spot the difference!
WHAT do America 's Vice President Dick Cheney and his Nigerian counterpart, Abubakar Atiku have in common? Power play and controversy.

Once upon a time, there was Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney, the imperial arrowhead of Halliburton, the international conglomerate known for salacious greed, cut-backs and kickbacks both inside and outside the oil industry. To bring the memory home, Halliburton is the same company being probed by the French in connection with the massive $180 million bribery scheme in Nigeria?

To refresh your memory, Halliburton has a very scandalous resume: the $61 million contract overcharge in Iraq ; the $2.7 billion suspicious billing for another Iraq contract; and the $17.7 million in "unsupported" and another $14.9 million unreasonable contract claims all of which Halliburton has been found guilty. Did I hear you say deep-throat and corrupt-enrichment? That is the story of Halliburton; the company's whose immediate chief executive is now America 's vice-president. Yet, I strongly disagree with those who say Iraq war was created to benefit Halliburton. It does sound a very persuasive argument though.

If Halliburton is the 'Thief of Baghdad", Dick Cheney is seen in Washington as the self-indulgent, arrogant and unrepentant one-man mafia who masterminded the manipulation of intelligence reports that plunged America into a controversial war. Yet this was a man that was almost written off after a serious heart problems lead to two hospitalisations in the early months of coming to power. And when he accidentally shot his hunting partner in the face, it is no surprise that Dick Cheney's vision and judgment have been called to question, repeatedly.

Nigeria 's own Atiku justifiably rode to power in honour of the Yar'Adua's political machinery and those concocted alliances that spin President Olusegun Obasanjo to Aso Rock. Ever since, Atiku has become the most photographed, the loudest, the most scrutinised and certainly the most powerful of all Nigeria 's vice-presidents in history. In America , Atiku is the masked man behind congressman, William Jefferson 'money-in-the cooler' saga. The $100,000 bribe story is headline grabber for those writing on high-level corruption in Nigeria . The biggest news of course is Atiku's link with the PTDF infamy. If reports are anything to go by, Atiku is spendthrift, perhaps corrupt but certainly an opportunist who wields his power and position to advance personal interest and enrich cronies.

Ironically, both Atiku and Cheney have held on to power despite the acrimony surrounding their offices and their smeared resumes. This is the new discourse among political scientists and scholars. It is an unfamiliar trend of history when a president begins to feel uncomfortable about the same person he has personally chosen to help manage the country. Public polls say Cheney has become an inconvenient partner for George W. Bush in the White House. And if you asked Obasanjo to make one wish, just one wish, it'll probably be to make Atiku disappear, somehow, somewhat. So what happens when buddies become burdens and partners become problems?

President George W. Bush presidency is in tatters. New approval rate is down to 29 per cent. This is certainly not the legacy the Bush dynasty was hoping for in their second encampment in Washington . Forget the braggadocio; Bush would privately admit that the Iraq war was a peculiar mess he would be better off without it and my very own unauthorised biography on Bush insinuates that Cheney was part of the reason why Bush's regime is in disarray. The plot to go after Baghdad oil was simply untidy. But the president has avoided the controversy and the pressure to get rid of his deputy as the mastermind of this ill-conceived, ill-prepared and poorly managed war. He would not be drawn into any conversation about how much of a liability Cheney is to his presidency nor will he openly admonish his deputy despite the pressure. Smart play by a man who realises that he cannot afford an open conflict with his very powerful deputy in addition to other burdens of his presidency.

It is not so with Obasanjo. In Nigeria. It is an open war, the president against his own deputy. It is the perfect picture of a house divided among itself. "Ogun Abele" (civil war) inflicts the worst damage on a people's psyche. I hate to refer their fiendish relationship as the fight of two elephants. No. That is paying tribute to a needless chaos in Aso Rock. Obasanjo and Atiku are simply poised for MAD behaviour or better known as mutually assured destruction meaning - "if one side (either the U.S. or USSR) launched a nuclear first strike, the response of the attacked party would involve a nuclear response of equal or greater scope, " This is the principle that guided Bush from openly lambasting Cheney.

Obasanjo/Atiku's feud is the stuff tragic heroes are made of. Nigeria 's eight-year experiment as a maturing democracy is ending as a political silliness. Like Cheney, Atiku's image has been tarnished by the PTDF scandal but Obasanjo has bungled the whole issue with his meddlesomeness. And now, the vice-president is wearing his alleged vices like scarlet letters. He is emboldened the more as if the allegations do not matter. Mind you, Atiku has never pleaded his innocence of the alleged corruption. His attitude and that of his supporters seem to suggest "so what?"

The table now seems turned against Obasanjo himself but the absurdity of the whole issue paints the picture of a nation of jesters. One day, hopefully, Obasanjo would admit that he is a tactless ruler. His glorious resume as the only Nigerian to rule the country twice will be heavily punctuated with his derailed obsession and a primitive ego of search and destroy.


Idowu, a former deputy editor of Thisday, lives in Washington, D.C, United States


http://www.guardiannewsngr.com/editorial_opinion/article02