{"id":20432,"date":"2026-08-20T02:11:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T02:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/obasanjo-atikus-ding-dong-battle-who-is-fooling-who-by-olu-fasan\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T02:11:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T02:11:00","slug":"obasanjo-atikus-ding-dong-battle-who-is-fooling-who-by-olu-fasan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/obasanjo-atikus-ding-dong-battle-who-is-fooling-who-by-olu-fasan\/","title":{"rendered":"Obasanjo-Atiku\u2019s ding-dong battle: Who is fooling who? By Olu Fasan"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Obasanjo-Atiku\u2019s<\/div>

Obasanjo-Atiku\u2019s ding-dong battle: Who is fooling who? By Olu Fasan, <\/p>\n

Over the past several years,\u00a0especially during\u00a0presidential election seasons, a war of words usually breaks out between former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Atiku Abubakar, his vice-president. Obasanjo always fires the first salvo, presenting Atiku as the devil incarnate. But Atiku never shies away from responding in kind. The self-indulgent, long-running feud is frustratingly irritating because its genesis is clouded by a fog of deception. I take no sides, but, if truth be told, Obasanjo has a greater record of dissembling!<\/p>\n

To be sure, Obasanjo\u2019s place in Nigerian history is well established and settled, but utterly mixed. As a war commander, he played a critical role during the civil war, and as a military head of state, he kept a promise to hand power to a civilian government in 1979. Decades later, as a civilian president, Obasanjo was an outstanding public administrator who ran a truly effective government by leading some of Nigeria\u2019s best and brightest technocrats to drive through and deliver real change: securing pivotal international debt relief, implementing major economic reforms and creating critical anti-graft agencies, such as the EFCC and the ICPC, although he sowed the seeds of their future failure by politicising them. So Obasanjo deserves credit for his roles in ending the civil war, in returning Nigeria to civil rule and, later as president, in sound economic management and institution building.<\/p>\n

However, Obasanjo failed woefully in the realms of politics and democratic values, where he\u2019s a terribly bad role model. Since leaving office in 2007, Obasanjo routinely preaches good political and democratic practices. Yet as a civilian president, he ran Nigeria like a dictator, forcing the removals of several senate presidents and state governors, not to mention his party\u2019s national chairmen. The 2003 and 2007 general elections conducted under his administration were so massively rigged that foreign observers branded them an utter sham. Then Obasanjo attempted to change the Constitution to run for a third term and secure personal political longevity. Obasanjo has shown no contrition for these perversities. Rather, when he speaks, he feigns righteous indignation, takes the moral high ground and sounds so didactic everyone is expected to swallow his \u201coracular\u201d words hook, line and sinker!<\/p>\n

Well, not the international media. In 2009, the BBC interviewed Obasanjo on \u201cHARDTalk\u201d, its hard-hitting, utterly irreverent programme. Stephen Sackur, the interrogator, grilled Obasanjo the way no Nigerian journalist would ever do. \u201cYou have a great capacity for putting a very rosy tint on your record,\u201d Sackur told Obasanjo. The former president rejected the proposition. Sackur hit harder: \u201cLest we forget, they (Obasanjo\u2019s critics) said, the person who introduced corruption to this National Assembly is Chief Obasanjo.\u201d Again, he pushed back: \u201cThey are talking rubbish!\u201d Then Sackur went for the jugular: \u201cHave you forgotten the sack of money that was displayed on the floor of the National Assembly, being used for bribe?\u201d Livid, Obasanjo denied knowledge of the bag, telling Sackur: \u201cYou should ask the man who brought it on the table.\u201d But the BBC interrogator didn\u2019t back down: \u201cI am quoting one of your accusers directly,\u201d Sackur said, reading from a note, \u201c\u2018You are the grandfather of corruption in Nigeria.’\u201d Of course, Obasanjo flatly rejected the allegation.<\/p>\n

Now, I rehashed the \u201cHARDTalk\u201d interview to show that the combative, no-holds-barred encounter ensued against the backdrop of the febrile political climate created by Obasanjo\u2019s Third Term agenda, which sets the context, or part of the context, for the Obasanjo-Atiku protracted animus. I said \u201cpart of the context\u201d because, in truth, the relationship between Obasanjo and Atiku started to go awry in their first term, long before the Third Term issue emerged in 2006 towards the end of their second term. Thus, while Atiku repeatedly blames the public feud on his opposition to Obasanjo\u2019s Third Term aspiration, Obasanjo is right to link it to something with longer provenance. Yet here\u2019s the question: what made Obasanjo so pained, so bitter and so unforgiving as to wish Atiku had never come into his political life? And how truly sincere, honest and credible are Obasanjo\u2019s diatribes against Atiku?<\/p>\n

