Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has had a long and notable career in Nigerian politics. As he makes his 6th attempt at the presidency, a venture he’s set out to achieve since 1992, we look back at his rise to politics, from a villager to a well-known household name.
On 19 November 1982, over 40 aeroplanes carrying VIPs and well-wishers touched down in the sleepy town of Yola to honour two men: a federal minister and an obscure 36-year-old customs officer, both of whom were being installed with traditional titles by the Lamido of Adamawa, one of the most influential kings in Northern Nigeria.
This 36-year-old customs officer named Atiku Abubakar had left the town as a mere village boy and joined the customs service in 1969. However, within just 13 years, he had become one of the most senior customs officers in the country and was being named the ‘Turaki Adamawa’, a traditional title that had hitherto been exclusively reserved for princes.
With the conferment of this title and a marriage to the king’s daughter, this unknown customs officer was on the pages of national newspapers. “Who is he?” the main opposition party led by Chief Obafemi Awolowo said. Aware of Atiku’s rising popularity in Yola, an upcoming politician, Bamanga Tukur, picked Atiku – who was still a public servant – to help him with his governorship campaign.
Atiku used his wide connections in the state along with his financial muscle to boost Tukur’s chances, helping him to emerge victorious in the 1983 polls. With his new title, his fame and influence began to spread while his network of wealthy friends expanded. He would eventually rise to become Nigeria’s vice- president in 1999.
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Humble beginnings
The journey to the top was not a smooth one for the village boy who lost his father at the age of eight. He was raised by his mother and aunt, who were poor, but managed to send him to school where he made friends, some of whom would become successful Nigerians like Admiral Murtala Nyako, who later became the chief of Naval Staff and then governor of Adamawa State.
However, his life story changed when he joined the customs service in 1969 at the peak of the civil war and was posted to the busy Idiroko border in Lagos in 1971. Atiku claims that at the border, he noticed that the transport business was lucrative.
“[…] I asked myself how I can seize the opportunity of this moving business. I came over to Lagos and in those days SCOA were the sole distributors of Peugeot, so I went to SCOA and I signed a hire-purchase agreement and bought four of those pickups and gave them to four different drivers and every day they will bring their returns to me and at the end of the month, I will go to SCOA and pay them,” said Atiku in 2017.
Exploiting opportunities in his work environment became the hallmark of Atiku’s customs career and the foundation of his wealth. Critics, however, point out that it was illegal to run businesses while also serving as a public officer.
Atiku was posted back to the northeast in the late 1970s and with an expanding family and rising financial demands, he decided to go into large scale farming. In 1981, he obtained a bank loan and established the Gersir Derbirabe farms on 2,500 hectares of land off Yola where he grew mostly grain and cotton. He reportedly became the largest maize farmer in the entire state, producing
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10,000 bags of maize a year, but he later leased the farm to the wealthy Indian- Nigerian Chanrai family, which had been operating in Nigeria for over seven decades. Today, he still operates this farm.
The big bang
By 1982, when Atiku was the head of the Apapa port customs unit, Atiku was already wealthy. However, his wealth reached unimaginable heights after he forged a partnership with Nigerian Italian, Gabriel Volpi, and they set up an oil and gas logistics firm: Nigeria Container Services (NICOTES).
“NICOTES would transform Atiku from a struggling civil servant and businessman to a fabulously wealthy man,” his late aide, Adinoyi-Ojo Onukaba, once said.
“They would import cars and come and hand over the documents to me
In 2017 alone, the firm that now goes by the name Intels, earned $132.9m – within the first nine months of the year – through fees it generated for providing services to vessels on behalf of the federal government.
Years later, in 1996, he co-founded the auxiliary firm PRODECO Nigeria Limited that operates in Nigeria with two companies: Prodeco (Property Development Company) operating within the main territory of Nigeria; and
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Prodeco International, operating in Oil and Gas Free Zones. Prodeco also engages in building, marine, and infrastructural construction for various clients in the oil and gas industry.
Big connections
In the course of his customs job, he met the late Shehu Musa Yar’Adua who had been Nigeria’s de facto vice president during the military administration in the late 1970s. As a senior customs officer, he played an advisory role in helping Yar’Adua to get an import licence and this made them very close friends. Years later, he would introduce Atiku to national politics. So close was the duo that Atiku would later name one of his sons after Shehu Yar’Adua.
Another person he befriended was business tycoon, Mai Ahmad Deribe, one of the richest men in Nigeria who arguably built the most magnificent house in Nigeria, modelled after the Taj Mahal. This edifice would play host to King Juan Carlos I of Spain in 1986 and the Prince and Princess of Wales in 1990.
