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Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate has picked Peter Obi, a former governor of Anambra State, as his running mate in the next presidential election, but how strong is this union? Nigerians are truly going to be fed with the good, the bad and the ugly as the election campaign gets more serious

By Olu Ojewale

They are two of a kind in some ways. In politics and business, they are icons in their own right. They are successful businessmen. They are billionaires. They were elected as governors of their respective states. One served two terms as governor, but the other was never sworn-in as governor before being given a greater responsibility as a vice-president. Fate seems to have destined them to work together as former Vic-President Atiku Abubabar and Peter Obi, a former governor of Anambra State go to seek the mandate of Nigerians to become president and vice-president of the country.

The emergence of Abubakar and Obi as the presidential candidate and vice-presidential candidates has been one of the main topical issues in the media in recent times. The joint ticket is seen in many places in different dimensions and mode. But that notwithstanding, the credentials of the two candidates appear to be intimidating enough to cause some level of concern among 32 other presidential candidates and their running mates in the run-up to the 2019 presidential election.

For a start, Abubakar was elected in a free, fair primary election of the PDP primary held in Port Harcourt, on Saturday, October 6, through to Sunday, October 7. Abubakar defeated 11 other candidates to clinch the ticket. Since the result of the primary was announced, all those that contested against Abubakar have been magnanimous enough to congratulate him and have also promised to work towards his success in the coming election. That, on its own, means that the PDP members will be rallying round their flag-bearer in the election.

Then on Friday, October 12, Abubakar unexpectedly announced that he will be running with Obi, thereby causing some uproar amongthose who had pencilled down other persons. While Obi’s candidature was welcome in some other quarters, some people, especially in the South East, where Obi comes from opposed the idea.

Nevertheless, the combination of the Hausa Fulani man from the North, precisely Adamawa State, where both Christians live together in peace and a Southern Igbo man and a Christian, looks acceptable in the Nigerian polity. Apart from being from the North, it is common knowledge that Abubabar is regarded as a ‘wazobia’ man all because he has wives from different parts of the country. Hence, the combination of the two men can attract votes from the South-East, South-South and South West.

Apart from that, Abubakar is highly regarded for his knowledge of the Nigerian economy. During his time as the vice-president between 1999 and 2007, the economic success and privatisation of some Nigerian companies were led by him, before he fell out with the then President Olusegun Obasanjo over some private and official matters.

Abubakar, 71, who was born November 25, 1946, started his business empire as a Customs officer. Then in 1974 he applied for and received a N31,000 loan to build his first house in Yola, the capital Adamawa State, which he put up for rent. From proceeds of the rent he purchased another plot, and built a second house. According to Wikipedia, he continued this way, building a sizeable portfolio of property in Yola.

In 1981, he ventured into agriculture, acquiring 2,500 hectares of land near Yola to start a maize and cotton farm. But the business failed 1986. He later went into trading, buying and selling truckloads of rice, flour and sugar.

His most important business venture was realised as a Customs officer at the Apapa Ports. Gabrielle Volpi, an Italian businessman in Nigeria, invited him to set up Nigeria Container Services, NICOTES, a logistics company operating within the ports. The NICOTES would go on to provide immense wealth to Abubakar. He was then accused of using his influence as a Customs officer to get and thrive in the business. On his part, Abubakar has defended the decision, saying his involvement was limited to the ownership of shares (which government rules permitted), and that he was not involved in the day-to-day running of the business. The NICOTES would later be rebranded INTELS, and go on to feature prominently in accusations of money laundering levelled against Abubakar by the United States  government during his tenure as vice-president. The INTELS, an oil servicing business, has extensive operations in Nigeria and some others countries.

Abubakar’s business empire also includes a beverage manufacturing plant in Yola, an animal feed factory as well as the American University of Nigeria, AUN, in Yola, Adamawa State.

Aged 43, Abubakar had worked in the Nigeria Customs Service for 20 years, rising to become the deputy director, as the second highest position in the service was then known, retired in April 1989. He then took up full-time business and politics. Arguably, he seems to be more successful as a businessman than he has been in politics.

In 1991, Abubakar ran for the office of governor in the Gongola State (now Adamawa and Taraba states), and for the Presidency in 1993, placing third after the late Moshood Abiola and Babagana Kingibe in the Social Democratic Party, SDP, primaries.

In 1998, he was elected governor of Adamawa State. While still governor-elect he was selected by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Olusegun Obasanjo, the then presidential candidate, as his running mate. The duo went on to win elections in February 1999, and Abubakar was sworn-in as Nigeria’s second democratically elected vice president on May 29, 1999.

