Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has confirmed for the first time that his boss and former president Olusegun Obasanjo actually wanted a limitless term but he opposed him.
Similarly, Atiku has opened up on the seeming lingering quarrel with current Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-rufai and the former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commison, Nuhu Ribadu, whom he claims to have brought into the government of President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Atiku claimed that the two men, who allegedly connived to work against him, had refused to show any form of appreciation to him, despite his disposition to them.
He also gave the reason Ribadu must go on public television to avow that he was not a corrupt person in order to earn his forgiveness.
Atiku’s claims are contained in the current edition of the EFCC Magazine, Zero Tolerance released in Abuja yesterday.
The former Vice President denied allegations that he was corrupt, claiming that if he was, he would have been convicted before now. He also said he had become popular among Nigerians, having held sway in politics for over 25 years.
He said: “My offence was simply that I disagreed with him on the amendment of the Constitution to remove tenure or term limits or what was popularly called third term agenda. In fact, Obasanjo sent the then Attorney General of the Federation, and Jerry Gana to my office to bring me the draft of the amendments to the constitution.
“After going through, I found out that tenure limits had been removed. In other words, he could be president for life. I now asked them, ‘if I send you to the President can you deliver this message’? And they said ‘yes’. I said ‘go and tell him I will not support it and I will fight it.”