ATIKU GOT HIS WEALTH THROUGH HARD WORK

By Saliu Iyanda

saliuiyanda2010@yahoo.com, Sept 7, 2006

A lot of questions have been asked about how the Turaki Adamawa, and the vice president of the federal republic of Nigeria, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar made his money. The reason for this is not far-fetched as a prominent political figure and very important politician in the country, people will certainly want to know more about how he became who he is, since he his a role model to a lot of people in the country and beyond. It was William Shakespeare who said, some are born great, some achieve greatness and others have greatness thrust upon them. Atiku who lost his parents very early in life, worked extra-hard brazening all odds, and weathering various storms to be able to come this far in the murky terrain of life, he worked hard to achieve greatness. It is very easy for anybody to raise dusts and make un-necessary insinuations about how Atiku made his money, but one thing is very clear, it is not all bed of roses for the vice president in life, it really took some doings before he achieved these remarkable feats. Most of those making reckless and unguarded statements about how he made his money have not even listened to the story of his life before, they have never visited Adamawa his state of origin and ask people who knew him inside out about how he made his money and, indeed, the type of person he his. Yet, they just want to taint the good name he worked assiduously to build over the years. Since they cannot match the standard he sets in all spheres of human Endeavour, they shamelessly engaged in pull-him-down-syndrome.

It is very important to point out that it is only Atiku that talks about how he made his money, he talks about to teach those coming behind how to invest and take their destiny in their hands, always saying the greatest glory is never falling, but in rising each time you fall. It is imperative to under score the fact that Atiku is one politician who before he became the vice president, never held any political appointment, he had all along been a civil servant and when he retired he went into private business, which was very successful by the grace of God and dint of hard work. Much more importantly is the fact that even as the vice president he never awarded contracts and has no direct access to public funds, he has lost more money in government than when he was in private business. The money he has is the money he made in private business before he became the vice president. But there is what they call the management of public perception; this has to do with people holding tenaciously to a point of view and believing it weather or not it is correct or otherwise. Some have gone to the extent of saying that he made his money through dubious means or by fraudulent practices, and the response of the vice president has always been that if anybody, anywhere has any evidence that he was engaged in any unwholesome dealings, at any stage of his life, they should go to court. And, he has repeatedly subjected himself to public scrutiny at all times, exuding uncommon confidence that his track records are impeccable.

Besides, it is also instructive to observe that, a man is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of competent jurisdiction; nobody therefore has the right to label another as guilty until the court does so. Again, it is important to note that, if indeed, the vice president had been corrupt this will have glaringly manifested since 1999, why wait for seven years before trying very hard to nail him at all cost, to prevent him from vying for the presidency in the 2007 election? And, try as much as they have, they have not been able to pin him down to any case of financial impropriety or financial scandal, in spite of the fact that the lemon-squeezing, fault-finding gambit goes on to no end. No matter what happens now, no matter what some few characters at the corridors of power do to cover their misdeeds and mudsling the integrity and credibility of others, the day of reckoning, when all those who are in power today will give an account of their stewardship is just around the corner. In today’s Nigeria, how many people amongst the political gladiators can come out and tell the public how they truly made their money? Some have even argued that, he made so much money from the privatization exercise because he is the chairman of NCP, when people that make the frivolous statements are asked to mention in specific terms, the companies he has cornered personally or through proxies, they are usually unable to substantiate their spurious claims. Usually this kind of thing which is called bad belle in local Nigerian parlance is sheepishly done by his political detractors that want to pull him down at all cost.

As a child vice president Atiku Abubakar did things which were considered by most people to be beyond his age, such as building a house for his mother, Kande Aisha Abubakar, in Ganye, Adamawa State, when he was barely 15 in 1961. According to a newly published authorized biography, Atiku: the story of Atiku Abubakar, written by Adinoyi Ojo Onukaba, young Atiku was able to build the house with savings from a vacation job he did at the Ganye Division while a student of Adamawa Provincial Secondary School in Yola. Atiku, the new biography reveals, earned the princely sum of three Pounds Sterling per month as a “Bring Up” clerk to Adamu Ciroma, then a District Officer in Ganye who would later become a key player in Nigeria as a newspaper editor, the nation’s top banker, minister and presidential candidate. According to the book, “the chief clerk, Yusuf Shelleng, liked Atiku and he used to give the young boy holiday job in the offices of Ganye Division. As a “Bring up” clerk, it was Atiku’s duty to bring up pending matters to the attention of District Officer Ciroma”. From his holiday job earnings, according to the book, Atiku bought his mother a mud and thatched roof bungalow with two rooms, a kitchen and bathroom. The house was said to have cost him about nine pounds sterling. Kande became homeless after it was discovered that her older brother had secretly sold the family house in Jada. Atiku had no choice but to get a place for his mother. The house, now rebuilt and modernized, still stands in Ganye, southern Adamawa, till today, the biography says. Atiku’s gift to his mother has often been cited by his admirers as evidence that the vice president has always been a hardworking, caring and compassionate leader since his childhood.

So, it is totally out of place and unthinkable for people to make innuendoes about the source of wealth of the vice president, in any case, if really he has any skeleton in his cupboard, the EFCC which has been working conscientiously to find out any illegal dealings the vice president is involved in would have exposed him. Atiku made his money from real estate, farming trading and oil servicing. According to his yet to be released authorized biography, Atiku’s foray into the real estate began in 1974, “when as a young Customs officer he got a federal staff housing loan amounting to N31,000, which was the equivalent of his salary for five years. With this money. Atiku applied to the Gongola State Government for a plot of land at Yola government reserved area and he was given. The book explained that, “he hired a foreman and began building his first house. With close personal supervision, the bungalow was completed on time and to his taste. He rented it out immediately. The up-front rent he collected was substantial enough to purchase a second plot and begin work on a second house in the same area. He completed it and rented it out again. He kept plowing the rent back into new building projects and within a few years Atiku had built eight houses in choice areas of Yola. He became a powerful landlord in Yola, making a lot of money annually from rent, when he arrived in kaduna in 1980, Atiku repeated the same feat and ended up with over half a dozen property in the city”.

It is equally important to note that, in 1981, Atiku also went into large-scale farming to augment his income from public service. He started the Gesse Derdirabe Farm on 2,500 hectares of land off Yola-Numan Road with a bank loan. He grew maize and cotton, becoming the largest maize farmer in the whole of the old Gongola State. The farm produced about 10,000 bags of maize a year. In addition to farming, Atiku was buying and selling trailer loads of rice, sugar and flour during his spare time. He was one of the first Nigerians to venture into China, importing green tea from the communist country for sale in Nigeria.  Atiku also went into oil servicing business. With foreign partners, he started a small oil logistics company from a container office at Apapa called the Nigeria Container Services (NICOTES). The company was later renamed Integrated Logistics Services (INTELS) with the late Shehu MusaYar’Adua as one of its directors. The book says that Atiku has used his wealth to fund philanthropic and political activities. He has built and equipped schools, mosques, churches and health centers and he has offered scholarships to thousands of students in Nigerian and foreign institutions as well as sponsored several people on medical treatment at home and abroad. Atiku has also assisted many people to start businesses of their own. Such generosity generated a lot of goodwill for Atiku. So, it very clear that he made is money through hard work and proper planning.

By

Saliu Iyanda

Ilorin

Kwara State.