But his second term as vice-president was marked by a stormy relationship with Obasanjo. The Abubakar-Obasanjo face-off damaged the personal relationship between both men as they became bitter enemies. Hence, his bid to succeed his principal in office was opposed by Obasanjo, who picked Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, the then governor of Kasina State as his successor. Obasanjo also used the instrumentality of his office to get Abubakar disqualified from contesting the presidential election. But he later took the matter to court and a judgment of the Supreme Court allowed Abubakar contest after he was initially disqualified by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, on the grounds that he had been indicted for financial misconduct by an investigating panel set up at Obasanjo’s behest. The Supreme Court ordered the electoral commission to restore Abubakar’s name on the presidential ballot.

Abubakar ran on the platform of the Action Congress, AC, having quit the PDP on account of his conflict with Obasanjo. Abubakar lost the election, placing third after now late Umaru Yar’Adua of the PDP and Muhammadu Buhari of the then All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP.

That notwithstanding, Abubakar is not novice in politics. In fact, he first vied the governorship seat of the defunct Gongola State in 1990. But a year later, before the elections could hold, Gongola State was broken up into Adamawa and Taraba states by the federal government. Abubakar fell into the new Adamawa State. After the contest he won the SDP primaries in November 1991, but was soon disqualified by the government from contesting the elections.

When a similar fate of disqualification by the military befell Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, Abubakar’s friend and political mentor, in his 1992 bid for the presidential primary of the SDP, Yar’Adua put him forward to contest the presidential primary. Abubakar came third in the convention primary, with late the late MKO Abiola winning by only about 400 votes leading to a run-off. But Abubakar stepped down for Abiola, asking his supporters to cast their votes for him, with an unwritten agreement that Abiola would announce Abubakar as his running mate. Abiola won the SDP ticket, and announced Babagana Kingibe, the runner-up, as his running mate.

Following the 2007 elections, Abubakar returned to the PDP. In October 2010, he announced his intention to contest for the Presidency. On November 22, 2010, a Committee of Northern Elders selected him as the Northern consensus candidate, over former General Ibrahim Babangida, a former military president; Aliyu Gusau, a former National Security Adviser and Governor Bukola Saraki of Kwara State.

In January 2011, Abubakar contested for the presidential ticket of the PDP, but lost in the primary to the then incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan and Sarah Jubril. Considering the fact that Jonathan was going to contest for a second term, Abubakar left the PDP on February 2, 2014, to the join All Progressives Congress, APC, with the intent of contesting the Nigerian presidency in 2015 on the party’s platform. He came third in the primary which elected Buhari as the party candidate.

On Friday, November 24, 2017, Abubakar announced his exit from the APC, a party he helped to form, and returned to the PDP. On December 3, 2017, via a Facebook Live broadcast, Abubakar announced his return to the PDP. The announcement was said to have followed consultations he had with party leaders and stakeholders from across the country. He said he decided to ‘return home’ to the PDP now that the issues which made him leave the party had been resolved.

Abubakar is a strong apostle of restructuring of the country, which has put in the good book of advocates, especially in the South-East, South-South and South-West.

His choice of Obi as his running mate appears to be a welcoming development considering the credential of the Anambra State governor. A statement by Gbenga Daniel, the director general of the Atiku Campaign Organisation, on Saturday, October 13, said Obi was mainly chosen because of his vast knowledge of global and local economics.

Born on July 19, 1961, at Onitsha, Obi attended the Christ the King College, Onitsha, where he completed his secondary school education. He later read Philosophy at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in 1980, graduating with a B.A (Hons) in 1984. Since then, he has attended various courses ivy-league universities here in Nigeria and abroad. He is alumni of the Lagos Business School, Nigeria; Harvard Business School, Boston, US; Harvard Business School, Boston, US; Columbia Business School, New York, US; The Institute for Management Development, Switzerland; Kellogg Graduate School of Management; the Kellogg School of Management US; the Oxford University, United Kingdom; the Cambridge University, UK and the George Business School.

His business ventures has taken him to the pinnacle of various companies. Until recently, he was the chairman of the Nigerian Security and Exchange Commission, SEC, he was the chairman of the Next International Nigeria Ltd; then chairman and director of the Guardian Express Mortgage Bank Ltd, Guardian Express Bank Plc; Future View Securities Ltd; Paymaster Nigeria Ltd; Chams Nigeria Ltd; Data Corp Ltd and Card Centre Ltd. He was the youngest chairman of Fidelity Bank PLC.

Obi was drafted into politics in 2003, when he was persuaded to run for office of the governor. Obi stood in the Anambra State governorship election as candidate for the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, party in 2003, but Chris Ngige, his rival, then of the PDP, was declared winner by the INEC.

After nearly three years of litigation, Ngige’s victory was overturned by the Court of Appeal on March 15, 2006. Obi took office on March 17, 2006. On November 2, 2006, he was impeached by the state House of Assembly after seven months in office and replaced the next day by Virginia Etiaba, his deputy, making her the first ever female governor in Nigeria’s history. Obi successfully challenged his impeachment and was re-instated as the governor on February 9, 2007, by the Court of Appeal sitting in Enugu. Etiaba handed power back to him after the court ruling.

