Tinubu And Atiku: Who Betrayed Who?

In the wake of the deposition hearing in the Chicago Court over the academic records of President Bola Tinubu at the instance of Atiku Abubakar, comments are being drawn about the betrayal of the friendship the two former friends once enjoyed.

After the plea of President Bola Tinubu to a United States court to bar the release of his academic records from the Chicago State University, CSU on account of what he feared would be irreparable damage to him was dismissed, pundits are still out there discerning what that damage could have been.

Debate is still out there on what could have been the smoking gun that made the powerful president of Nigeria resort to that level of desperation to avoid the deposition of last Tuesday.

Whatever irreparable damage that Tinubu feared could arise from the release of his records, one thing is, however, certain, the relationship with Atiku may have suffered irreparable damage.

That relationship despite their sometimes divergent and competitive political aspirations had almost always drawn them together.

It all started around 1989 with the Political Front, PF under the leadership of Major General Shehu Musa Yar`Adua. They then progressed together into the government-established Social Democratic Party, SDP.

Given the circumstances that made the Yoruba political elders reject the PDP in 1998 and go with the AD, Atiku and Tinubu parted ways, as it were, politically at the beginning of the Fourth Republic. However, most people know they remained political soul mates to the extent that as the former vice-president confirmed last Thursday, he stood up to President Olusegun Obasanjo to spare Tinubu’s Lagos in the PDP’s sweep of the Southwest in 2003.

Your correspondent can confirm that elements of the Lagos State-owned media and the political class were part of Atiku’s campaign on the platform of the Action Congress, AC in 2006 up till about early 2007 when they suddenly evaporated.

As we journeyed across the country at that time and shared gossip in the press bus only a few of us could at that time give a reasonable explanation for the sudden disappearance of the bubbling Lagos guys and girls from the campaign convoy.

At that time we dwelt on speculations as to what could have happened. Now, courtesy of Atiku’s press conference last Thursday we can now confirm the reason.

According to Atiku, Tinubu pulled away from him because he refused to pick him as his running mate for the 2007 presidential election. The revelation that Tinubu made a deal with Olusegun Obasanjo or with Umaru Yar`Adua directly is one that is, however, revealing.

Whatever, the two remained until recently, political friends from a distance.

Indeed, when in 2019 the two men met briefly at the Abuja airport there was a buzz about the two friends finally finding common ground in their lifelong aspirations to be president.

Remarkably, the speculations were immediately dismissed by Tinubu’s spokesman at that time, Tunde Rahman. Indeed, there were insinuations at that time that the two men were even at that time business partners.

The declaration of Tinubu as president by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC last February may have consumed whatever was left of their tenuous political relationship. The expense that Atiku put to unravel things that the president claims will cause him irreparable damage is shocking to some.

Tinubu’s aides were indeed the first to speak about betrayal of friendship. Temitope Ajayi, Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity reproached the former vice president for supposedly betraying a man who he claimed offered him political shelter in 2006.

In a post on Twitter on October 4, he said:

“For me, the issue is not whether President Tinubu graduated from Chicago State University or not. It is the fact that former Vice President Atiku is not a decent man.

“Nobody should subject his or her friend to the level of assault and indignity he has subjected President Tinubu to because of earthly position and contestation for power.

“We are talking of a Tinubu that had moved mountains for Atiku in the past. A Tinubu that offered Atiku a shelter when he was thoroughly beaten by rain and stripped naked by President Obasanjo and his party PDP in 2007.

“No friend should become what Ekiti people call ‘aleni mo deyin’, a relentless pursuer like former VP Atiku regardless of the prize!”

That narrative was perhaps what made Atiku to allege that Tinubu was the one who started the betrayal in 2007. Then the reason for the betrayal according to Atiku was his opposition to a Muslim-Muslim ticket. 

Atiku has defended his decision not to run with Tinubu on a Muslim-Muslim ticket as reflective of his liberality. But is Tinubu who is now the focus of criticisms by some Muslims a hardliner in matters of religion?

Indeed, any fight between Atiku and Tinubu on the issue of religion is bound to amuse many. That is because many hardline Muslims do not regard them as serious practitioners of the faith given their tolerance and relationship with people of other faiths. Indeed, Atiku married a Jenifer from Anambra State and the love of Tinubu’s life is a Christian pastor.

Given the fact that 2007 appears to be the point when both men apparently departed from one another, it would be interesting to have one man who should have had intelligence on what transpired at that time to come and arbitrate.

President Obasanjo reasonably could have gotten the intel on the deal between Tinubu and Umaru Yar`Adua prior to 2007. That is if he were not part of the deal.

Meanwhile, as the camps of Atiku and Tinubu fight over betrayal, Nigerians continue to suffer in the face of governance inertia arising from rocketing inflation, and insecurity among others. That reflects the saying that when two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.

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