As an only child, he grew up without a father and learned to fight his own battles from an early age.  Atiku Abubakar, Turaki Adamawa, rose above the challenges of his early life to enjoy an enviable r in the Nigeria Customs Service.

But it is politics that brought him into national limelight since he first took a shot at the Nigerian Presidency in the early 1990s and narrowly missed becoming the standard bearer of the Social Democratic Party. Since then, he has not looked back, at least politically.

He was elected Governor of Adamawa State in 1999 but was never sworn in as fate smiled on him with former President Olusegun Obasanjo picking him as Vice President.

That choice was a turning point for Atiku who quickly grew into perhaps the most powerful VP Nigeria ever had before things literally fell apart between him and Obasanjo. In the midst of the chasm, Atiku’s persona went through a major metamorphosis.

He literally became the ‘face of corruption’ within the Obasanjo administration. With allegations of graft swirling around him, Atiku wrestled his principal in a byzantine game of intrigues until they both left office. But the story of what went wrong has never really been told, at least not in the no -holds -barred tradition of Zero Tolerance.

For many months, we made efforts to make him grant us an interview to tell his own story, but it had been one excuse or the other. But on June 1, 2016, the opportunity came and the team of TONY ORILADE, KAMILU GEBI, AISHA MOHAMMED and POLYCARP SAGA, took him up on sundry issues. Excerpts:

The name Atiku Abubakar cannot be ignored in Nigeria, what makes Atiku tick?

I don’t know, maybe because I’m straightforward, plain and always speak my mind. You see, I’ve been in politics for the last 25 years, and in those years I have fought the military to restore democracy; and after democracy was restored, by the grace of God and support of Nigerians, I was in government for eight years as Vice President. I believe I did my best as a Vice President though there were turbulent political moments; I came out of it and I have continued with my political career and business activities.

I think anybody who has been in either business or politics in the last 25 years must have come across me one way or the other.

From 1999 to 2007 you were the Vice President and it is on record that you fought many judicial battles.

I have always fought injustice since my student days and therefore if I believed I was pursuing a right, just cause, I give it all my strength and courage to make sure I get justice.

Considering the battles that you fought in government, not a few are surprised that you have maintained a respectable relationship with your boss, former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

I still thank God and him for nominating me as his Vice President which gave me the opportunity to experience governance at the highest level. We had political disagreements, quite rightly so. I never shied away from political disagreements; we quarrelled and where we couldn’t make up, it became public knowledge. But I still respect him as my former boss. The fact that we disagreed politically is no reason why we should be at loggerheads all our lifetime.

In any case, as far as politics is concerned I don’t have any enemy; I could have an opponent. Enmity is too strong a word to use in a relationship that is purely political.

Allegation of corruption was your albatross in the race for the presidency in 2006. Is Atiku Abubakar corrupt?

Well, if Atiku Abubakar was corrupt, he would have been found guilty of corruption by all the panels and probes and cases that were brought before the courts. I remember the only corruption indictment against me was a white paper which was cooked up by our own administration overnight including the very EFCC that I helped found, and other cabinet ministers, which I challenged in court. The court rightly dismissed all those indictments as being mere political; and till today nobody has ever indicted me of corruption.

You just mentioned the EFCC as an agency that cooked up a white paper that indicted you of corruption. At that point in time, the Commission was headed by Nuhu Ribadu; how will you describe your relationship with him today?

Well, I recall when he came to ask for my forgiveness, I said if you want me to forgive you Nuhu, go to the same television stations where you said I was corrupt and say you now realize that I am not corrupt. Then he said sir, ‘you have forgiven so many people who have offended you publicly, without them going to TV stations to apologise to you. Why is my own case different?’ I said ‘your case is different because first of all I helped to found the EFCC; I made sure that even when you had no budget, I took money from the privatization council and gave you as a loan so that you can function before the National Assembly approved your budget. I was instrumental to your appointment, so I believe I had contributed to your development and that is what you are now paying me back with’. In any case, he kept apologising and I said ‘okay; no problem’. That closed the chapter.

But you’ve never supported his political aspirations?

No, when we were in the same political party, APC, he came to me and said he has been asked to join PDP and I told him please don’t go to PDP. If you think I might not support your political aspirations in Adamawa, you are wrong. If the people of Adamawa say they want you, I also want you. Not only that, I sent one of his closest friends, Senator Lawal Shuaibu, who is now Deputy Chairman, North, APC, to go and tell Nuhu to please remain in APC and not move to PDP. But eventually he left, so there was never a time when he needed my political support and it was not forthcoming. The point is that I am a true democrat, if he goes through a process and emerges as the choice of the people, I will always support that choice.

Could it be that he doubted your sincerity?

Maybe, but I don’t know. This is what happened between us and I am very straightforward so it was up to him.

The current governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, in his book: “Accidental Public Servant” portrays you as a very corrupt person. Is the book account accurate about your person?

Did he give any evidence or prove where I was corrupt? Again this is the same el-Rufai whom I was instrumental in bringing into government and making him Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, and eventually a minister. You also forgot that it was the same el-Rufai and Nuhu that my boss used in cooking up the indictment that was eventually thrown out.

So, where is the evidence of corruption? It’s just not fair for you to say somebody is corrupt without substantiation. This is the same el-Rufai who testified on TV that he worked with me as DG of BPE for four years and there was never a time I asked him or instructed him to do anything unethical in those years.

So, how am I a corrupt person? This is the same el-Rufai and others who incorporated Transcorp during my time as Vice President and offered me shares and I declined. I wrote them officially to say it was unethical of me to have accepted those offers. So, where is the corruption toga coming from?

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