He once again left office on May 29, 2007, following the general elections, which Andy Uba won. Obi returned to the courts once more, this time contending that the four-year tenure he had won in the 2003 elections only started to run when he took office in March 2006. On June 14, 2007, the Supreme Court of Nigeria upheld Obi’s argument and returned him to office. This brought to an abrupt end the tenure of Uba, Obi’s successor, whose April 14, 2007, election the Supreme Court nullified on the grounds that Obi’s four-year tenure should have remained undisturbed until March 2010.

On February 7, 2010, the INEC declared Obi the winner of the February 6, 2010, gubernatorial elections, where he defeated Charles Soludo, a former governor, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN. The election victory gave Obi an additional four years as the governor of Anambra State. On March 17, 2014, Obi served out his second term and handed over to Willie Obiano, the governorship.

During Obi’s tenure Anambra achieved many goals and objectives. It was the first state to commence Sub-Sovereign Wealth savings, the first of its kind in Sub-Saharan Africa. At a time many other governors were leaving huge debts, he left the equivalent of $500 million in investment as well as local and foreign currency, including $156 million in dollar-denominated bonds.

The state had development partners such as UNDP, UNICEF, the World Bank, DFID, the European Union etc., which hitherto were not there started working with it.  Anambra was consistently adjudged one of the best states in development partnership and commitment to reforms for good governance.

Apart from that, Obi was recognised as Best Governor by the Millennium Development Goals Office, OSSAP-MDGs, and the UNDP in the implementation of their programmes in Nigeria; the Nigerian Debt Management Office, DMO, rated Anambra as the least indebted state in Nigeria. In spite of visible and measurable achievements recorded in various sectors, the State under him did not borrow or raise bonds for the state various projects; the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria rated Anambra State as the most financially stable state in the country and the state’s ground-breaking return of schools to their original owners – voluntary agencies, especially Churches, on  January 1, 2009, and subsequent partnership with the agencies in Education, saw the state move from 24th position out of 36 States to Number One in National Examination Council, NECO, and West African Examination Council, WAEC, examinations for three consecutive years.

Anambra State also entered into strategic partnership with the Churches in the Health sector. This symbiotic relationship resulted in a tremendous boost to health care because of the services offered by health institutions owned by voluntary agencies, while the state restored grants to the agencies and made available to them more than $50 million in various types of support.  Through partnership with the Church in the Health sector, the Obi government funded the transformation of various hospitals across the state. His government also built the Joseph Nwilo Heart Centre in St. Joseph, Adazi-Nnukwu, where heart operations are now being performed.

As part of the crown in the glory of achievements, the Obi administration won the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation ($1 million) as the best-performing state in immunisation in the South-East.

His achievements were also noticeable in education, provision of infrastructure, transportation among others.

Little wonder there have been more positive reactions to the joint ticket of Abubakar and Obi than the negative. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, a former governor of Anambra State, described the choice of Obi as great, adding that he was not wasteful in the management of resources while serving as a governor. Ezeife said: “Peter is a great choice. He brings his business intelligence into governance. He is not corrupt and as a governor, he was not wasteful. I must say that I am very happy.’’ He enjoined fellow Igbo to rally round the ticket and make it a success in 2019.

On his part, Tanko Yakassai, an elder statesman and second republic politician, said: “It was expected all along that the slot of the Vice President should go to the South East for the PDP as APC has chosen the South West. What is not ascertained is whether the choice of Peter Obi is the collective choice of the majority of the people of the South East. Atiku Abubakar/Peter Obi ticket is a very good one. Atiku Abubakar is a Muslim from the North while Peter Obi is a Christian from the South just as Muhammadu Buhari is a Muslim from the North and Yemi Osinbajo is a Christian from the South. Everything is balanced.”

In a similar mode, Reuben Abati, a former presidential spokesman, has declared that Abubakar’s selection of Obi as his running mate for the 2019 election was a right choice.

He also said the public endorsement by Obasanjo had put the camp of President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC in disarray.

In an article titled: “Atiku and the Rise of Peter Obi,” Abati said the businessman has proven himself to be an astute politician and leader. “As governor, he blocked the leaky buckets. He reduced wastages and leakages. He led by example. He served the people. He left a healthy balance behind in the treasury. He was known across the South-East as Peter the Rock.

“Abubakar has acted pro-actively by quickly putting an end to the speculations. He met with the party leadership, consulted with other interest groups and promptly announced Peter Obi. If this is a sign of how he intends to run Nigeria if he becomes president, then he is off to a good start.

