His trip out of the country was a well kept secret until he arrived the United States last Thursday. His media aide, when asked, denied knowledge of such a trip, perhaps in a bid to ensure the trip was successful. However, when the news broke that Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), former Vice President, Atiku Abukakar was actually in the US, it ignited political fireworks, expectedly so.
Atiku who spoke to the VOA Hausa service in Washington, said he was invited “by many organisations in United States.”
He also disclosed that he would be “having some positive discussions with some of the officials (US). I was in the Congress and I had discussions with some high ranking Congress men and Women about Nigeria and how Nigeria intends to improve her relationship with the United States of America.”
Atiku relished the trip because he had been dared and jeered to step feet in the US because of alleged links to corruption issues. The visit was his first after 12 years of ‘avoiding’ the nation over perceived graft issues. He had not visited the U.S. since 2007 when he left as Nigeria’s vice-president. He served under former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
At the height of their intense faceoff, Obasanjo accused Atiku of fraud while in office. Within same period, Atiku was linked to corruption charges filed in the U.S.
Although he strongly denied all allegations, he was unable to visit the U.S, even though he founded an American styled University in his home state of Adamawa.
Atiku was investigated by the U.S. authorities, including the country’s Senate, and was a suspect in a bribery scandal that sent a former U.S. federal lawmaker to jail, the Nigerian politician was never convicted of any crime.
However, upon his emergence as the flag bearer of the PDP, the saga surrounding Atiku’s inability to enter the US became an issue. The more he explained that the American authorities had declined to issue him entry visa, the more speculations that a secret indictment had been entered against him by that country’s authorities gained traction.
A hint that he might head to the US emerged last December. A family source had hinted that Atiku was given a US Visa at a time rumours spread that he jetted out of the country to UK to spend sometime before heading to the US.
Reports had it that Obasanjo contributed immensely in getting the American Government to issue the visa to Atiku. At this time, the political interests of Obasanjo and Atiku had re-aligned after the intervention of top clerics in the country.
Barely weeks after Obasanjo openly forgave and endorsed Atiku for top job, the PDP candidate was granted a U.S. visa, last December.
However, when contacted on the Visa issue at the time, spokesman of the US consulate in Lagos, Russel Brooks, opined that the issuance of visa to Nigerians irrespective of their status is strictly a confidential matter. He said the US government would not discuss such confidentiality in public.
But the prospects of Atiku getting a visa got the attention of the ruling party and by extension the government.
Director, Strategic Communications of the President Muhammadu Buhari Campaign Organisation, Festus Keyamo (SAN), said should Atiku set foot on U.S soil today as a private citizen, he will face criminal charges.
In a press statement sent to Pulse and written for the Buhari Campaign Organisation (BCO), Keyamo listed the $40million laundering case against Atiku, the Siemens bribery scandal, a $145million PTDF indictment by a senate subcommittee and a slew of other corruption allegations in which Atiku’s name has prominently featured.
Keyamo, “A senate subcommittee investigating the PTDF indicted Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, having found that he abused his office by aiding and abetting the diversion of public funds in the sum of $145 million” as loans to his friends. This report was a subject of a full-blown investigation by the EFCC which actually recommended his prosecution in a court of law. That report is still pending and alive till today.
Read Also:
“The U.S Congress in a report titled, KEEPING FOREIGN CORRUPTION OUT OF THE UNITED STATES: FOUR CASE HISTORIES, featured Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as one of the four notorious cases of money laundering in the world!
“The Congress report said “Jennifer Douglas Abubakar, a U.S. citizen, is the fourth wife of Atiku Abubakar, the former Vice President of Nigeria and a former candidate for the Presidency of Nigeria…… from 2000 to 2008, Ms. Douglas helped her husband bring over $40 million in suspect funds into the United States, including at least $1.7 million in bribe payments from Siemens AG, a German corporation, and over $38 million from little known offshore corporations, primarily LetsGo Ltd. Inc., Guernsey Trust Company Nigeria Ltd., and Sima Holding Ltd”.
The Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, however cautioned the U.S. not to grant a visa to Mr Abubakar, saying it might give the impression that the foreign power is supportive of the opposition party’s candidate.
Mohammed who gave the government’s position at an interactive session with journalists in Abuja, had said , “ We understand and appreciate the fact that it is the prerogative of the US to grant a visa to anyone who applies.
“However, we want the US to be neutral and be wary of taking any decision that will give the impression that they are favouring or endorsing one candidate over the other.
“An impression must not be created that the US government is endorsing one particular candidate over the other. ”
However, the response of the federal government to Atiku’s visit to the US was quite instructive last Friday.
Although the federal government said it was not perturbed by Atiku’s trip it declared that Atiku has questions to answer over the collapse of the Bank PHB.
While pointedly accusing the PDP Presidential candidate of benefiting from N156 million slush funds through Claremont Management Services Account on 13th January, 2009, the government in stressing that it was not perturbed added “If he likes he can stay there and obtain the American Green Card.”
In turn, PDP described the move by the federal government as laughable and a frenzied face-saving effort, reflecting the fear of Atiku coasting to victory. On his part, the Presidential candidate, in his reaction, dared the federal government to back up its allegation with proof.
While the back and forth over Atiku’s visit to the US rages on, the import of the trip remains insightful, analysts opine. Beyond the attempts to score political points, pundits wonder what benefits such trip hopes to attract to the country.
For a candidate that has built his campaign strongly around the economy, his meeting with the business community, for his supporters, is instructive to the degree that it would help shape his economic policy.
What’s more, for some analysts, while the visit seems to be put to rest, the issue of corruption against the former vice president in the US, others believe that Nigerians have become far more discerning politically.
Mr Emeka Obiechina, a PDP supporter, who spoke with LEADERSHIP Sunday, said, “that trip to the US was immediately after he met with the business community in Lagos. Now this shows that it was not a mere political jamboree for him but a strategic meeting to assure foreign investors of the free market space in a democratic state that Nigeria is.
“So yes as much as the trip helps to dispel, claims, allegations and insinuations that he can’t visit the US because of fears of arrest over links to corruption case, it is much more a visit that will help to shape and drive his economic policy when he emerges President,” Obiechina stated.
Another APC supporter, Adewale Oyekunle, told LEADERSHIP Sunday that the whole trip was rooted in an attempt to clear his image.
“I believe discerning Nigerians are not swayed by that visit. It was contrived to help him win political points at a time his credibility is under the spotlight. His political trajectory has been dogged by those allegations and he has been trying to clear himself of it, so we are not decieved by this political gimmick.
As for whether or not the trip will yield results, he said “this is all politics, it is designed to win votes so his motives should be questioned.”
For what it is worth, the direct impact of such visit is what Nigerians hope to see.
