2007: Atiku Bounces Back
FROM MARTINS OLOJA, Abuja Bureau Chief
THINGS is no doubt, shaping up for good once again for the presumed out-of-favour Vice President Atiku Abubakar.
In the last week alone, the Turakin Adamawa has sufficiently shored up his perceived poor standing in his boss, President Olusegun Obasanjo's estimation.
The Vice President is said to have finally been allowed access into certain "very critical areas" of the President's authority; particularly, the Armed Forces.
As a Presidency source told The Guardian at the weekend, "for the first time since 1999, the President literally allowed the Vice President into one of the two areas he (the President) has exclusively reserved for himself: the military and international relations."
Last week, while the President was in Ethiopia for the AU Summit, he allowed the Vice President to deck himself in army uniform as 'Commander-in-Chief' during the Army Day celebration in Bauchi."
Besides, Atiku has bounced back as chairman of the National Privatisation Council (NCP), a position he had lost a few months ago in the wake of a new bill the President sent to the National Assembly, to strengthen the privatisation programme, as a key element in the administration's economic policy.
Presidency observers noted at the weekend that a lot had happened between the time the NCP Bill was sent to the National Assembly, and the time the NCP was reconstituted on Friday.
"The master plan was to get the Finance Minister, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as chairperson of the NCP. But now, Atiku is back as approved by the President," stated one of the observers.
Putting the two events in perspective, another Presidency source stated that Vice President Abubakar's acting as Commander-in-Chief, and his re-appointment as chairman of the NCP, were "part of the critical elements in the new deal of rapprochement in the Presidency."
"In political parlance, that is a pointer that the President, who had never allowed Atiku in the capacity of Commander-in-Chief for the past five years and two months, must have taken Atiku back as a dependable and loyal deputy.
"And that message can be decoded to mean that the Turakin has really returned to favour; as well as a warning signal for the political battle ahead in 2007," the source said.
It was learnt that President Obasanjo had been warming up to the Vice President "unusually and consistently" in the last two months.
It was revealed that the President's positive disposition towards Atiku reached a crescendo during the consultation Obasanjo had with topshots of the PDP over the expediency of an emergency rule in Plateau State recently. Obasanjo had reportedly consulted intensely with his Vice President on the isssue.
It was gathered within the Presidency that the Vice President himself is surprised at the rate of consultations the President now has with him, "which has not been the case since their re-election last year."
The President has reportedly been delegating sensitive functions to the Vice President.
Before Atiku was re-appointed as chairman of the NCP last Friday, another Presidency source had disclosed that the President was considering re-appointing him "when he signs the new Bill on NCP into law."
But while the Presidency appears to be putting its house in order, alleged adversaries outside have perfected plans "to pull down Atiku" before the 2007 preliminaries gather steam.
Code-named 'Operation-Destroy Atiku (ODA),' a seven-page document made available to The Guardian contains a comprehensive and chronological order of how the campaigns will be executed through seminars and workshops, feedback mechanism, media campaigns, orchestrated protests, posters, pamphlets and leaflets.
The strategy paper, written in poor grammar and with neither address nor addressee, begins with seminars and workshops method in the planned campaign.
According to the position paper, "the seminar/workshops, which will be arranged to hold in each of the four (sic) geopolitical zones of the country, will flag off a national debate on the ills of a Vice President whose role has made anti-corruption posture of the government a laughing stock, or at best a mere lip service to the determination to rid the nation of corruption."
On the feedback column of the talkshop approach, the strategists said, "we should expect reactions, which will lead to the next stage," the media campaign.
In this connection, the campaign paper proposes: "News stories will be sponsored strategically in various newspapers across the country. This will create a necessary anti-Atiku feeling all over the country."
Besides local news media, the strategists listed the VOA and BBC Hausa Service as organs to be used in the campaign, which might culminate in an "impeachment move" and use of an "ex-wife" of the Vice President to testify against him.
Accordingly, the media campaigns in the selected eight newspapers will also include covers and lead stories on alleged "scandals such as VP's homosexuality, his partners in and outside Nigeria."
A rider to the media campaign is that "these newspapers shall carry editorials while efforts will be made to contract major and respected columnists."
The position paper reveals that "already a select group of seasoned media practitioners and unionists have been contacted."
The media campaign strategy is followed by what they call "orchestrated protests."
Meanwhile, the strategy paper recognised Atiku's political clout for the 2007 campaigns.
Hence it stated that, "unless something extraordinary happens Vice President Atiku Abubakar will contest the 2007 general elections for the office of the President."
Contacted on the issue, aides of the Vice President said they were aware of the strategy paper on their boss.
But Dr. Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo, Senior Special Assistant, Media and Publicity to the Vice President, who spoke with The Guardian said: "The Vice President will not lose a sleep over the paper being circulated. He only hopes that Nigerians will take these strategy paper items for what they are: junk."
