Leadership (Abuja)
Danladi Ndayebo
14 October 2007
opinion
It is widely believed that President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua was the PDP candidate preferred by former President Olusegun Obasanjo to succeed him. Fresh facts available to LEADERSHIP Sunday, however, completely controvert that notion. Yar'Adua was only the "decoy" candidate. The candidate preferred by Obasanjo was Dr. Peter Odili, the then governor of Rivers State .
Odili and Obasanjo have had a mutually beneficial relationship since 1999. While the governor of the oil-rich Rivers State made billions of naira available to the former president for his personal use, Obasanjo in turn protected his protégé from the "meddlesome" hands of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). LEADERSHIP Sunday investigations confirm that Obasanjo had, several times, personally restrained Nuhu Ribadu, the EFCC chairman, from doing his job in Rivers State. Obasanjo actually told Odili to work to take over from him. Working hard, in this case, did not mean performance as a governor. It simply meant, in the parlance of politicians, to amass as much money that would be sufficient to buy up the presidency.
Odili himself confided in whoever cared to listen that the president had told him to prepare to take over. He, therefore, deployed the several billions of petronaira monthly allocation to his state to achieve this.
Meanwhile, as a decoy, Obasanjo had also invited Yar'Adua, then the governor of Katsina State , to pick up the PDP presidential nomination form. Even when Yar'Adua complained that he would not be able to raise the huge funds necessary to win even the party primary, not to talk of the main election, the president told him not to bother. Yar'Adua picked the forms and quickly found out that there was no money available for him. The former president, who had instructed all known potential donors (especially the wealthy businessmen he had created) to the Yar'Adua Presidential Campaign to make their donations through him, then sat on the billions of naira being donated. At a point, there was so
much tension in the campaign because of lack of funds. The former president released the donated funds in trickles, occasionally through Commodore Olabode George, but he relied mainly on the PDP governors in the states.
Yar'Adua's choice by Obasanjo as a decoy was understandable. There had been clamour for power to shift back to the North and he knew he had to be seen to be supporting a Northern candidate within the PDP. He knew if he came out openly to support a Southern candidate, the PDP could break after its presidential primary. The other Northern candidates on the field, Governors Ahmed Makarfi, Ahmed Mu'azu and Abdullahi Adamu, together with Professor Jerry Gana, were working very hard and also had resources to back the campaigns and their primaries. The governors had access to state funds, even though theirs were nothing compared to Odili's.
While Gana had the support and deep pocket of General Yakubu Danjuma, one of the nation's wealthiest men, to fall back on, Yar'Adua, on the other hand, had not prepared himself in any way for the challenges of a presidential campaign and definitely didn't have the kind of resources the others had; so it would be easy to defeat him at the primary, Obasanjo thought.
After "picking" Yar'Adua, he then let it be known to all the other candidates, except Odili, that the Katsina State governor was his candidate. He didn't tell them directly; he simply let them read his body language. Those that got the message early enough like Governors Makarfi and Mu'azu dropped out of the race and pitched their tents with Yar'Adua, while others like Abdullahi Adamu was intimidated out of the race. Others like General Aliyu Gusau, a very latecomer into the race, and Jerry Gana found that they were treated by the party as if they were not in the race at all. This was the scenario that the wily General Ibrahim Babangida sensed very early enough and he withdrew from the race.
Meanwhile, Odili was fortifying his edge with the cheap petrodollars available to him. When he discovered the weight of Ribadu's opposition towards him, he approached Nasir el-Rufai and promised making him running mate. El-Rufai is a well-known Ribadu ally and close friend. El-Rufai, who felt demeaned, rebuffed the governor angrily. When it became clear to Nuhu Ribadu and some EFCC chieftains that Obasanjo actually planned to give the PDP ticket to Odili and eventually rig him to power as president, they moved into action. Ribadu then officially drew up a long list of corruption charges against the Rivers State governor (even far worse than that which sent Tafa Balogun, a former inspector-general of police, to prison) and placed it before Obasanjo. The corruption charges involved a misappropriation of nearly N120 billion. Ribadu placed this before Obasanjo and told Obasanjo that such a person should not even be allowed to be a participant in the primary. Obasanjo was deflated and he tried to diplomatically and subtly make the EFCC chairman let go. Ribadu refused and tried to convince the former president that it was not in his (Obasanjo's) interest and the government they all served to be seen working for such a man. The EFCC chairman even hinted that he might consider resignation from the government if Odili was not "persuaded" to drop out. Obasanjo was frustrated.
When Ribadu noticed that Odili was still in the race in spite of what he had discussed with his boss, he raided the Abuja residence of the former Rivers State governor, on a tip-off, on the eve of the PDP presidential primary. That night, EFCC impounded N23 billion from Odili's residence, the bulk of the money he had brought in to buy up delegates to the presidential primary. Several bullion vans came in to cart the money away. On the day of the primary, when it became clear that Yar'Adua would get the ticket after Odili had been crippled, a frustrated Obasanjo called in Ribadu and a few others and told them that Odili would be running mate. Obasanjo was still hell-bent on compensating the Rivers State governor for all his investments in him. But Ribadu still objected. He insisted that Odili was too corrupt for public office. At this point, Obasanjo flared up: "These Northerners, these Northerners, I don't know what is wrong with you Northerners!" he told Ribadu. The EFCC chairman, who was alarmed at the statement, responded by saying: "Mr. President, I thought we are all working for Nigeria?" At this point, Obasanjo lost his cool and gave Nuhu Ribadu a violent slap. This is what, in the Nigerian parlance, is called a "dirty slap". Shocked, the EFCC chairman told the president that Odili would still not be VP.
The former president now quickly summoned Yar'Adua to join them where they were. Ribadu quickly sent a text message via his phone to Nasir el-Rufai, the then influential minister of FCT who was then with Yar'Adua, to inform the Katsina State governor to reject making Odili his running mate if that was why Obasanjo summoned him. El-Rufai gave the governor the message, which was supported by others present, including Ahmed Makarfi, Abba Sayyadi Ruma, then minister of state (education) and now minister of agriculture; Ibrahim Shema, then deputy national chairman of PDP, now Katsina State governor, and a few others.
As expected, when Yar'Adua arrived, Obasanjo ordered him to make Odili his running mate. Yar'Adua characteristically did not make any comment but it was clear to Obasanjo that the new PDP presidential candidate was not going to carry out the instructions. After Yar'Adua left, Obasanjo was left muttering: "These Northerners, these Northerners..."
Goodluck Jonathan was eventually picked as VP because he was the least ambitious and he belongs to a clan of the Ijaw ethnic group, which is the majority ethnic group within the minorities of the South-South.
This explains why, during the presidential campaigns, the former president made at least two attempts to replace Yar'Adua.
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