Recently, at the public launch of his autobiography, Charles Oputa, popularly known as Charly Boy, asked Obasanjo to name his greatest mistake as president. He replied: \u201cThe man I picked as my running mate, my number two, if I had known him as I came to know him later, I would not have picked him.\u201d Pressed on whether he was referring to Atiku, Obasanjo responded: \u201cMy vice-president. I don\u2019t know what name you want to give him, but my vice-president, I meant that.\u201d That must be the height of personal animosity. But it was also the height of incredulity because Obasanjo\u2019s outburst defies belief. I cite three reasons.<\/p>\n

First, it\u2019s outrageous for Obasanjo to imply that picking Atiku as his running mate was a greater mistake than his Third Term agenda that, for months, left Nigeria transfixed and convulsed politically. Second, it\u2019s disingenuous to suggest he picked Atiku as his running mate in 1998 out of sheer altruism and not because of what Atiku, by then a governor-elect, would bring to the ticket politically and electorally. Third, even assuming Obasanjo knew nothing about Atiku before making him his running mate in 1998, why did he retain him in 2002, despite what he then knew about him, including speculations that Atiku wanted to run against him for their party\u2019s ticket for the 2003 presidential poll? A retired general and former military head of state would hardly be so na\u00efve. The truth is Obasanjo picked Atiku for his first term based on his own political cost-benefit calculations and retained him for his second term because Atiku had become too powerful to be ditched. Thus, it was a little short of verbal disinhibition for Obasanjo to say that his greatest mistake as president was making Atiku his running mate. In the wider scheme of things, that insulted people\u2019s intelligence.<\/p>\n

Yet the gap between Obasanjo\u2019s rhetoric and action became ridiculously wider. In his memoir, My Watch, published in 2014, Obasanjo said the worst possible things about Atiku. He referred to \u201chis propensity to corruption\u201d and \u201chis readiness to sacrifice morality, integrity, propriety, truth and national interest for self and selfish interest.\u201d Then, in August 2018, ahead of the 2019 presidential election, Obasanjo, who holds a PhD in Theology, said: \u201cIf I support Atiku for president, God will not forgive me.\u201d But a few months later, Obasanjo did exactly that: he put his weight behind Atiku\u2019s presidential ambition. I was aghast and wrote a piece titled \u201cObasanjo\u2019s cynical volte face on Atiku\u201d (Vanguard, November 29, 2018). I wondered why Obasanjo wanted someone he himself said had a \u201cpropensity to corruption,\u201d someone he himself said had \u201creadiness to sacrifice the national interest for selfish interest,\u201d to be Nigeria\u2019s president. And why would he so blatantly defy God?<\/p>\n

But in truth, Obasanjo was motivated by personal agenda. He supported Atiku because he wanted to dislodge President Muhammadu Buhari from Aso Rock, just as he backed Buhari in 2015 to eject President Goodluck Jonathan from power. This puts into proper perspective Obasanjo\u2019s impulsive outburst that picking Atiku as running mate was his greatest political mistake. It defies logic that, in 2019, Obasanjo actively campaigned for the same person to be president of Nigeria. Why? Well, put simply, it served Obasanjo\u2019s purpose to support the \u201cdevil incarnate\u201d for president in 2019, but not anymore: call it political schizophrenia!<\/p>\n

Of course, to some extent Atiku played the same game. For political reasons, he used to praise Obasanjo to high heaven. Recently, on the Arise TV Prime Time programme, Atiku said: \u201cBelieve me, I don\u2019t think I could have learnt if I were president what I learnt being vice president to President Obasanjo.\u201d But after Obasanjo\u2019s outbursts, the gloves are off. It\u2019s back to name-calling. So who\u2019s fooling who? Yet the Obasanjo-Atiku self-indulgent war of words diminishes politics. Instead of peddling mendacities and whitewashing their flawed pasts, they both need large doses of humility and contrition for their individual and collective political failures in power!<\/p>\n

The post Obasanjo-Atiku\u2019s ding-dong battle: Who is fooling who? By Olu Fasan<\/a> appeared first on Vanguard News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

