ATIKU IS A MASTER OF THE GAME

ATIKU IS A MASTER OF THE GAME

BY ABDULMUMINI ADEKU

  

ALHAJI ATIKU ABUBAKAR IS FORMER NIGERIAN VICE PRESIDENT BETWEEN 1999 TILL 2007

He is the marathon man,The long distant runner in Nigerian politics as  never has a man had such a big dream :To rule his nation of over 170 million people and Africa's most populous nation.

As a protégé of the Late General Shehu Musa Yar'Adua ,he learned the ropes silently like a good pupil who was stooping very low to conquer.

In 1992,what looked like an opening presented itself  but he soon found stepping down for another business mogul ,Chief Moshood Abiola who later went on to win the elections held on June 12,1993 but which was cancelled by the military back then .

A season campaigner that he is ,Alhaji Atiku Abubakar kept campaigning in the trenches for a return to full democracy or civil rule for the Nigerian nation and so it was not surprising when this took place in 1999.

That he is one of Nigeria and Africa's greatest" wheeler-dealer "of power broker is not in any form of doubt as he and General Ibrahim Babangida virtually ensured Chief Olusegun Obasanjo 's release from prison and aided his sponsorship to The Presidency in 1999.

infact at the time a stunned Obasanjo was said to have told Both Babangida and Atiku Abubakar that he had less than N20,000 in his bank accounts  and wondered how he was going to be President .

The duo were said to have laughed it off but philosophically told him that God will provide and this is exactly what eventually took place at the time.

As both men forked out a princely N500million to bail out Chief Obasanjo at the time and the rest of course is now history.