you. Unless you control yourself, you want to hit back. This is what Obasanjo had, in the past two years or so, been doing. He curtailed Atiku’s powers. He stripped him of all his aides, almost. He let it be known that it is, indeed, now an Obasanjo presidency. Helpless, Atiku began to plan a revenge. He got it when the President’s alleged third term bid was defeated. He had fought openly for the defeat and he claimed, publicly, the victory. He was not humble about it either. So, here we are. Now, Obasanjo, no thanks to Atiku’s alleged greed, has dealt him a devastating blow. When the EFCC knocked on his door, the President looked the other way, and refused to protect him. Forget the bit that he "dashed" Atiku N50 million. The EFCC has laid Atiku bare. And his coffin was literarily nailed with a devastating expose on how he did kokoma with our money by Remi Oyo, the President’s spokesperson.
Atiku has been presented as corrupt, a liar, and one not worthy of his office. There seems to be no hiding place for Atiku now, or is there? Sure, he would fight, but of what use will it be?
I don’t know what he is planning to do. His reputation and credibility are in tatters. His political ambition, to me, is up in smoke. In his shoes, I would quit, swallow my pride, and strike a deal.
Indeed, in a classic Atiku style, he replied last Wednesday, a summation of which was his cast of the President as the typical case of the pot calling the kettle black.
Really, you never know with him. During one of his birthday celebrations, Titi, his wife, among other pet names which had me blushing, called him “Daddy Cool”. Meaning: whatever the situation, he remains cool. Dear readers, let us watch now how Daddy cool would handle this. Nigeria, I bow.