Deribe’s personal assistant, Mohammed Indimi (now one of Nigeria’s wealthiest men), happened to be a friend of Atiku whom he met in 1974.
Soon afterwards, Atiku’s relationship with Deribe blossomed as he helped the business tycoon to import tons of goods while he was stationed at the Apapa port at the time. He soon became Atiku’s mentor and Atiku even admitted to naming one of his own children after Ahmad Deribe.
Atiku’s job also brought him in touch with many senior army officers who would later hold key positions in the country. For instance, in the mid 1970s, he met Ibrahim Babangida and helped him import a BMW car. Babangida would become head of state after a coup in 1985.
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“They would import cars and come and hand over the documents to me. I paid [the] duties on those cars from my pocket. What could I do? They were all my friends,” Atiku recalled.
Another close friend is Otunba Oyewole Fasawe, whom Atiku guided in setting up a clearing agency. Fasawe would also become an illustrious businessman and one the president’s confidantes. This was also how he met business tycoon Peter Okocha.
Political titan
After resigning from customs on 28 April 1989, Atiku joined a political group known as the People’s Front led by Yar’Adua. The group would later metamorphose into the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the short-lived third republic in the early 90s.
Eager to protect his business from military interference, Atiku decided to give Yar’Adua (a retired general) a stake in NICOTES (Intels). Other influential Nigerians, including an emir, were added to the board too for this purpose.
According to Atiku, the huge funds from this company were used in funding the SDP and Yar’Adua’s nationwide presidential campaign. About 15 years later, Yar’adua’s younger brother – President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua – would approve one of Intels’ largest contracts ever.
On the political front, things didn’t go as planned as the Head of State, General Babangida, who had now been nicknamed the ‘evil genius’, continued to interfere in the democratic transition. He disqualified Atiku from contesting for the governorship of Gongola State after Atiku had won the SDP governorship primary under controversial circumstances. He also disqualified Yar’Adua from running for president even though he had won the SDP primary. Yar’Adua would later support Atiku for the presidency since the latter was eligible to run.
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“Atiku brought Oyewole Fashawe, his old friend from Apapa ports to work with him in sourcing for quick business with high returns
To win, however, Atiku would have to defeat a newcomer – albeit billionaire businessman – MKO Abiola and Ambassador Babagana Kingibe, a mountain he would not be able to climb. He eventually stepped down for MKO on the promise that he would be picked as running mate. However, MKO picked Kingibe to satisfy the interests of governors. He eventually won that election.
During that political season, the Atiku family established ABTI schools and later ABTI American University, as well as the Sub-Saharan Press, publishers of The Week magazine.
Dark days
After the annulment of the presidential election that Abiola won, the country was plunged into a crisis and Babangida was forced out of office. This paved the way for the emergence of General Sani Abacha, who led Nigeria with an iron fist for five years.
During these dark days, Atiku remained with his mentor, Yar’Adua, and they set up a group known as the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM). They refused to work with Abacha despite overtures from Atiku’s old friend, Aliyu Gwarzo,
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a retired police officer who had been appointed as Abacha’s national security adviser.
In a bid to punish Yar’Adua and Atiku, Abacha went after NICOTES, their cash cow. He got them removed from the board and renamed the firm as Integrated Logistics Services Nigeria Limited (Intels). Abacha also nominated one of the Chagoury brothers to represent him on the board while his aides were also included, taking dividends running into millions of dollars, which ought to have been paid to Atiku and Yar’Adua. However, Volpi, who retained control of Intels, continued to protect the interests of Atiku and Yar’Adua and funnelled money to them through an obscure arrangement.
Eventually, Yar’Adua was arrested on trumped up charges of coup plotting. After Yar’Adua’s arrest, Atiku and Fasawe were said to have gone to Obasanjo to warn him of his impending arrest. They were with Obasanjo at his farm in Ota Ogun State when Abacha’s men stormed in and arrested Obasanjo. Eventually both Yar’Adua and Obasanjo would be convicted for coup plotting and sentenced to life in prison by the Abacha junta.
While in prison, Yar’Adua was barred from receiving guests who were not blood relatives. Atiku would accompany Yar’Adua’s younger brother, Umaru, to prison to visit him. This tragedy deepened the bond between Atiku and Umaru who would later become president in 2007. Yar’Adua eventually died in prison in December 1997 after contracting HIV.
PDP financier
After Abacha’s demise in June 1998, Nigeria began a transition to democratic rule. Atiku and his PDM movement collapsed their structure into the newly formed Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He donated N100m ($4.76m at the
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time) to the party as a take-off fund and also made a two-year down payment for the party’s office rent.