, <\/p>\n

Over the past several years,\u00a0especially during\u00a0presidential election seasons, a war of words usually breaks out between former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Atiku Abubakar, his vice-president. Obasanjo always fires the first salvo, presenting Atiku as the devil incarnate. But Atiku never shies away from responding in kind. The self-indulgent, long-running feud is frustratingly irritating because its [\u2026]<\/p>\n

The post Obasanjo-Atiku\u2019s ding-dong battle: Who is fooling who? By Olu Fasan<\/a> appeared first on Vanguard News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

, , Emmanuel Okogba, {authorlink},, , Vanguard News, August 20, 2026, 2:11 am<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Obasanjo-Atiku\u2019s ding-dong battle: Who is fooling who? By Olu Fasan, Over the past several years,\u00a0especially during\u00a0presidential election seasons, a war of words usually breaks out between former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Atiku Abubakar, his vice-president. Obasanjo always fires the first salvo, presenting Atiku as the devil incarnate. But Atiku never shies away from responding in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20433,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdn.vanguardngr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Olu-Fasan.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[713,8,1142],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-news","category-state-of-the-nation-with-olu-fasan"],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\nObasanjo-Atiku\u2019s ding-dong battle: Who is fooling who? By Olu Fasan - EduNews<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/obasanjo-atikus-ding-dong-battle-who-is-fooling-who-by-olu-fasan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Obasanjo-Atiku\u2019s ding-dong battle: Who is fooling who? By Olu Fasan - EduNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Obasanjo-Atiku\u2019s ding-dong battle: Who is fooling who? By Olu Fasan, Over the past several years,\u00a0especially during\u00a0presidential election seasons, a war of words usually breaks out between former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Atiku Abubakar, his vice-president. Obasanjo always fires the first salvo, presenting Atiku as the devil incarnate. But Atiku never shies away from responding in […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/obasanjo-atikus-ding-dong-battle-who-is-fooling-who-by-olu-fasan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EduNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/edumarkconsult\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-20T02:11:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cdn.vanguardngr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Olu-Fasan.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"eduadmin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cdn.vanguardngr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Olu-Fasan.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@EdumarkNG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@EdumarkNG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"eduadmin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/edumarkng.com\\\/news\\\/obasanjo-atikus-ding-dong-battle-who-is-fooling-who-by-olu-fasan\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/edumarkng.com\\\/news\\\/obasanjo-atikus-ding-dong-battle-who-is-fooling-who-by-olu-fasan\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"eduadmin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/edumarkng.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/a5b374d36d8a925f42febcfabddf8339\"},\"headline\":\"Obasanjo-Atiku\u2019s ding-dong battle: Who is fooling who? By Olu Fasan\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-20T02:11:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/edumarkng.com\\\/news\\\/obasanjo-atikus-ding-dong-battle-who-is-fooling-who-by-olu-fasan\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1471,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/edumarkng.com\\\/news\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/edumarkng.com\\\/news\\\/obasanjo-atikus-ding-dong-battle-who-is-fooling-who-by-olu-fasan\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cdn.vanguardngr.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/07\\\/Olu-Fasan.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Columns\",\"News\",\"State of the Nation with Olu Fasan\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/edumarkng.com\\\/news\\\/obasanjo-atikus-ding-dong-battle-who-is-fooling-who-by-olu-fasan\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/edumarkng.com\\\/news\\\/obasanjo-atikus-ding-dong-battle-who-is-fooling-who-by-olu-fasan\\\/\",\"name\":\"Obasanjo-Atiku\u2019s ding-dong battle: Who is fooling who? By Olu Fasan - EduNews\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/edumarkng.com\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/edumarkng.com\\\/news\\\/obasanjo-atikus-ding-dong-battle-who-is-fooling-who-by-olu-fasan\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/edumarkng.com\\\/news\\\/obasanjo-atikus-ding-dong-battle-who-is-fooling-who-by-olu-fasan\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cdn.vanguardngr.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/07\\\/Olu-Fasan.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-20T02:11:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/edumarkng.com\\\/news\\\/obasanjo-atikus-ding-dong-battle-who-is-fooling-who-by-olu-fasan\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/edumarkng.com\\\/news\\\/obasanjo-atikus-ding-dong-battle-who-is-fooling-who-by-olu-fasan\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/edumarkng.com\\\/news\\\/obasanjo-atikus-ding-dong-battle-who-is-fooling-who-by-olu-fasan\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cdn.vanguardngr.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/07\\\/Olu-Fasan.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cdn.vanguardngr.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/07\\\/Olu-Fasan.