The Unspoken Conspiracy Between Tinubu And Atiku

Olorogun Festus Keyamo, spokesman of the Bola Tinubu Campaign was in a rage last Tuesday over what he alleged as the conspiracy of the media to cover the alleged misdeeds of Atiku Abubakar. The rage followed spews of a former associate, Michael Achimugu on the use of Special Purpose Vehicles, SPVs to side-track open corruption allegedly during the PDP years in government.

Entering his activist mode, Keyamo even vowed to resign as spokesman of the APC presidential campaign to launch a private campaign to see to the prosecution of Atiku over the alleged misdeeds.

By yesterday, Keyamo still fuming with rage had gone to court to seek an order for the arrest and investigation of Atiku by the Code of Conduct Bureau, Independent Corrupt Practises and other related crimes Commission and also by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

Asked in the interview of his motif, Keyamo kept on insisting that he had a righteous obligation to stop an allegedly corrupt person from becoming Nigeria’s president.

Keyamo is understandably displeased at what he sees as a conspiracy fuming that unlike its focus on the drug allegations and educational qualifications of Tinubu, that the press and civil society have been reluctant to delve into the SPV issues pertaining to Atiku.

The way Keyamo has huffed and puffed these past few days over the Atiku issue reminds many of his earlier days as an activist. Indeed, he testified to that in the interview with Channels Television on Tuesday night.

Among his notable actions as a younger activist at the beginning of the Fourth Republic was keying-in to the judicial actions led by the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi on the undefined educational qualifications of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the APC presidential candidate who Keyamo now speaks for.

That world is now long gone by, and the APC presidential campaign spokesman would want to believe that his followers have forgotten his actions.

Remarkably, the Atiku campaign has been flummoxed over the irritation from Keyamo. Like an ant stuck to the scrotum, the Atiku crowd have been reacting with all sorts of confusion.

Given the audio and paper evidence on display, many of the spokesmen have had a difficult task explaining both the voice and the relationship.

Initially, Senator Dino Melaye used bravado saying that Michael Achimugu was never a media aide insisting that he would not respond to him again. But the Tinubu team persisted and kept bringing the issue to discourse.

The normally articulate and convincing Daniel Bwala came on television on Wednesday and was considerably below par in his elocution.

Following him, Atiku was forced to address the matter on Thursday in a statement he personally signed where he vowed that he would not be brought down to the level of his competition. However, he did not mention the relationship with Achimugu.

It was that same day that Tinubu speaking in a townhall in Lagos vowed to fight corruption.

So, with Tinubu already now donning the garment of an anti-corruption fighter, it seemed as if Atiku’s belated and half-hearted response was of no measure.

Yesterday, another PDP partisan, Ilemona Onoja, a former aide of Senator Bukola Saraki made about the best defence for Atiku in an AIT Kakaki programme.

As Mr Onoja said, the truth is that the SPVs and particularly Marine Float have been comprehensively investigated both by the investigative agencies and the Senate.

Though Onoja edged away from it, the fact is that the most that Keyamo can get is a moral indictment of Atiku over the alleged use of the SPVs. That indictment would of course be a collective guilt on the PDP and maybe, President Obasanjo.

However, Onoja’s point which is also a fact is that the later day activism of Keyamo is distracting from the perhaps more damaging allegations that have been raised against the APC candidate.

The fact of an indictment over drugs, mental and physical capacity and other allegations raised against Tinubu have now been supressed as Keyamo tries to focus the media and the electorate on the issues around their rival, Atiku.

Remarkably, one of the SPVs supposedly mentioned by Keyamo is Marine Float, to which former Governor Joshua Dariye was said to have contributed N100 million and for which he was jailed.

Remarkably, the Muhammadu Buhari government in which Keyamo serves, pardoned Dariye of that act.

So, one may then ask the APC the moral scruples it is weighing to fight Atiku.

Of course, Nigeria has seen this before, albeit under the military era when Godwin Daboh and Joseph Tarka did their tit for tat. “If you Daboh me, I Tarka you,” as the saying went then.

Atiku Tinubu Business Conspiracy

What is odious in the exchanges between the PDP and APC presidential candidates is that none of them have been made to speak out on the issues levelled against them personally. They have used media men and surrogates who have limited knowledge of the issues involved to speak.

Just as your correspondent believes that Atiku coming out to speak would save his media men from their stammering on television, Tinubu coming out to speak or answer questions as to the confiscation of his money by US authorities and other issues would save the polity from the circus the two men have spurned on account of their past activities.

Indeed, it is unbelievable that in this period in history that Nigeria is being presented with two major candidates who cannot debate the issues between the two of them.

Remarkably, Atiku and Tinubu despite the quarrel between their agents remain business partners who in the night would be sharing memos on their joint ventures and SPVs. That is the conspiracy.

Send Us A Press Statement Advertise With Us Contact Us

 And For More Nigerian News Visit GWG.NG