Before his death in 2010, President
Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was planning to
serve a single term in office in view of
his debilitating health, a new book by
former Minister of the Federal Capital
Territory (FCT), Mallam Nasir el-Rufai,
has revealed.
The book, titled “The Accidental Public
Servant”, detailed how the late president
in September 2009 consulted a
prominent and influential emir from the
North to assist him in finding a
successor since he would not be able to
run for office again because of his
failing health.
When asked those he would want to
succeed him, the book revealed that the
late Yar’Adua wrote a list containing
four names: First Lady, Turai Yar’Adua;
the then Kwara State Governor and
Chairman, Nigerian Governors’ Forum
(NGF), Dr. Bukola Saraki, as well as Kebbi
State Governor, Alhaji Saidu Dakingari,
and his Bauchi State counterpart,
Mallam Isa Yuguda. Both Dankigari and
Yuguda are married to the late
Yar’Adua’s daughters.
The book also uncovered the third term
plot executed to get former President
Olusegun Obasanjo another four-year
tenure in office by amending the 1999
Constitution to remove the two-term
limit and how the former president
worked to undermine the chances of the
then acting President Goodluck Jonathan
in being elected president in the 2011
general election.
Despite his serial denials that he was
not interested in tenure extension, the
book noted that Obasanjo actively
worked behind the scene for a third
term agenda that would have made him
spend 12 years in power.
el-Rufai, a key member of Obasanjo’s
inner cabinet, in the book detailing his
experience in government, revealed how
the idea of the third term agenda came
about and the manoeuvrings by both
the supporters and the antagonists of
the plot.
el-Rufai, who was the Director-General
of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE)
before he was appointed minister during
Obasanjo’s second term, in the book also
revealed the scheming by top
government officials as well as their
friends and associates in cornering the
nation’s patrimony during the
privatisation of public enterprises under
his watch.
The book, which he described as neither
his autobiography nor a memoir,
uncovers the shenanigans of those
entrusted with the nation’s resources
and why corruption thrives in the
public sector.
It also detailed the emergence of
Yar’Adua and his Bayelsa State
counterpart, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, as
Obasanjo’s successor and deputy
respectively, and how the former
president’s plan turned awry as he and
Yar’Adua fell out. As such, he was in
constant fear that his successor could
order his arrest to answer for his
stewardship.
In recounting the meeting between
Yar’Adua and the unnamed emir, el-
Rufai wrote: “On his way out, the emir
was ambushed by Turai who wanted to
know if Yar’Adua had included her on
the list of potential successors.
“The emir was a little shocked, but went
on to confirm that. Turai thanked him
and suggested that she was the only
person that could be trusted with
Umaru’s legacy, as the mother of his
children.”
On the third term plot, el-Rufai wrote
that Obasanjo while denying that he
was interested in tenure extension to
others, had another group working for
the actualisation of the agenda and who
periodically briefed him on developments.
It was a grand plot, with foot soldiers
such as former Chairman, Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) Board of
Trustees (BoT), Chief Tony Anenih;
former PDP National Chairman, Dr.
Ahmadu Ali; former PDP National
Secretary, Chief Ojo Maduekwe; former
Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu;
and Dr. Dalhatu Sarki Tafida, ready to do
the dirty work.
Funds for the execution of the project,
which included bribing lawmakers, were
to be sourced from ministries,
government parastatals, governors and
Lagos-based businessmen with
Obasanjo’s Special Assistant on Domestic
Affairs, Andy Ubah, acting as the
conduit. Each senator was to receive N75
million and each member of the House of
Representatives N50 million.
The former president on several
occasions had denied that he had any
intention to stay beyond the two-term
tenure of eight years for presidents and
governors guaranteed by the 1999
Constitution.
In an interview with Channels
Television in April last year, Obasanjo
had said the idea generated from the
National Assembly and not him,
stressing that he would have succeeded
with the idea if he wanted a third term.
He said there was nothing he ever
wanted that God did not do for him, as
such, if he truly wanted the third term,
he knew how he would have gone
about it and would have secured it
because God has never failed him.
But el-Rufai in his book, detailed the
covert plans by Obasanjo to actualise his
ambition and how he and members of
the Economic Team, which included the
then Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala, the then Chairman,
Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu
Ribadu, the then Special Assistant to the
President on Budget Monitoring, Mrs.
Oby Ezekwesili, and Dr. Aliyu Modibbo
had tried to ferret out the truth from
him.
He wrote about emissaries sent to him
to get him on board and his vehement
opposition to the idea, which he said was
not in Nigeria’s interest.
According to him, Obasanjo started
nursing the ambition of a third term in
office, which could only be possible by
amending the 1999 Constitution, two
years into the last lap of his
administration.
el-Rufai said the former president must
have been in a quandary on who would
be better placed to manage the vast
resources his administration would be
leaving behind when it exited power in
2007 after he had briefed him on the
concern raised by the Economic
Intelligence Unit (EIU) Senior Economist
covering Nigeria, Mr. David Cowan, on
the possibility of frittering away the
projected $40 billion in foreign reserves
and about $20 billion in Excess Crude
