Saharareporters reporting from New York
The return of Vice President Atiku to Nigeria earlier announced to be 14th of January might have been postponed. Sources told Saharareporters today that another delegation of Action Congress (AC) leaders, the second in two weeks, led by Chief Audu Ogbeh and Tom Ikimi are visiting with Alhaji Abubakar Atiku to analyze the sudden retreat by President Obasanjo on the VP, the Vice President may have shifted his return date till January 19th instead.
The AC delegation were lodged in an area hotel in Bethseda, Maryland close to Vice President Atiku's POTOMAC mansion. They are said to be wary of Obasanjo's sudden retreat, which may be a tactical but deadly withdrawal that signals that he might have found another strategy to totally emasculate Atiku and knock him out of circulation. Atiku was said to have pre-occupied himself with US State Department officials to discuss his plight and safety concerns during the week. His continued sojourn in the US is giving Obasanjo sleepless nights and analysts told Saharareporters that Obasanjo will be more comfortable with Atiku in Nigeria than outside as the foreign pressure mounted on Obasanjo was too much to bear. Our reporters also gathered that Obasanjo has also sent in a small team of cabinet members to ‘snitch’ on Atiku and his US accomplices, the team is led by Femi Fani-Kayode a recently demoted cabinet minister in charge of aviation.
The reason why Obasanjo soft-pedaled on Atiku was listed last night to Saharareporters by a presidency source who said there were pressure from the US and British government (who are worried that the conflict between Obasanjo and Atiku could lead to a coup in Nigeria), former head of states mostly from the North were said to have given Obasanjo conditions for attending the Council of State meetings to ratify the National Census.
A source at the presidency told Saharareporters that all the former head of state except Chief Shonekan refused to attend the Council of State meeting unless Obasanjo restored Atiku’s privileges. “Obasanjo had to do this for the former head of states so they will attend the council of state meetings that was crucial to ratifying and releasing the National Census figures”. The census figures are another question altogether, the figures said to be totally different from the real figures were altered to ease the tension in the land and placate the Northern section of Nigeria said a source in Abuja.
There were also serious insinuations that Obasanjo’s volte face on Atiku may be as a result of the total rejection of Gov. Umar Yar’ardua across Nigeria, which therefore gave President Obasanjo a lot of trouble as it is almost automatic that former military dictator, retired general Buhari was coasting comfortably as the leading presidential candidate across Nigeria. Obasanjo, who is very jittery about Buhari’s comfortable lead met with his aides and they are currently considering letting Abubakar Atiku run for presidency as spoiler for Buhari in the South West and North. They calculated that with Buhari and Atiku sharing the South West and North, they can comfortable buy and rig Yar’ardua in, in the South East and South and easily declare him winner. The Action Congress (AC) Atiku's platform for realizing his presidential ambition is totally enmeshed in crisis over party primaries and a planned merger negotiations with rival ANPP broke down during the week.
When Saharareporters contacted Vice President Atiku for comments on these developments his domestic aide said he had gone out to see a doctor.
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