Nigeria’s former Ambassador to Kenya, Chief Fidelis Tapgun, has said that the lessons he learned while serving as the Director General of the Obasanjo/Atiku Presidential Campaign Organisation in 2003 convinced him to stay away from the coalition of opposition politicians in the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
The former Plateau State governor dismissed the attempt to sack President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, pointing out that the entire plot lacks credible strategies to provide alternative socio-political and economic pathways for Nigeria’s prosperity, peace and progress.
Maintaining his stance not to have anything to do with the coalition, Tapgun said that very sinister plots surround what the promoters of the coalition are offering, stressing, “for me, I have read everything they are talking about, people say one thing and do something different, and talk from both sides of their mouth.”
Recalling his tough and bitter experience while serving as the campaign DG for the re-election of President Olusegun Obasanjo and Atiku Abubakar in the lead up to the 2003 general election, Tapgun said that the former Vice President Atiku’s plot to run against his principal, Obasanjo, put the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) into a serious quandary.
“It was a very serious matter; I had to take it up and I risked my job at that time,” he stated, remarking that when he decided to get to the roots of the sudden ambition by the then Vice President to contest against then President Obasanjo, he was informed by Atiku that he and some retired generals were behind his aspiration.
He narrated: “I served as DG to the campaign of Obasanjo and Atiku in 2003. When I arrived from Kenya to take up the job, I was in the office in Legacy House.
Chief Tony) Anini was there, Adamu Ciroma, they were all there, but nothing was happening.
“I stayed for two weeks, three weeks, nothing was happening, so I asked what was happening, and they told me that there was a problem on the ground. That Atiku wants to challenge Obasanjo, and that was the issue.
“I said, challenge him? and they said yes, that they have done everything to calm him down, he has refused. So, anyway, we sat down with some of our directors, and I asked for permission to go and see Atiku to find out why he wanted to do that, since we are close.
“So, I went and met him (Atiku) with some of my directors to ask why he wanted to do that. He said it wasn’t himself, but rather some of the generals who directed him to go and contest. I said, ‘Can they do that to you?’ He said yes, they said they are the ones who put Obasanjo, but that Obasanjo has not been doing well.”
Tapgun, who was once a Minister of Industries, disclosed that after hearing from Atiku, he pointedly informed the then Vice President that he was being misled, since according to him, “these generals that put Obasanjo in office, did it because they were in office and had the power to do so.
“Now that they are out of power, can they put you in power, take the thing from Obasanjo and give you? The only person who can make you President is Obasanjo himself. He (Obasanjo) has the power now in his hands, so he is the only person who can give it to you. So we argued and argued, and he refused. I said ok, and that was it.”
Tapgun disclosed that when he confronted one of the generals at that time, he told the general that what they were trying to do was not right, noting that there is a limit to how high an adult human can be tossed up and down.
The eminent PDP stalwart said that it was against that background that he believes that there was no way the opposition coalition on ADC could move forward with their plan, stressing, “They are not sincere among themselves. I don’t see how they can push Tinubu out. I don’t see it, because they are not prepared for it at all. It is most unfortunate.”