Atiku also played a pivotal role in the search for a presidential candidate. Atiku’s PDM along with some ex-generals and northern leaders, including Babangida and General Aliyu Gusau, settled for Obasanjo – who had just been released from prison – and funded his campaign.
“Obasanjo did not have the resources to run a campaign.
“Obasanjo did not have the resources to run a campaign. He did not hide this from those who drafted him into the race. His businesses were not doing well, and he emerged from jail after three years, three months and three days.
“He was in debt. Atiku brought Oyewole Fashawe, his old friend from Apapa ports to work with him in sourcing for quick business with high returns, which they could do and use the proceeds to address the personal needs of the presidential candidate,” Atiku’s biographer says.
Powerful VP
After their victory at the poll, Obasanjo and Atiku were inaugurated on 29 May 1999, having inherited a country on the verge of collapse due to unprecedented corruption and western sanctions. One of the plans to boost the economy was to privatise some government assets.
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As vice president, Atiku oversaw the National Council on Privatisation (NCP). As chairman, he brought in many from the private sector or multilateral agencies, such as Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Kekere Ekun, Chukwuma Soludo, Bode Augusto and Ifueko Omoigui. The most notable, however, was Nasir El-Rufai who he convinced Obasanjo to appoint as the head of the Bureau of Public Enterprise.
“Atiku is a child of destiny
The privatisation exercise would however be accused of corruptly selling off government properties to cronies at controversially low prices. This affected Atiku’s reputation.
He has also been named in various corruption cases including one which was investigated by the United States Senate that led to the imprisonment of American congressman, William Jefferson. After the case, Atiku was unable to visit the US until 2019.
In the tail end of their first term, Atiku’s relationship with Obasanjo turned sour amid reports that Atiku was planning to upstage Obasanjo and emerge as the presidential candidate of the PDP.
They eventually contested on a joint ticket for a second term, but things soon degenerated between the two and many would abandon Atiku for President Obasanjo, including El-Rufai, his former protégé.
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Atiku was rendered redundant and frustrated out of the party amid purported plans by Obasanjo to amend the constitution and run for a third term in office.
He joined the newly formed opposition party Action Congress, led by Tinubu, and launched an unsuccessful presidential bid.
While he got weaker politically, he continued to blossom on the financial side. Shortly after the ban on the importation of water and pre-packaged fruit juice, Atiku established Adama beverages limited, manufacturers of Faro water in the early 2000s. The company boasted being the largest producer of water and fruit juices in northern Nigeria.
Last attempt?
Atiku contested for the presidency again in 2011, 2015 and 2019 but lost. At 76, it is believed that this will be Atiku’s last shot at the presidency. Several ex- generals are part of his campaign while some of his long-time allies are still in his corner. His campaign team believes his successful business track record and age-old alliances could boost his chances at the poll.
Although local media reported that Atiku sold off his stakes in Intels for about $100m, after the firm’s lucrative contracts were revoked by the Buhari administration, Atiku is still believed to be very wealthy and even set up the successful Rico Gidao livestock feed company after leaving office. Among his assets are properties in highbrow areas like Ikoyi in Lagos; Maitama in Abuja, properties in Dubai, a private jet and mansions in Yola. He is said to be the largest employer of labour in Adamawa State, second only to the state government.
However, his opponents believe his time has passed and he should give it a rest. Festus Keyamo, a spokesman for the presidential campaign of the ruling All
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Progressives Congress (APC), says Atiku’s life story shows how a public servant abused his office and made himself stupendously wealthy.
“Our candidate, Bola Tinubu, has a track record of success, which reflected in his performance as governor of Lagos State. He worked at Deloitte, Mobil and Arthur Andersen before joining politics, but Atiku worked only as a customs officer and retired as a wealthy man,” Keyamo says.
“[…] Atiku worked only as a customs officer and retired as a wealthy man
However, the director of media at the Atiku Campaign Organisation, Dele Momodu, thinks otherwise. Momodu believes Atiku is a “child of destiny” and that his victory will be a reflection of the 12 June 1993 struggle, which Yar’Adua and MKO died for.
Momodu tells The Africa Report that while Atiku has been accused of corruption several times, he has never been charged with any crime let alone convicted.
“Nobody has been able to point at one thing that he stole. I have done my research. If Atiku had stolen government money, he would have been prosecuted and convicted,” the Ovation Publisher says.
Momodu says: “Atiku is a child of destiny. Next year will be the 30th anniversary of the June 12, 1993 election, which MKO and Yar’Adua died for.”
Africa Report