Thread by @dejioladoye

ATIKU’S LIES (PART 1)

The Claim:

Atiku claims he ran the Nigerian Economy as Vice President under President Obasanjo.

The Truth:

#Thread

2/ Obasanjo did not have an Economic Team until Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala became Minister of Finance in 2003.

3/ In her book, Reforming the Unreformable, 2012, she writes (page 8): “I flew to Nigeria in May 2003 to discuss the scope of my job and to get President Obasanjo’s agreement on the formation of a Presidential Economic Team.

4/ The President readily agreed to the team, noting that I would lead it and he would preside over it as Chair.” On Page 151, she lists the members of the Presidential Economic Team (the original 13 members and the 9 who joined later).

5/ She is listed as “Chair”, Dr Bright Okogu is “Executive Secretary”. Vice President Atiku Abubakar is not on the list. He was neither the Head nor a member of the Economic Team. The facts are available for all to see.

6/ Virtually all of what you might consider the major economic achievements of the OBJ administration – EFCC, Pension Reform, Power Sector Reform & the NIPP, Debt Relief –happened in the administration’s 2nd Term, during which Atiku had no real say in the running of the economy.

7/ By then Obasanjo had seen the true nature of Atiku – disloyal, corrupt and self-serving – and had begun the process of side-lining him. Without Atiku’s strangling hold on the treasury, the economy actually performed better.

8/ Atiku’s biggest role in the Obasanjo 1st Term was as Chairman of the National Council on Privatisation (NCP), which set the agenda and made the decisions regarding privatising state-owned companies (BPE’s role was to implement these decisions).

9/ Atiku’s biggest legacy from that period (the Obasanjo 1st Term) is selling state-owned companies to himself and his friends, many of them serving as fronts for him.

10/ One of the best-known examples is African Petroleum, which he sold to Peter Okocha’s little-known Sadiq Petroleum (Okocha is a staunch Catholic who purportedly ran a company known as 'Sadiq' Petroleum - go figure!).

11/ Within a few years the AP deal had run into trouble, unsurprisingly. The scandals involving Atiku and PDTF/Williams J. Jefferson/NDTV/iGate also happened during the Obasanjo 1st Term…

12/ ...towards the end, to be precise – when Atiku was desperate about amassing funds to challenge Obasanjo to the PDP presidential ticket (more on that penchant for disloyalty later).

13/ Throughout his tenure as Vice President, Atiku’s greatest talent and legacy lay in pursuing corrupt and self-serving deals like these.

14/ The US Senate Report that indicts him notes that between 2000 and 2008 he laundered $40m in stolen funds through US banks, using one of his wives as a front.

15/ The Takeaway:

So, remember, every time he says ‘ATIKU MEANS JOBS’, what he really means is ‘ATIKU MEANS JOBS-FOR-THE-BOYS.’

[Watch out for PART 2 of ATIKU'S LIES]