Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has denied allegations that he gave N5 million to former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ghali Na’Abba, to initiate impeachment proceedings against former President Olusegun Obasanjo during their time in office.
Atiku, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), said he could not have orchestrated any impeachment plot against Mr Obasanjo under whom he served as number two man in the country.
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The former vice president denied the allegation in a statement issued on Friday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu..
Mr Obasanjo had, on Thursday, in a letter responding to comments by a former Ogun State Governor, Olusegun Osoba, on the political developments preceding the 2003 general election, alleged that Atiku gave Mr Na’Abba N5 million to commence impeachment proceedings against him during his first term in office.
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The former president also alleged that his deputy attempted to persuade the late speaker to compel him to serve only one term as president.
Atiku served as vice president iunder Mr Obasanjo between 1999 and 2007. Both fell out toward the end of their first term over succession politics.
Atiku’s response
Responding, Atiku questioned why the former president waited until after Mr Na’Abba’s death to make the allegations.
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“If this allegation were true, why did he never make it while Rt. Hon. Na’Abba was alive? Why wait until the only man who could confirm or refute the claim has departed this world? By invoking a deceased man as the principal witness to such a grave allegation, former President Obasanjo has denied Nigerians the opportunity of hearing the other side of the story.
“The late Rt. Hon. Ghali Na’Abba cannot now defend his own integrity or respond to the allegation that he accepted a bribe. It is unfair to his memory and contrary to our cultural values to conscript the dead into contemporary political battles when they no longer have a voice,” the statement said.
The former vice president challenged Mr Obasanjo to provide evidence to support the allegation, urging Nigerians to also demand proof.
“If there was indeed evidence of any criminal conduct as alleged, Nigerians are entitled to ask why no action was taken at the time by a government that wielded the full powers of the Nigerian state,” he said.
‘A 2027 political attack’
Atiku said the timing of the allegation, as political activities ahead of the 2027 general election gather momentum, suggests an attempt to damage his political standing.
“Coming at a time when the political landscape ahead of the 2027 general election is taking shape, the obvious objective is to besmirch my person and reputation and confer an undeserved political advantage on the former President’s kinsman. Nigerians, however, know better. They are too discerning to be distracted by stale allegations resurrected for political convenience,” he said.
He also reiterated that his opposition to Mr Obasanjo originated from his resistance to the former president’s alleged third-term agenda, which he described as unconstitutional.
“My offence was that I stood firmly against the unconstitutional third-term agenda. As a democrat, I chose the path of constitutionalism and the rule of law. Rather than surrender democratic principles on the altar of personal ambition, I defended the Constitution and successfully asserted my rights through the courts in a series of landmark legal victories against a sitting President. Those battles are now part of Nigeria’s democratic history. It is evident that the bitterness arising from that defining period has failed to leave former President Obasanjo,” the former vice president said.
Atiku said he would not be drawn into prolonged exchanges over political disputes from more than two decades ago while Nigeria faces pressing economic and security challenges.
“The task before leaders today is not to rewrite history but to rescue the future. Nigerians are more interested in knowing why food prices continue to soar, why public debt continues to rise despite increased revenues, and why scandal after scandal continues to trail the current administration than in revisiting political disagreements from over two decades ago.”
He urged Mr Obasanjo to openly endorse his preferred candidate for the 2027 presidential election instead of making what he described as baseless allegations.
“If former President Obasanjo has chosen to take a political position ahead of 2027, he should simply declare it and allow Nigerians to judge it on its merits, rather than attempting to influence public opinion through allegations that can no longer be tested because the principal witness is no longer alive.
“Our focus remains unwavering: offering credible alternatives, defending democracy, demanding accountability and working with all patriotic Nigerians to restore competent, transparent and people-centred leadership to our country. Nigerians deserve solutions to today’s problems, not recycled political tales from yesterday,” Atiku stated.
Obasanjo, Na’Abba face-off
Mr Na’Abba was the speaker of the House of Representatives from 1999 to 2003 under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He represented Kano Municipal Federal Constituency of Kano State.
The House under Mr Na’Abba as the fourth citizen had several confrontations with the executive arm led by Mr Obasanjo, as the lawmakers wanted greater independence of the legislative arm.
Matters got to a head in 2002 when the lower chamber commenced move to impeach the president.
In a motion on 13 August, 2002, the House gave Mr Obasanjo two weeks to either resign or face impeachment.
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Some of the impeachment offences against the president were that he failed to implement budgets passed in the previous four years and that the military invaded Odi in Bayelsa State and Zaki Ibiam in Benue State without the approval of the National Assembly.
Mr Obasanjo, who was preparing to seek re-election in 2003, defied the motion, describing it as “a joke taken too far.”
But on 27 August, 2002, the Senate, also dominated by the PDP, the president’s party, threw its weight behind the House’s move.
It, however, took the intervention of some former heads of state, namely Shehu Shagari and Yakubu Gowon, to halt the impeachment process.
In a media interview he granted in 2018, Mr Na’Abba, who was nicknamed “lion” by colleagues for taking on Mr Obasanjo, a former military leader, regretted that the Impeachment process did not go through.
“Really, I regret that the impeachment was not able to go through on the advice of certain former heads of state that we had tremendous respect for,” he said.
The former speaker lost his re-election bid to the National Assembly in 2003. He believed Mr Obasanjo worked against him.
He died at the National Hospital, Abuja, on 27 December 2023 at the age of 65.
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