Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has alleged that his former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, financed an attempt to impeach him during his first term in office by providing ₦5 million to kick-start the process.
Obasanjo made the claim while responding to remarks by former Ogun State Governor Olusegun Osoba concerning the political developments that preceded the 2003 general elections.
In a statement, the former president alleged that the late Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ghali Na’Abba, began impeachment moves after holding a meeting with Atiku.
According to Obasanjo, the meeting took place on a Friday while he was away from the Presidential Villa. He claimed Atiku persuaded Na’Abba that he should serve only one term as president and encouraged him to initiate impeachment proceedings.
Obasanjo further alleged that Atiku provided ₦5 million to Na’Abba to facilitate the impeachment effort.
“On that Friday, Atiku invited Na’Abba and gave him ₦5 million to begin the impeachment process. Everything was documented, monitored and later reported to me by my Chief of Staff, who was a professional intelligence officer,” Obasanjo claimed.
The former president said he was fully informed about the alleged plot through intelligence reports submitted by his Chief of Staff.
Despite the impeachment threat, Obasanjo said he remained unfazed because he believed there were no constitutional grounds for his removal from office. He maintained that the allegations against him lacked the legal basis required to justify impeachment.
BACKSTORY:
Olusegun Obasanjo and Atiku Abubakar served as Nigeria’s President and Vice President from 1999 to 2007 under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Although the pair initially worked closely after the return to democratic rule, their relationship later deteriorated amid disagreements over governance, succession and internal party politics.
Their fallout became more pronounced during Obasanjo’s first term, with tensions spilling into the public domain and fuelling speculation about divisions within the presidency. The political rivalry deepened ahead of the 2003 general elections and continued in the years that followed, with both men making allegations and counter-allegations about events that occurred while they were in office.
Obasanjo’s latest claim that Atiku allegedly financed an impeachment plot is the newest chapter in the long-running political feud between the two former leaders. At the time of the allegation, Atiku Abubakar had not publicly responded to Obasanjo’s claims.
