And today Elrufia is promoting the same atiku

Reference id aka Wikileaks id #79188  ? 
Subject Fct Minister Delivers President's Message On Atiku Probe
Origin Embassy Abuja (Nigeria)
Cable time Thu, 21 Sep 2006 08:11 UTC
Classification CONFIDENTIAL
Source http://wikileaks.org/cable/2006/09/06ABUJA2478.html
References 06ABUJA2349, 06ABUJA2415, 06ABUJA2465
History
Time unknown: Original unredacted version, leaked to Wikileaks
Thu, 1 Sep 2011 23:24: Original unredacted version published, with HTML goodies
Extras ? Comments
VZCZCXRO5722
PP RUEHPA
DE RUEHUJA #2478/01 2640811
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 210811Z SEP 06 ZDK
FM AMEMBASSY ABUJA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7198
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEKDIA/DIA WASHDC
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
RHCKJAC/JAC MOLESWORTH JCDX RAF MOLESWORTH UK
Hide header
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ABUJA 002478

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/19/2016
TAGS: PGOV [Internal Governmental Affairs], KCRM [Criminal Activity], PREL [External Political Relations], NI [Nigeria]
SUBJECT: FCT MINISTER DELIVERS PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE ON ATIKU
PROBE

REF: A. ABUJA 2349

B. ABUJA 2415
C. ABUJA 2465

Classified By: Ambassador John Campbell for Reasons 1.4 (b and d)

¶1. (C) Summary: saying he was "under instruction" from
President Obasanjo to touch base with American Ambassador and
the UK High Commissioner as representatives of "Nigeria's
closest allies," Minister of the Federal Capital Territory
Nasir el-Rufai met with the Ambassador on September 20. His
purpose was to provide President Obasanjo's strategy for
denying Vice President Atiku the ability to contest the
presidential elections and thereby succeed him. El-Rufai
also expressed concern that President Obasanjo had yet to
indicate his preference for a successor, although many are
pushing him to do so. He foreclosed the possibility of
anyone other than the President's choice being selected in
the 2007 elections. He also touched on the security
situation in Northern Nigeria, which he sees as potentially
more dangerous than the Delta. End summary.

¶2. (C) After opening pleasantries in which el-Rufai noted
that one of his children is an American citizen, the Minister
emphasized that his call was at the explicit instruction of
the President; he would also be seeing the British High
Commissioner, similarly on instruction. The President's
purpose is to brief the representatives of Nigeria's "closest
allies" on his strategy for ensuring that the Vice President
may not run for the presidency in 2007. Rather than seeking
the Vice President's impeachment for corruption by the
National Assembly, El-Rufai continued, the President had
appointed an administrative panel of his close political
allies (El-Rufai was a member, as was Minister of Education
Obi Ezekwesili, Attorney General Bayo Ojo and Minister of
Finance Nenadi Usman) to investigate charges of corruption
against Atiku. President Obasanjo's government had accepted
the resulting report of the investigation and sent it on to
the Code of Conduct Bureau, which would consider favorably
prosecuting Atiku before the Code of Conduct Tribunal. (This
Tribunal may try and punish those otherwise immune from
prosecution by virtue of their office, including the
President, Vice President, governors and deputy governors.)

¶3. (C) El-Rufai asserted that the Obasanjo's government's
acceptance of the panel's report constitutes a legal
indictment against Atiku, and, as such, precludes him from
running for the presidency under the constitution: "Atiku is
politically dead". El-Rufai reiterated several times that if
Atiku abandoned his presidential ambitions, Obasanjo would in
return abandon the case against him.

¶4. (C) Throughout his conversation, el-Rufai stated or
implied that the Obasanjo government's proceedings against
the Vice President had been initiated at the request of the
U.S. Department of Justice for judicial assistance in its
investigation of Congressman Jefferson. That investigation
had revealed that the Vice President was profoundly corrupt,
and the President had then appointed an administrative panel
to investigate Atiku further. Observing that he had entered
government service by working for the Vice President, the
Minister said that as a member of the panel, he had been
surprised by the blatancy of the Vice President's corruption.
Former chief of State Ibrahim Babangida was almost certainly
equally corrupt, el-Rufai continued, but he had been far more
clever; It would be harder to make a legal case against him
than the Vice President, though the Obasanjo government would
try. Using the panel's findings, he continued, the President
is intent on denying the Vice President the opportunity to
campaign for the Presidency. The President, el-Rufai
continued, is convinced that an Atiku presidency would return
Nigeria to the "bad old days' of rampant corruption under
military rulers Babangida and Abacha. The President's method
to prevent an Atiku run for the presidency is to have him
indicted and tried for corruption by the Code of Conduct
Tribunal, which under the constitution has jurisdiction over
individuals otherwise immune to prosecution because of the
offices they hold. Indeed, el-Rufai continued, the President
argues that the government's acceptance of the panel's
report, and its forwarding of it to the Code of Conduct
Bureau, constitutes an indictment against Atiku, thereby
ensuring that the Independent National Electoral Commission
will find that he is ineligible to run for high office.
El-Rufai acknowledged that both the Code of Conduct Bureau
and the Tribunal are moribund, at present. But, he
continued, there is no other way: impeachment by the National
Assembly is a political impossibility. Indeed, he continued,
the President had only sent the panel's report to the Senate

ABUJA 00002478 002 OF 002


as a matter of courtesy. He did not expect the National
Assembly to take any action.

