Veteran comedian Atunyota Akpobome, popularly known as Alibaba, has disclosed a conversation he had with former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.
The revelations, made during a recent episode of the Outside the Box Podcast aired on YouTube Saturday, offer what appears to be a blunt and cynical playbook for clinching Nigeria’s presidency.
“I was speaking to Obasanjo one time, and he told me, he listed some things for me,” Alibaba said during the interview. “He said those are the things that are necessary to win election. I am going to read the chat I had with Obasanjo.”
Quoting the former President directly, Alibaba said, “Ali, I’m happy you’re catching up with politics but you still have a lot to learn, like how you get governors and presidents elected.”
He went on to describe the strategy allegedly laid out by Obasanjo: “You need seven governors to win an election: Lagos, Bayelsa, Delta, Rivers, Kano, Kaduna and the CBN (Central Bank of Nigeria) governor. Then I said Kano and Kaduna don’t have money, he said that is for numbers, and what is money? That is numbers too.”
According to Alibaba, the former president emphasised a complex web of influence involving governors, economic figures, international powers, and traditional political godfatherism.
“You need 44 of the most popular senatorial districts. You need to have awarded 10 contracts and 15% of that contract can give you a marginal impact at the polls. And you must award this contract in your first year of assumption of office,” Alibaba said, quoting Obasanjo again.
“If you don’t do that then, you can’t ask the people for anything because when you give them at the first year of your getting into office, when it’s time for elections you just tell them ‘Do you want to continue this contract or not?”
The revelations didn’t stop there. Alibaba said the former President advised suspending corruption cases against wealthy former governors as part of the political chess game.
“You must suspend pending cases of corrupt past governors who are loaded,” Alibaba recalled. “Don’t forget that those guys have chests, war chests that they are just sitting and waiting for who they want to align with. No matter how much EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission) milks from them, they still have plenty.”
He painted a picture of Nigerian governors stockpiling funds beyond the reach of anti-graft agencies.
He said, “These are people who were sitting on a monthly federal allocation… like some states that when they get their federal allocation, they don’t touch it. They actually add to it because their state’s internally generated revenue is higher than what the federal gives to them.
“So if the federal government gives them N3, they can add N4 to it and spend N7. When they leave office, EFCC can’t come looking for them because they added money to what the federal government gave them. But you see that internally generated revenue that is their sweat as it is called, it is their money, they generated it themselves. They can determine anything they want to do with it.”
Alibaba went further, quoting Obasanjo as saying foreign powers were also part of the equation.
“This is the meaty part of it,” he said. “He says ‘Get US or China’s support because of their businesses in your country, they would support.’”
“Get National Association of Nigerian Students, market women, National Union of Road Transport Workers. Unsettle the organised labour. Get 10 of the richest Nigerians on your side. Infiltrate opposition parties and let them decamp before the election. Buy delegates one year before the congresses,” he said.
Alibaba claimed he sought clarification on how to “buy congresses,” and the explanation he got was straight out of a political thriller.
“I asked how do you buy congresses,” he said. “He said you know who and who will be selected as delegates, you give two of his daughters jobs at the bank, you give this other person’s wife a shop, this person wants to go to hajj, they go to hajj,” he said.
“When the time for the election comes and you say this is the person I’m supporting, because of these people who you have given those things to, they won’t mess up. While some people are raising money to give dollars and all those things, you already have bought their loyalty since.”
The revelations took an even darker turn as Alibaba explained how opposition parties could be manipulated from the inside.
“So when you hear two people are gunning for an office and you are not in the party, you call the other party and say you want to be chairman, we’ll fund you,” he said.
The final pieces of the power puzzle, according to the conversation he recounted, included institutional and media control.
“Secure INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission) and state REC, blogs and social media, religious leaders, royal fathers, the appointment of board of chairmen and DGs. He says to refer to No 2. Get four constitutional lawyers on retainership.”
