By Bassey Asuquo
The Tinubu Media Support Group (TMSG) has described recent claims by former Vice President and Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar that he was competing with thieves as laughable.
In a statement signed by its Chairman Emeka Nwankpa and Secretary Dapo Okubanjo, TMSG said the former Vice President spoke as if Nigerians had collective amnesia on his time in government.
The statement read in full: “It is indeed utterly laughable that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar could unabashedly call anyone in government names after what Nigerians know about his time in office as former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s deputy.
“Like many Nigerians, we are aware that the 2027 Presidential election may be the former Vice President’s last attempt at achieving his life long ambition of being President after five previous failed bid, so it was not a surprise to hear him saying ‘we are competing with thieves’ in a video shared on his social media platform.
“What is clear is that the perennial presidential candidate, under the weight of desperation, is fully out and prepared to throw just anything and everything at President Bola Tinubu, as he did to the late President Muhammadu Buhari thinking it will make it easier to get the support of the voting public. Unfortunately, that gimmick did not work against Buhari in 2019. It won’t also work in 2027.
“But we dare say that there is enough information in the public space to show that the words the former Vice President used in his depiction of the incumbent administration are a better description of his time in office.
“It is a matter of public record that former President Olusegun Obasanjo whom Alhaji Atiku Abubakar served for 8 years as Vice President said this about the man who now calls others thieves: ‘his propensity to corruption, his tendency to disloyalty, his inability to say and stick to the truth all the time, a propensity for poor judgement, his belief and reliance on marabouts, his lack of transparency, his trust in money to buy his way out of all issues and his readiness to sacrifice morality, integrity, propriety, truth, and national interest for self and selfish interest.’
“We are not aware that the former Vice President sued his former principal for defamation after this scathing indictment in the book “My Watch”. Neither did Atiku attempt to clear his name other than to say he had never been convicted of corruption.”
It also provided an insight into some of the former Vice President’s huge corruption baggage that may have informed such blistering characterization by his principal.
“We invite Nigerians to note that the former Vice President was used as a case study on ‘Keeping foreign corruption out of the United States’ by the US Congress in 2010. More than 80 pages of that damning report was devoted to Atiku Abubakar and how his fourth wife, Jennifer Douglas Abubakar, helped to channel over $40m in ‘suspect or offshore funds’ into the US between 2000 and 2008. The US Congress investigation indicated that the funds were wired into more than 30 US bank accounts controlled by Atiku’s wife through shell companies in places like Panama and the British Virgin Islands.
“We are also aware that the US Securities and Exchange Commission in 2008 alleged that Atiku’s wife, Jennifer, received over $2 million in bribe in 2001 and 2002 from a German company, Siemens, to secure government contracts. But while she denied any wrongdoing, the company pleaded guilty to criminal charges and settled civil charges relating to bribery. Siemens officials insisted that they sent the payments to one of her US bank accounts.
“There is also a Nigerian Senate Committee report which accused Atiku of diverting $145 million of Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) money and recommended that he face sanctions and prosecution.
“All these are aside from the sloppy and shoddy privatisation exercise he presided over as Chairman of the National Council on Privatisation (NCP), during which several public assets were sold off at ridiculously low prices which threw the former staff into terrible penury.
“We are convinced that the former Vice President has so much baggage bordering on corruption allegations to be sauntering around, accusing others of things he is liable for,” the group added.