Account (ECA) by 2007.
el-Rufai recalled that Cowan, during a
private dinner with him, after the EIU
held its first roundtable with the Federal
Government in January 2005, said: “But
you know something? I am an
economist. I run these numbers, I
conduct these scenarios and I see this.
But you know someone else that knows?
Your potential successors. They can
smell the money.
“They know that the way you are going,
by the middle of 2007, there will be a
large amount of money in the bank.
They are not economists, they do not
know the numbers, but like dogs with
raw meat, they can smell it.
“If your boss (Obasanjo) has not done so
already, you guys have to start thinking
about who is going to succeed you,
because the guys that want to steal
already know there is a huge bank
account in the future and they will
start planning now.
“I have not seen anything indicative of a
succession plan. You tell Obasanjo to
start planning.”
Based on the request, el-Rufai booked an
appointment to see Obasanjo who was
spending the New Year holiday at his
Ota farm and after briefing him on his
discussion with Cowan, he said the then
president asked him what to do.
“Mr. President, I am just a messenger.
My job is to give you the information.
You are the president; it is up to you to
figure out what to do with it,” he wrote
as his response to Obasanjo’s poser.
“No Nasir, this is a problem for the
country. What are we going to do? None
of my prospective successors will make
good use of this,” el-Rufai quoted
Obasanjo as saying.
On who were the serious aspirants for
the office, Obasanjo said: “(Vice-President)
Atiku is obviously interested, but you
know I will never hand this over to him.
Babangida is interested and you know
very well what he will do with these
levels of financial resources, he already
showed his hand the last time he had
the chance.”
According to the book, the discussion
between Obasanjo and el-Rufai set the
stage for the scheming and
manoeuvring on how to give the then
president enough time to consolidate in
the “national interest”, which included
the convocation of a national political
conference to recommend which areas of
the 1999 Constitution needed to be
amended to strengthen Nigeria’s
fledgling democracy.
However, the ultimate aim of the
conference was to propose some
amendments to the constitution,
including one that would move the
tenure of the president from two terms
to three.
el-Rufai wrote on his confrontations
with the former president to make him
come clean with him on the third term
agenda, including a meeting of the
Economic Team with Obasanjo’s Chief of
Staff, Gen. Abdullahi Mohammed, to
warn him that he would be risking all
he had laboured for if he failed to
backtrack from the third term agenda
as the National Assembly would not
pass any constitution amendment bill
that would extend Obasanjo’s tenure.
Obasanjo, el-Rufai recalled, was incensed
by their audacity that he had to dress
them down.
“The following morning Obasanjo called
Oby and Ngozi aside directly and dressed
them down. They had gone to worship,
as usual, at the morning church service
at the State House chapel.
‘You are of weak faith and do not
believe we can build a modern Nigeria.
We are going to achieve what you do
not think is possible,’” he rebuked them.
It was el-Rufai’s turn to be rebuked the
day after as the former president, who
was quoted as often saying to his aides
and close associates that “no third term,
no Nigeria,” labelled him “the leader of
the coup plotters” for going to see his
chief of staff to express their concern
over the third term agenda.
However, the attack rather than cower
them, spurred them on the more. el-
Rufai subsequently gained Obasanjo’s
confidence for him to divulge some of
the tactics they were going to employ in
getting the National Assembly to pass
the constitution amendment bill and also
in reaching out to Northern leaders such
as former Head of State, Maj. Gen.
Muhammadu Buhari, former President
Shehu Shagari and the then Sultan of
Sokoto, Muhammadu Maccido.
Although the defeat of the term third
agenda, following the Senate’s rejection
of the motion to further consider the
constitution amendment bill, brought the
chapter to a close, some of those who
worked against Obasanjo, including
Okonjo-Iweala, who was redeployed as
Minister of Foreign Affairs, were
“punished” for their roles.
With his loss of the third term bid,
Obasanjo zeroed in on Yar’Adua as his
successor with the hope that he would
make him to retain his coterie of aides
in the late president’s government while
he, from his Ota farm, would be
influencing events in government with
Yar’Adua as a figurehead.
However, Obasanjo’s selection of
Yar’Adua as his successor did not go
down well with Ribadu, who thought el-
Rufai was better suited for the position.
Ribadu not only queried Obasanjo’s
choice, he embarked on a hostile
investigation of the then governor with
the hope of forcing him out of the race
and had to back down following the
intervention of top government officials,
among others.
According to el-Rufai, Ribadu’s opposition
to Yar’Adua’s nomination might have
been responsible for his problem with
his administration that eventually led to
his removal as EFCC chairman and
demotion from the rank of Assistant
Inspector General of Police.
On his activities in BPE, el-Rufai, who
once threatened to resign his
appointment, following his disagreement
with the then Vice-President Atiku
Abubakar, who was the chairman of
the privatisation council, wrote on
pressure from Atiku and businessmen
to ensure that they or their friends
emerged buyers of some of the
privatised companies.
He recounted how he was approached
with N25 million and another $100,000
as “thank you gifts” for selling one of
the companies to a leading entrepreneur
and how his rejection of the money
eventually led to the sack of a BPE
Deputy Director, Mr. Charles Osuji,
through whom the money was offered
to him.

