..Accuses ex-VP of serial betrayal who can’t be trusted with power
Nigeria’s Ambassador to South Africa and former Minister of Aviation and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, has asked former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to stop sending him private messages and to make any grievances public.
Fani-Kayode made the demand at the close of an open letter titled “To Waziri Atiku Abubakar: A Final Word for a Diminishing Star (Part 2),” in which he criticised the former Vice President’s character, credibility, and fitness for office.
“I urge you not to send me anymore private messages. If you have anything to say to me, say it yourself and say it publicly. Needless to say I will respond with vigour. That is what being credible is all about;”, Fani-Kayode wrote.
The former Minister did not disclose the contents of the private messages he said Atiku had been sending him, nor did he state when they were sent.
The demand came at the end of a letter in which Fani-Kayode accused Atiku of a long history of betrayal, listing those he claimed the former Vice President had wronged over the years.
He named Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, Atiku’s former mentor; former President Olusegun Obasanjo, under whom Atiku served as Vice President; the late President Umaru Yar’Adua; President Bola Ahmed Tinubu; former President Goodluck Jonathan; former Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike; the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP); and the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
“You betrayed Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, your mentor, and ran away with your tail between your legs to live abroad when he was wrongly jailed and eventually murdered,” Fani-Kayode alleged.
He also claimed Atiku betrayed Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’Adua, Tinubu, Jonathan, Wike, and the PDP, and accused him of taking over the ADC from “a hard-working and decent young man called Nafiu Bala Gombe.”
“Are these constant betrayals and habitual acts of sabotage and treachery what you would describe as credible behaviour, Waziri?” he asked. “If you believe so then you really do need to see a psychiatrist.”
Fani-Kayode cited statements attributed to former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, former Cross River State Governor Donald Duke, and former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
He quoted Lawal as saying: “I loathe Atiku. He is not a good man and he is easy to manipulate by riff-raff. I would prefer to return to Tinubu than be with him. Under Atiku Nigeria would suffer a chaotic crash.”
Fani-Kayode also quoted Lawal as alleging that Atiku “doesn’t see life in you if you are not a Fulani man.”
From Duke, he cited an account of a meeting at the Presidential Villa involving former Head of State General Ibrahim Babangida, former Head of State General Abdulsalami Abubakar, Obasanjo, and Atiku, in which Babangida was said to have told Obasanjo “not to trust that your deputy” and that Atiku “cannot rule Nigeria.”
He also referenced Obasanjo’s 2018 interview statement that Atiku “does not have the right sense of judgment” and that he “gave up” on him.
Fani-Kayode argued that Obasanjo’s October 2018 meeting with Atiku in Abeokuta was a forgiveness and reconciliation exercise and not a political endorsement, describing suggestions to the contrary as far-fetched.
Part of the letter was devoted to Fani-Kayode defending his own credibility, after what he said were Atiku’s questions about it.
He said he was prosecuted in four courts over 18 years on what he described as politically motivated criminal charges, appearing before 12 judges, including at the Court of Appeal, and that he won every case.
He said he was detained for 10 days in 2008, three months in 2016, and a further three months later that year — “6 months and 10 days in all, in hideous conditions” — including weeks in the Boko Haram section of Kuje prison.
Fani-Kayode said he took an oath in 2008 not to leave Nigeria until he had been cleared of all charges, a vow he said he kept until his final acquittal on February 4, 2025.
“My credibility, courage and resilience have been tested for over a stretch of 18 years and I have come out with flying colors whereas yours have not!” he wrote. “That is the bitter truth.”
In his closing remarks, Fani-Kayode said Atiku, whom he described as being over 80 years old, was suffering from frustration which had led to depression.
“My fear for you is when you lose the election that you will not suffer a mental breakdown. Your family and loved ones must take this seriously. Be rest assured that I will be one of those praying for you”, he wrote.
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