Keyamo’s Wild Goose Chase of Atiku
Mr. Festus Keyamo’s wild goose chase of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is another example of Yoruba aphorism: o Fi ete sile o n pa lapalapa. The minister of state for labour has left serious matters to attend to impossibility.
Keyamo is also the spokesperson for the Presidential Campaign Council of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). And he has asked the Economic and Financial Crime Commission and its sister agency, the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission along with the Code of Conduct to arrest the PDP’s candidate.
Definitely, Mr. Atiku Abubakar is a big threat to Keyamo’s principal, Bola Tinubu, who is the candidate of the APC in the 25 February general elections. But rather than facing the reality and convincing the millions of voters, Mr. Festus Keyamo is deploying a tactic that won’t ruffle the PDP’s candidate’s feathers.
The vociferous minister, who used to oppose Bola Tinubu himself in the past, said that the heads of the anti-corruption heads should arrest or invite Mr. Atiku Abubakar within the next 72 hours.
Although Keyamo, a lawyer himself, didn’t provide evidence or specific instances, he accused Atiku, a former vice president, of corruption, money laundering and criminal breach of trust. Mr. Keyamo said that he was writing as a private citizen and as a lawyer.
One doesn’t need to be told that Keyamo isn’t sincere in his claim of not writing the petition on behalf of anyone. Most definitely, he couldn’t have mustered courage to write anything if he’s not working for Bola Tinubu.
There is nothing bad in distracting the opponents. It is a part of the strategies being used to win an election. But Keyamo’s wild goose chase is totally illogical. He should know better that those anti-graft agencies wouldn’t arrest or invite the PDP’s candidate for any talk.
Inviting or arresting the ex vice president would only through the country into confusion and pandemonium. That could have been what Keyamo intended to achieve.
There can be some iota of truth in what Keyamo alleged. A former aide of the then VP had blown the whistle of Atiku Abubakar. The whistleblower, one Michael Achimugu revealed how Atiku Abubakar laundered and plundered Nigeria’s treasury using pseudo companies.
Yet asking the agencies to arrest or detain Mr. Atiku Abubakar amounts to a wild goose chase.
