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• Says delivering Adamawa not tied to presidential ticket
A former vice-president and front-line presidential aspirant in the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has described the corruption tag foisted on him as an orchestrated perception resulting from unfounded corruption allegations against him.
Atiku, who met with select journalists in Lagos yesterday, however added that despite being the most investigated public office holder at different times, not a single case of corruption has been established against him, stating that the perception was therefore at variance with what he truly represents.
Atiku also dismissed the view that his chances as a presidential hopeful in the APC was tied to his ability to deliver Adamawa State during the October 11 governorship by-election in the state.
While further dwelling on the issue of the corruption tag, Atiku, who claimed to have all it takes to contain corruption in the country, alluded to the fact that the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo in which he was a major player was the only government that showed a genuine resolve to confront corruption.
The former vice-president, who said all it required to tackle corruption was the political will, noted that the determination of the Obasanjo administration to stamp out corruption was evident in the number of people who were both charged with corruption as well as convictions on different grounds.
“My corruption allegation is again a function of perception. But corruption can be tackled through political will. No administration has tackled corruption like ours. More people were charged to court during our administration.
“I for one went out of my way to raise money for the EFCC to function. Yet I was the most investigated public servant and that perhaps explains the corruption perception,” he said.
Explaining that “most politically-motivated panels are often set up to persecute certain individuals”, Atiku maintained that he would decisively deal with corruption if elected president of Nigeria.
On the fact that the Adamawa governorship by-election would not be a pre-condition for him to secure the ticket of the APC, Atiku said: “I don’t have to deliver Adamawa to be Nigeria’s president,” pointing out that both former Presidents Obasanjo and Umaru Musa Yar’Adua did not win their home states of Ogun and Katsina to emerge presidents.
Atiku, in this respect, was partly wrong, as Yar’Adua as the presidential candidate in 2007 delivered his home state, Katsina, to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Obasanjo, on the other hand, lost his home state, Ogun, in 1999 but won it in the next election in 2003.
Atiku, who also dismissed the assumption that his intervention in the Adamawa crisis could have saved former Governor Murtala Nyako, who was removed from office two months ago, vowed not to give up the fight because “the Nigerian project is a continuous struggle”.
He disagreed with the position that his decision to change political parties depicted inconsistency, adding that apart from being literally pushed out of the PDP preparatory to the 2007 elections, the factor of inconsistency was a problem with the system itself.
The presidential hopeful said his fears had always stemmed from the fact that the PDP had grown too big and powerful such that the Nigerian state had begun to gravitate towards a one party state but stressed that the struggle to halt the tide must be sustained.
“Changing parties has been a fight for internal democracy. Look at me, what is it that I believe in that I have not been consistent with? It is not really one who has not been inconsistent but the political system,” he pointed out, adding, “I would have been president a long time ago.”
Speaking on Nigeria’s problems, Atiku said there was a need to create a value chain through job creation, contending that a good government must be able to come up with policies that will create jobs. “The future can only be guaranteed through jobs,” he said.
Source: Thisday
