Onomavwe EgeOn Tinubu and Atiku, Harvay Mackay’s popular quote – “You can’t buy a good reputation; you must earn it,” will probably make a goob beginning for this analysis.
Presidential candidate of the crisis-torn Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar was in the news again for the wrong reasons when he infamously declared that “As Custom Officer, I Blocked You From Bringing Hard Drugs To Nigeria.” He was attacking APC Flag Bearer, Bola Tinubu.
In the above story, which was largely reported in the media, Atiku stated that while serving as Deputy Director of Customs in charge of Enforcement and Drugs, he stopped the ruling APC candidate and others from bringing hard drugs into the country.
The statement read, “Tinubu’s frustration is quite understandable given the fact that in 1989 while Atiku, a Federal officer, was serving as the Deputy Director of Customs in charge of Enforcement and Drugs and was protecting the country’s borders from smugglers and drug dealers, Tinubu was in bed with two notorious drug kingpins, Muiz Akande and Abiodun Agbele.
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“American authorities revealed that Akande took Tinubu to First Heritage Bank where he opened an account for himself and his wife Oluremi in 1989. While opening the account, the Lagos godfather revealed in documents that he worked with Mobil Nigeria Limited and his salary was $2,400 and he had no other sources of income. But records from his First Heritage Bank account showed that in 1990, he deposited $661,000 into his individual money market account and in 1991 deposited $1,216,500 into the same money market account.
“In a bid to protect their reputation, Mobil representatives told US authorities that even though Tinubu was a treasurer, he had no direct access to the company’s cash and thus could not deposit funds on behalf of the firm. Till date Tinubu has not been able to explain to any human being how he was able to save over $1.8 million from his monthly pay of $2, 400. Luckily for him, he was able to negotiate a deal with the US government which saw him forfeit over $460,000 in cash. Yet this is the same man that is taking the moral high ground, this must be the joke of the century. This is a man whose entire life is built on falsehood. He is not even brave enough to reveal the primary and secondary schools he attended for fear of the avalanche of dirt that will be unearthed about his life.”
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But Atiku Abubakar and Bola Tinubu are two sides of the same coin, with alleged odious past, who are sadly, permanent fixtures in the plague that has held Nigeria down since the dawn of this republic in 1999, and should have no place in a nation in dire need of rebirth and renewal.
According to a Bloomberg report, the duo’s past records shows that neither of them is free of corruption allegations. According to the report, the history of graft allegations surrounding the two candidates means neither is likely to curb corruption as we gradually approach February 25 when Nigerians will vote to choose a new President to succeed President Buhari.
According to Bloomberg, Bola Tinubu was being investigated by the country’s anti-corruption agency as recently as June 2021. Three decades ago he fought a lawsuit in which the US government accused him of laundering the proceeds of heroin trafficking and eventually reached a settlement.
Conversely, according to Bloomberg, “Atiku Abubakar brought tens of millions of dollars of ‘suspect funds’ into the US when he was Nigeria’s vice president in the 2000s, according to a US Senate report, and was implicated in a bribery case that resulted in the imprisonment of an American congressman.”
Tinubu and Atiku
According to Reuters, Atiku Abubakar featured prominently in the corruption trial of former U.S. Representative William Jefferson, who was accused of trying to bribe Atiku in an effort to expand a technology business in Nigeria. Jefferson was convicted in 2009 and sentenced to 13 years in prison. His sentence was subsequently reduced.
Reuters also reported that “separately U.S. Senate investigators in 2010 alleged that one of Atiku’s four wives helped him transfer more than $40 million in “suspect funds” into the United States from offshore shell companies. At least $1.7 million of that money was bribes paid by German technology company Siemens AG, according to Senate investigators. Siemens pleaded guilty to bribery charges in 2008 and agreed to pay a $1.6 billion fine.”
For Tinubu, being deeply associated with drug peddling that destroys millions of lives yearly is very worrisome. In damaging reports in the media, all of which are yet to be refuted by Bola Ahmed Tinubu, his family, APC Presidential campaign council, Bola Tinubu was exposed during a sting operation on a white heroin drug cartel in Chicago on November 28, 1990, when a member of that cartel, by name Abiodun Agbele, was nabbed in a federal sting operation wherein he sold $7000 worth of heroin to an undercover FBI agent. His testimony led to a federal case against multiple Nigerian members of his cartel, of whom Bola Tinubu’s name was mentioned.
It has now been judicially established beyond all reasonable doubt that Bola Tinubu was indicted as a co-defendant in a federal case involving white heroin drug cartel.
Not only was he indicted, he was fingered as the bag man for a drug cartel. And rather than fight those charges, Bola Ahmed Tinubu agreed to forfeit a colossal sum of $460,000 to the US government in 1993.
What does Tinubu’s agreement to forfeit a whopping $460,000 mean?
According to legal experts, forfeiture is equivalent to a conviction, in the sense that the accused is not fighting the charges against him/her on their merits, and has rather reached a plea bargain.
In fact, Bola Tinubu, according to court documents, opened an account and named a known drug baron as someone with whom he shared an address. Also, the indictment upon which Bola Tinubu was charged showed that he (Tinubu) was an active associate of the drug cartel, and that he was a known associate of Mueez Akande, fingered as the head of the cartel, and had shared living accommodation with him.
According to a national daily, “having a man with judicially established links to a white heroin drug cartel, such as Bola Tinubu, as President, is a serious national security risk. He will be vulnerable to blackmail from foreign intelligence agencies.”
Attempting to vote for either Atiku Abubakar or Bola Ahmed Tinubu will amount to turning our beloved country into the butt of jokes in the international community by electing persons with such history as our President.
Mr. Ege wrote from Warri
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