¶5. (C) El-rufai stated that the Attorney General is now
working on an "airtight" case against the Vice President for
submission to the Code of Conduct Bureau and to be tried by
the Code of Conduct Tribunal. The latter, he continued, is
made up of three judges, with the chair "recently appointed"
from Edo state. He predicted that the Bureau would soon take
the lead in developing cases against other sitting officials,
including at least five governors whom he expected would soon
by indicted before the same tribunal: Zamfara (Presidential
aspirant Sani Ahmed), Abia (Presidential aspirant Orji Kalu),
Enugu (Chimaroke Nnamani) and Ekiti (Ayo Fayose), but was
unsure whether the fifth governor was from Kaduna
(presidential aspirant Ahmadu Makarfi) or elsewhere.
El-Rufai noted that a person convicted by the Code of Conduct
Tribunal could appeal first to the Court of Appeals and
subsequently to the Supreme Court. He acknowledged that the
process against Atiku could take a long time. But, at the
heart of the President's strategy is the argument that the
Vice President has already been indicted by the government's
acceptance of the report of the administrative panel, and on
that basis the Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC) must bar him from a run for the Presidency.

¶6. (C) El-Rufai expressed concern that Obasanjo had yet to
indicate his preference for a successor, although many around
him are pushing him. El-Rufai said that the President has
agreed in principle to select a group of six potential
nominees for vetting ahead of the PDP nomination process.
El-Rufai said that the plan would be to pitch the six against
each other for the top positions and develop the others for
future elections. Comment: el-Rufai is likely to see
himself as a member of that group; he has long-term
presidential aspirations. End comment. He also repeated the
oft-heard opinion that former Chief of State Ibrahim
Babangida would not remain in the race. "Unless he is 150
percent certain that Obasanjo will guarantee his election, he
will withdraw," el-Rufai said.

¶7. (C) El-Rufai also touched on the security situation in
Nigeria. He said that the North worries him more than the
Delta. In the Delta, he continued, we must "remove the guilt
of underdevelopment and then enforce law and order."
El-Rufai said this could be accomplished with the right
application of "sincerity and political will". He worried
that underdevelopment in the North, though, would prove more
intractable, and impoverishment could lead to it to become a
safe haven for "radical elements," though that has not yet
happened. He applauded the embassy's provision of full
consular services in Abuja from September 25 and various
USAID educational assistance programs targeted on Muslim
women.

¶8. (C) Comment: The Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal
have been invisible and, as el-Rufai acknowledged, moribund.
In a September 19 conversation with the Ambassador, Atiku
never once mentioned it, focusing instead on possible
impeachment (Septel). It remains to be seen whether trial by
the Code of Conduct Tribunal would be accepted as legitimate
by the political establishment. Atiku's legal strategy, to
seek an injunction against the administrative panel's report,
if successful, would appear to also block its use by the Code
of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal ) leaving Atiku free to
contest the election. Lawyers whom the mission has consulted
informally say that the Vice President can mount a strong
prima facie case against the panel: it was appointed solely
by the President and was made up exclusively of his political
allies. And there is no explicit provision for such a panel
in the constitution.

¶9. (C) Comment, continued: El-Rufai's visit may signal
that the struggle between the President and the Vice
president is moving from public mud-slinging into the
judiciary system. Despite Atiku's confidence that he will
prevail, the courts in the past have been open to influence
from the President. INEC is similarly entirely made up of
persons appointed by the President, and it is beholden to the
executive for its funding. Some of the Vice President's
political allies have therefore argued that the Vice
President should avoid shifting the terrain of the conflict
away from the National Assembly to the judicial system. End

https://cablegatesearch.wikileaks.org/cable.php?id=06ABUJA2478&q=el-rufai nasir

There was no APC then.Atiku is now a messiah while el rufai is saint.

So they know the state of situation in the north then and how volatile it was but did nothing about it instead concentrating on oil money.

Then why are they blaming Jonathan for the crisis that currently going on in the north when they could have nipped it in the bud?

The other day in his interview that he granted, obasonjo said and i quote " during my tenure there was bokoharam but they didn't disturbed me because i didn't disturb them" . And as expected, the media and a lot of us were all silent about this statement instead concentrated all their arsenal on Jonathan using obj allegations.

My prayer is that one day our eyes should open and see where we are heading to before its too late.

That was era when men had no conscience and democracy was virtually non-existent.

With GEJ we have true resemblance of Democracy and Freedom.

Goodluck Jonathan will deliver the templates and institutionalise democracy where freedom, equality, rule of law, separation of powers and peoples power to choose their representatives are sure and guaranteed.

I don't care about those who are compromised and blinded by virtue of their personal, regional, religious or political interest which I respect and regard notwithstanding.