A FEDERAL Government delegation to the United States (U.S.) has presented the government’s side of the feud between President Olusegun Obasanjo and his deputy, Atiku Abubakar, to the country’s influential Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).
The interaction between the government’s team led by the Minister of State for Transport (Aviation), Chief Femi Fani-Kayode and the CFR was held in Washington DC at the weekend.
Fani-Kayode, who introduced himself to the group as the presidential envoy on the 2007 elections, assured the leaders that the general elections slated for April would hold.
He said: “The Obasanjo administration is committed towards a successful, credible, free and fair elections in April, this year, so as to transit from one civilian government to another.”
The Pan African News Agency (PANA) reported Fani-Kayode as saying that the government had put the machinery and structures essential for the smooth conduct of the national polls in place, declaring that “any insinuation that there will not be elections is a lie and lacks substance.”
Fani-Kayode restated that “there will be elections and we will not let the world down in our democratic transition and moves to fully consolidate democratic governance in Nigeria. Also, we will put our detractors to shame, because they are saying there will be no elections, while in the contrast, we are prepared for elections in all the elective offices in the country.”
The minister also told the council’s members that “democracy is alive in Nigeria and doing well.”
Last Wednesday, Abubakar, who is on vacation in the U.S., had a teleconference with the CFR, where he expressed misgivings over certain political developments in Nigeria.
A day after Abubakar’s audience with the CFR, Fani-Kayode addressed a press conference at the Nigerian Embassy in Washington DC, where he gave an insight into his US trip.
Nigeria’s Ambassador to the U.S., Professor George Obiozor, on Thursday evening organised a dinner for the minister, a forum that gave him the opportunity to meet with top American government officials, academics and business leaders. The dinner was held at the posh Nigerian House, which also serves as the ambassador’s residence. Incidentally, the venue is a stone throw from Atiku’s Potomac home in Maryland.
All through the evening, from the press conference to the dinner, Fani-Kayode made it clear that he was on a mission to disabuse the minds of the American public and the government of their wrong perception of the Obasanjo administration and the April elections.
Fani-Kayode said with a straight-face that the “President does not kill people, he does not kill political opponents.”
Last week, Abubakar had told the Associated Press (AP) that he had fears for his life. That news report circulated very widely in the U.S., with several Western press reviews perceiving Abubakar’s travails as a fall-out of his opposition to the alleged third term bid of Obasanjo.
The minister also spoke on Obasanjo’s difference with his deputy.
The President, he said, had no other grouse against Abubakar, except that he should be in the same party with him. He told his audience that once Abubakar picked the presidential ticket of another political party, he should vacate his office.
He, however, conceded that the government would allow the courts to determine whether he should remain in office or not.
“We have decided to wait. It is up to the court. Let the court decide and we will take it from there. That is the position of the Federal Government,” he said.
Fani-Kayode explained that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had expressed its views on the matter, that the Vice President’s office be deemed vacant since he left the party that brought him to power.
When asked by reporters after the dinner whether the President intended to stop Abubakar from running in the presidential race as the Vice President had alleged, Fani-Kayode retorted: “Since when did Atiku think he is such a factor? The fundamental issue here is that the rule of law matters. If the law allows somebody to run, why not, but if the law does not that is a matter of the law.”
He added that “the issue was also one of decency versus indecency, loyalty versus disloyalty, right or wrong. It is not that the President does not like him; Atiku should stop pretending.”
Fani-Kayode said he wanted to “disabuse your minds because some of you have been fed with wrong information” in apparent reference to Abubakar’s activities in the U.S.
When asked at the press conference why he was in the U.S. to represent the government instead of the Information Minister or the External Affairs Minister, he replied: “You don’t say because I am Aviation Minister, so I have nothing to say about other sectors. I came here to talk about 2007 elections, it is not the function of any minister.”
In the press invitation sent out, Fani-Kayode was also introduced as a former presidential spokesman.
He maintained that Abubakar’s current campaign was not the reason for his trip to the U.S. Referring to the Vice President by name, he said: “Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is not the reason I will spend 14 hours in the air…there are far more important issues…we want to sustain our friendship with the American people, they are the ones we came to meet and I am delighted with what I see.”
He stated that “there is no good for the Vice President attempting to demonise the President,” adding that he was there to sensitise the key members of the American community to unfolding events, the march towards transition. That is what I came to do as Special Envoy, to talk on 2007 elections. We are very prepared; we’ll have credible elections.”
Founded in 1921, the CFR is an independent, national membership organisation and a non-partisan centre for scholars, dedicated to producing and disseminating ideas so that individuals and corporate members, as well as policymakers, and interested citizens in the U.S. and other countries, can better understand the world and the foreign policy choices facing America and other nations.