“In the past week, he also did something else that was clever. He made peace with his former boss, President Olusegun Obasanjo. He asked for Obasanjo’s blessings and Obasanjo, wearing his hat as a seasoned political pragmatist and ‘ebora’ strategist, endorsed Atiku.

“The speech delivered by Obasanjo on that occasion is an elegant study in the art of being important. President Obasanjo said he has forgiven Atiku for his many sins, which he Obasanjo had complained about previously. He described him as someone who has a knowledge of business, who is less inflexible and a “Wazobia” man. There were subtle digs at the incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari, when Obasanjo advised Atiku not to recruit only kith and kin and try to run an inclusive government.”

Abati reasoned that the Yoruba in the South-West do not always vote as a bloc and that the South-West is far more divided now, he envisaged that making Obi as his running mate will guarantee Abubakar sizeable votes in the South East.

“An Igbo running mate can guarantee bloc Igbo voting, in Igboland and from Igbos who are all over Nigeria. The votes may not necessarily be for Peter Obi as a person but for the Igbo nationalistic interest. The South-South, still angry over how the Buhari government has treated President Goodluck Jonathan and others from that region, will also naturally vote en masse against Buhari. Technically, Atiku may have locked down the South-South and the South-East and can be sure of substantial votes from the South-West with his promise of restructuring.”

Indeed, Yinka Odumakin, the national publicity secretary of Afenifere, the pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, on his part, has urged both Atiku and Obi to remain steadfast in restructuring the country. Odumakin said: “All we are concerned about at this stage is the commitments by Atiku about the restructuring of Nigeria. 2019: I’ll reward you all, Atiku assures PDP presidential aspirants. If it is true that he has picked Peter Obi as his running mate, he should join him to work out clear cut programme on restructuring and ensure that he remains steadfast on that because that is the main issue that will determine the next election.”

That notwithstanding, Kolade Olalere, a retired bank manager, told Realnews that Nigeria has gone back to the 2014, when public opinion was against the then President Jonathan. “It is now clear to Nigerians that we don’t like the kind of change the current administration foisted on us. From now, Atiku and Obi are the frontrunner to challenge President Buhari. Perhaps, if we have another formidable team we can say, let’s access their chances at the next election. But for now, the team is good enough to send this administration back. My prayer is Buhari should do what Jonathan did when he lost election, otherwise it will be terrible for this country,” Olalere said.

Similarly, Banji Ojewale, a veteran journalist, in an interview with Realnews, said we are indeed, back in 2014-15 era when Nigerians were fed up with Jonathan’s “cluelessness.” Ojewale said: “We wanted anybody but Jonathan. Buhari, according to Nigerians, has proved a worse disaster! So, we are on the move again, to pick a lesser evil, as it were. Abubakar/Obi ticket team looks more promising and poised for serious national duty than Buhari/Osinbajo did.”

But Dipo Onabanjo, a businessman, said he would have loved Obi to be paired with another serious presidential candidate and not Abubakar. He said: “On his part I honestly wish Peter Obi could be paired with somebody else, not Aktiku. I recall that apart from Atiku’s corruption baggage, Nigeria lost many prominent politicians including Chief Bola Ige under the regime of Obasanjo/Atiku. Remember that Professor Wole Soyinka had to alert the nation of the killer squad within the PDP. Who killed those politicians? Why? Power tussle, unbridled quest for political thrones and inordinate acquisition of wealth are the reasons. Those who forget history are bound to relive it!” When reminded that the PDP candidate has never been charged or convicted of corruption, he said the “paddy-paddy” politics going on in the country has so shielded him from such embarrassment.

Similarly, the United Kingdom chapter of the APC has dismissed the choice of Obi as running mate to Abubakar, saying it will take the PDP nowhere. Ade Omole, leader of the chapter told the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, in Abuja, that the choice of the former Anambra governor would not in anyway guarantee votes for the PDP in the South-East. Omole said: “The paddy-paddy anointing of Peter Obi to the gasping ticket of Atiku Abubakar as running mate confirms our earlier assertion that the PDP presidential campaign is dead on arrival. As you are aware, Peter Obi failed woefully in the last Anambra gubernatorial election to deliver the state to his ailing party, a state he mismanaged for eight years. Peter Obi was rejected by his people, his ward, his state and come 2019, both the PDP presidential candidate and his running mate will be rejected nationally by Nigerians.”

He described the combination of Obi and Abubakar as a classic case of corruption working hand in glove with mismanagement, stressing that surely, the tag could only take Nigeria back to Egypt or even a worse situation.

No matter, in the next few months Nigerians are going to polls to pick their choice of president based on their conviction. Then, the good, the bad and the ugly of the election campaign will determine the  way Nigerians vote.

– Oct. 19, 2018 @ 18:05 GMT |

Tags: Atiku Abubakar/Peter Obi Ticket: The Good The Bad and The Ugly