www.thisdaylive.com/articles/el-rufai-yar-adua-considered-saraki-dakingari-as-successor/137677/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

"and how the former president
worked to undermine the chances of the
then acting President Goodluck Jonathan
in being elected president in the 2011
general election"

How can the above quote from the report be true?

Sincere 9gerian: "and how the former president
worked to undermine the chances of the
then acting President Goodluck Jonathan
in being elected president in the 2011
general election"

How can the above quote from the report be true?

Maybe wen u read the book written by Peter Odili and Olusegun adeniyi u will understand politics better at d villa.
Dis are pple in d game.

A sordid and damning exposure of obj. I hope rufia is not biting more than he can chew. Obj does not forget nor forgive.

Sincere 9gerian: "and how the former president
worked to undermine the chances of the
then acting President Goodluck Jonathan
in being elected president in the 2011
general election"

How can the above quote from the report be true?

Dude, youre clearly an id.iot.

While they are writing ,we wil kip reading and sifting facts from fiction.
El rufai went to Obj to tel him of d dilemma they faced in getting a good successor (indirectly positioning himself for d office). Obj cashed in on d situation to skul d youngman and recruit him in2 d 3rd term agenda.
El rufai might hav bn disappointd ,Obj was nt handing over to him bt had 2 support d 3rd term as a last resort. Beta Obj dan anyone else, maybe d man could still hand over to him when he gets tired,he thought.
Sorry mallam, bt u backd d wrong horse and u r still doin so by supportin Buhari.

To the merger pple. El rufai is not sellable.

See what governance and leadership was reduced to under Yar'adua? Consulting an EMIR over a possible successor to d office of PRESIDENT. My President! Your President!! Our President!!!
D list of possible candidates smacks of a man who does nt know what it takes to be a leader and is poised on foisting himself and his lackeys on us ,just to hold onto power. Power-hungry Yar'adua has gone down in history as d 1st Nigerian Head of state dat nursed d idea of his wife succeeding him!
No wonder his cabinet was ppld by retired goons and kleptocrats!! Ds is d man some ppl tout had honest intentions for ds con3.
Compare Yar'adua's cabinet with Obj and GEJ's and tell urself d truth on wch govt had honest intentions to move ds con3 forward.
D only egg-head in Yar'adua's govt ws d young minister of state , finance whom d hausa/fulani oligarchs pocketd.
I Repeat; i wl neva vote for a President who wl be limited by custom and religion in his drive to move ds con3 forward. Nigeria shld be pro-west in our quest for development and nt pro-arab.

t.a orji is becoming better than el rufia