Excerpt from “The Story of My life” By: Atiku Abubakar

Chapter 21

Exile

Following the bloody attack in Kaduna, family and friends began persuading Atiku

to leave the country for a while. Abacha’s security agents trailed him everywhere in

their unmarked cars and trademark dark sun glasses. He could not make telephone

calls from his house. His lines were bugged. He had to sneak out in the night to meet

people. “Life under Abacha was horrible. I used to stay in my house for 40 days without

going anywhere. I was being followed any time I ventured outside the house”, Atiku

remembered. With Yar’Adua in detention, the attention of the military junta was now

on him. He was being monitored closely to see if the PDM was re- grouping under his

leadership.

The State Security Service (SSS), which often takes the security of the state to mean

an over- zealous defence and protection of any government in power, seized Atiku’s

international passport just as he was making plans to travel outside the country to cool

off and to seek the support of some political and business leaders in Europe and the

United States for the democratic struggle in Nigeria. He got another passport in the

name of Atiku Kojoli, the name with which he first entered school in 1954. With the

assistance of friends within the security forces at the airport, he was smuggled into a

London-bound flight directly from the tarmac. The SSS unit at the airport kept a watch

list of people who were not in the good books of the Abacha government. The security

had a standing order to arrest such people when they showed up at the airports or

to seize their passports and prevent them from traveling or to simply monitor their

comings and goings. “Enemies” of the government were categorized in terms of the

danger they were thought to pose to the military junta. Atiku’s new passport would

have been impounded and thus prevented from traveling if he had gone through the

departure hall and boarding gate.

Atiku arrived London late 1995. He made several unsuccessful efforts to reach the

British Foreign Office. The government of Prime Minister John Major was, as usual with

the British, a bit too cautious in its dealings with the Nigerian opposition. It was critical

of the Abacha government but unwilling to take harsh measures against it because of

the risk to British economic interests in Nigeria. Atiku wanted an appointment at the

Foreign Office to be able to brief British foreign policy officials on the current situation

in Nigeria. He had hoped they would be eager to gain a new insight into the Nigerian

crisis from the perspective of an active politician. The response to his request for

appointment was lukewarm.

He spent a couple of months in London, living with his son, Adamu, in the family flat in

Fincheley. Adamu remembered that he used to spend days in the flat without venturing

out. “He stayed in his room most of the time, feeding on kebab. He even grew an afro

hair while there”, Adamu said.

While Maigari was away, Ahmadu was murdered. His son was devastated.

“My father died fighting like an old lion among a pack of wild dogs; they brought his

Fez, his Gown and his Praying beads to (Lamido) Abba in Yola”, Maigari said in his

letter to the regional governor.

“Am I to swear loyalty and obedience to this Abba? Am I to suffer his taunts and

insults? Am I the son of my murdered father? Were there no Europeans in this area,

the Lamido of Yola would not attempt to interfere with me or compel my allegiance,

but he would live in constant dread of my coming to exact vengeance for my father’s

murder and install myself as the acceptable Lamido of Yola. For well he knows how

many of the Yola Sarakuna would join me as I approach that town”, he continued in

the letter.

Excerpt from “The Story of My life” By: Atiku Abubakar

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I am Angela Uyi aka Mama Naija|Two time Social Media Personality Winner| A smooth talker| Humanitaria| Ghost Writer| CopyWriter |Twitter:@Angelauyi |