One year is a long time in politics. Perennial presidential aspirant, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, must be awakening to that reality now. Just last year, he was the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, in the 2019 elections.
At that time, many mortals swore by his mandate and promised to ride or die with him. He was, for these men, the truth and the only way. But when the former Vice President lost the election and relocated to Dubai, some of his most loyal foot-soldiers, faced perhaps with financial hardship, are beginning to jump ship although Atiku has already set machinery in motion to contest again in 2023.
One of Atiku’s main men, Prof Adeolu Akande, who served as his Chief Press Secretary and member of his Atiku Policy Group during the 2007 race which he contested on the platform of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, has now been confirmed as the chairman of the board of commissioners of the National Communications Commission, NCC.
Until his appointment by President Muhammadu Buhari to the Governing Board of NCC, Prof. Akande was the Chairman, Board of National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA). That didn’t come as much shock to observers considering that when Atiku left the All Progressives Congress, APC, for the PDP, Prof. Akande, who once served as Chief of Staff to late former Governor of Oyo State, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, stayed back. But he never wavered in his loyalty and love for Atiku.
The one that came as a shocker was that of Dr. Mohammed Sagagi, until recently the deputy head of Atiku Abubakar’s Policy Team. Sagagi was all over the media in the run-up to the 2019 elections propagating the ideals of Atiku and why he is the best thing that may ever happen to Nigeria. Six months after the election, he was appointed as the vice-chairman, Economic Advisory Council (EAC) by President Buhari. What changed between March and September 2019? Only Atiku and Sagagi can tell.
Like Sagagi, Mustapha Chike-Obi, former Managing Director (MD), Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON), was a die-hard supporter of Atiku. The Federal Government has tapped Mustafa as a Special Envoy. He has been saddled with the responsibility of resolving the issues surrounding the re-election of Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, for second term as President of the African Development Bank (AfDB).
The most shocking of all the people that have abandoned Atiku may be Uyiekpen Giwa-Osagie, a lawyer and legal counsel to Atiku. From the popular Giwa-Osagie family of Edo State, Uyi was a silent force behind Atiku. Everybody that matters know he is the guy to court and defer to if you needed to get anything out of Atiku.
Some even say Uyi virtually controlled the much older man and determined who got what and how close you can be with or get to him. Always everywhere with Atiku, he was among the few that followed him on the controversial trip to Washington DC, U.S.A before the elections.
Uri was, however, arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for money laundering before the election. Multiple sources privy to the news said that one of Uyi’s runners was arrested with over $2million cash ostensibly meant for electoral purposes.
Upon interrogation, the panic-stricken runner confessed that the money was meant for his boss, Uyi. Uyi spent time in EFCC custody and was re-arraigned in March at the Federal High Court in Lagos, alongside his younger brother, Erhunse Giwa-Osagie on a three-count charge.
In one of the counts, the Giwa-Osagies were alleged to have conspired among themselves on February 12, 2019, to make cash payment of the sum of $2million without going through financial institutions.
Uyi’s anger with Atiku, sources said, was that he took the fall for him yet, felt abandoned to his fate as Atiku left for Dubai immediately after the electoral loss. They are reportedly no longer on good terms again. Many more loyal lieutenants of the Waziri are reportedly just biding their time as their principal seems to have abandoned them to their fate.
