Babs Ajayi
Babsajayi@yahoo.com
Gatineau, Quebec, Canada
tiku 2015 is dead on arrival. You will wonder why anyone will choose to continue to dance on the same spot; enjoying an illusion of progression, wallowing in delusion and maintaining his rigmarole through the same corridor of cant despite the very obvious sign post reading "End of the road." Atiku Abubakar has nowhere else to go and he can never ever be president of Nigeria because he is undeserving of that position and he is, above all, unworthy of it. Not a single Nigerian, beside Abubakar Atiku himself and his harem of five - and ever growing - and children believe or perhaps trust Atiku, but our people know for a fact that he has too much money, way more than he could have legitimately worked for though he may never have been found guilty of corruption by any court or probe panel in Nigeria. Atiku did not "secure lives" (as he is promising now) when he was vice president and he did not "create wealth" for the people in those eight years he was vice president, nor influenced its creation. On the contrary, I must add, Atiku secured Atiku and created wealth for Atiku, abundant wealth. I do not think there is any politician who has been found guilty of corruption in Nigeria beside Diepriye Alamieyeseigha despite the ginormous level of corruption in our nation, a dinosaur in the Goodluck Jonathan era. Many were charged by the old EFCC during the Obasanjo regime while the current EFCC is in an induced coma carried out by Aso Rock, thus allowing looting of state funds and the ferrying of millions of dollars to foreign destinations in private and hired jets to thrive. Atiku said he is the most investigated Nigerian today. Yes, the most investigated in Nigeria, but how about in the United States? Was Atiku Abubakar ever investigated in the United States for money laundering? The report on "Keeping Foreign Corruption Out of the United States" is still there. Atiku cannot wish it away and he cannot get it off the website of the United States Senate: www.hsgac.senate.gov/.../report-psi-staff-report-keeping-foreign-corruption- out-of-the-united-states-four-case-histories. There is also the report prepared by Transparency International (TI) with the title How Atiku laundered $40 million and $1.7 million Siemens bribe - -http://www.transparencyng.com/index.php/component/content/article?id=3149. The pipeline for syphoning the funds into the United States was Atiku's third (or was it sixth?) wife, Jennifer (aka Jemila) Dauglas Abukabar, a former staff of the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) who relocated to the United States and lived in Atiku's house in Potomac, Washington, DC, the domain of homes worth millions of dollars.
The Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) corruption saga has remained unresolved and Atiku Abubakar surely has a lot to answer for regarding hundreds of millions of PTDF funds. He may never have been brought to trial but that does not mean he is not culpable. Show me one politician who has been properly and thoroughly brought to trial and made to account in Nigeria? The flip side of that is the fact that these politicians are living large, owned several properties, private jets, array of exotic vehicles and are richer than anyone could ever imagined, surpassing the imagination of you and me. Up till this day, only James Ibori has been brought to book and that was in a foreign land. Ibori was teased with a lame trial in Nigeria and the judge found him not guilty of over seventy corruption charges. Fully exonerated and judgment decision fully paid for, Ibori was untouchable and was even a king maker in the PDP, a party of thieves, looters and criminals. It may be proper and right to say that not many politicians in Nigeria are clean enough to put other politicians on trial; the filth has spread so badly and just about a few in the rank of Nigerian politicians have clean hands. I consider Muhammadu Buhari among these few, which is why I believe he is the only one who can ensure that the Nigerian people get value for their money and see to it that state funds are used judiciously and used to meet the yearnings of our people.
I wrote about Atiku in December 2010 and urged him to forget any dream of running for the Nigerian presidency. The article was titled Atiku Abubakar: Not a Worthy Presidential Candidate (http://nigeriaworld.com/feature/publication/babsajayi/120310.html). Atiku has remained an unworthy presidential candidate and he will forever remain unworthy because he was found clearly unworthy and adjudged corrupt by the report of the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. His case was one of four "Case Histories" dealt with by the Committee. But since Atiku has so much money and he does not mind throwing some of it away, he should be free to do so, but he should expect full rejection from the Nigerian people. With the clear message sent by the United States government about money laundering, it was no surprise that Jennifer (Jemila) Douglas Abubakar was forced to relocate to Dubai where the Abubakars now spend some of their time and own homes and investments. The US government ensured that Citibank, Chevy Chase, Wachovia Bank, Eagle Bank and Suntrust Bank closed every account Jennifer (Jemila) Douglas Abubakar operated and used to receive suspect funds into the United States of America from her husband, Atiku Abubakar. The report of the Senate committee confirmed that "…Siemens wire transferred $2.8 million in bribe payments to a U.S. bank account belonging to Ms. Douglas as part of a scheme to bribe Nigerian officials. In response to this and other legal actions, Siemens admitted to engaging in widespread bribery payments, pled guilty to criminal violations and settled civil violations of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and agreed to pay over $1.6 billion in civil and criminal fines. Ms. Douglas has denied any wrongdoing, but the Subcommittee has obtained financial records showing the transfer of over $1.7 million from Siemens AG to Ms. Douglas' account at Citibank."
What happened in the United States essentially found Atiku guilty of corruption and money laundering and Mr. Atiku would have been sent to jail if he was an American citizen. It is therefore shameful and sad that Atiku now regard himself as clean and above board because he has never been brought to book in Nigeria. Being a Nigerian citizen and living in a corruption-riddled nation where, as General Diya once put it, everybody is a thief, only those who got caught are barawos allows a dishonest man like delude himself and deceive himself. When Atiku said there has been no administration that tackled corruption in Nigeria better than "our administration" you must wonder why he was not brought to book just by using the report prepared by the US Senate Committee and why the then EFCC failed to hold him accountable for the hundreds of millions of dollars of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) that disappeared. Being frugal with the truth is a mastery the likes of Atiku Abubakar have acquired and they so have been able to get away a lot with the help of some media men and editors who are on their payroll and are benefitting from him financially. Most Nigerian newspaper editors today do more disservice to the nation and its people in their quest to banish hunger in their own lives, and this is a shame. But the majority of our people cannot be deceived and are of one mind that any politician who is excessively rich beyond his wages and clean, decent venture, who is living large, and who has not earned billions in wages or investment income is nothing but a thief and a criminal who must not be trusted with the nation's treasury, particularly a politician who has been fairly close to that treasury and made little or no positive impact beside impacting his own life through endless funds transfers to his mistress in the United States over several years. My conclusion is very much the same as it was in 2010: Atiku Abubakar, the self-styled shepherd and farm boy is not worthy to be the president of Nigeria or any part of it. Rather, it will be in Atiku's best interest to rally round and support Muhammadu Buhari. Buhari is the only presidential candidate who is disciplined, has a good reputation, and a clean and decent record.
I have written some articles about Atiku Abubakar in the past. Here are the links to three of them:
Atiku Abubakar and the Northern Oligarchy that Selected Him - http://nigeriaworld.com/feature/publication/babsajayi/011611.html
Atiku Abubakar: A Charlatan's Lecture at Chatham House
The new logjam: Between Obasanjo and Atiku Abubakar - http://nigeriaworld.com/feature/publication/babsajayi/090805.html
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