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/edumarkng.com\\\/news\\\/obasanjo-atikus-ding-dong-battle-who-is-fooling-who-by-olu-fasan\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/edumarkng.com\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Obasanjo-Atiku\u2019s ding-dong battle: Who is fooling who? By Olu Fasan\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/edumarkng.com\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/edumarkng.com\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"EduNews\",\"description\":\"No1 Education & General News Platform\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/edumarkng.com\\\/news\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/edumarkng.com\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/edumarkng.com\\\/news\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Edumark Consult\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/edumarkng.com\\\/news\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/edumarkng.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/edumarkng.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/06\\\/edumark-logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/edumarkng.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/06\\\/edumark-logo.png\",\"width\":316,\"height\":159,\"caption\":\"Edumark Consult\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/edumarkng.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/edumarkconsult\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/EdumarkNG\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/company\\\/edumark-consult-limited\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/edumarkng\\\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/edumarkng.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/a5b374d36d8a925f42febcfabddf8339\",\"name\":\"eduadmin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/b0687d3dd3be0e5ec81505e7230affc3ceed78e9b3553ff03c301832b1bb91d4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/b0687d3dd3be0e5ec81505e7230affc3ceed78e9b3553ff03c301832b1bb91d4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/b0687d3dd3be0e5ec81505e7230affc3ceed78e9b3553ff03c301832b1bb91d4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"eduadmin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/edumarkng.com\\\/news\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/edumarkng.com\\\/news\\\/author\\\/eduadmin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Obasanjo-Atiku\u2019s ding-dong battle: Who is fooling who? By Olu Fasan - EduNews","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/obasanjo-atikus-ding-dong-battle-who-is-fooling-who-by-olu-fasan\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Obasanjo-Atiku\u2019s ding-dong battle: Who is fooling who? By Olu Fasan - EduNews","og_description":"Obasanjo-Atiku\u2019s ding-dong battle: Who is fooling who? By Olu Fasan, Over the past several years,\u00a0especially during\u00a0presidential election seasons, a war of words usually breaks out between former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Atiku Abubakar, his vice-president. Obasanjo always fires the first salvo, presenting Atiku as the devil incarnate. But Atiku never shies away from responding in […]","og_url":"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/obasanjo-atikus-ding-dong-battle-who-is-fooling-who-by-olu-fasan\/","og_site_name":"EduNews","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/edumarkconsult\/","article_published_time":"2026-08-20T02:11:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/cdn.vanguardngr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Olu-Fasan.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"eduadmin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_image":"https:\/\/cdn.vanguardngr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Olu-Fasan.jpg","twitter_creator":"@EdumarkNG","twitter_site":"@EdumarkNG","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"eduadmin","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/obasanjo-atikus-ding-dong-battle-who-is-fooling-who-by-olu-fasan\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/obasanjo-atikus-ding-dong-battle-who-is-fooling-who-by-olu-fasan\/"},"author":{"name":"eduadmin","@id":"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/a5b374d36d8a925f42febcfabddf8339"},"headline":"Obasanjo-Atiku\u2019s ding-dong battle: Who is fooling who? By Olu Fasan","datePublished":"2026-08-20T02:11:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/obasanjo-atikus-ding-dong-battle-who-is-fooling-who-by-olu-fasan\/"},"wordCount":1471,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/obasanjo-atikus-ding-dong-battle-who-is-fooling-who-by-olu-fasan\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cdn.vanguardngr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Olu-Fasan.jpg","articleSection":["Columns","News","State of the Nation with Olu Fasan"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/obasanjo-atikus-ding-dong-battle-who-is-fooling-who-by-olu-fasan\/","url":"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/obasanjo-atikus-ding-dong-battle-who-is-fooling-who-by-olu-fasan\/","name":"Obasanjo-Atiku\u2019s ding-dong battle: Who is fooling who? By Olu Fasan - EduNews","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/obasanjo-atikus-ding-dong-battle-who-is-fooling-who-by-olu-fasan\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/obasanjo-atikus-ding-dong-battle-who-is-fooling-who-by-olu-fasan\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cdn.vanguardngr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Olu-Fasan.jpg","datePublished":"2026-08-20T02:11:00+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/obasanjo-atikus-ding-dong-battle-who-is-fooling-who-by-olu-fasan\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/obasanjo-atikus-ding-dong-battle-who-is-fooling-who-by-olu-fasan\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/obasanjo-atikus-ding-dong-battle-who-is-fooling-who-by-olu-fasan\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/cdn.vanguardngr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Olu-Fasan.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cdn.vanguardngr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Olu-Fasan.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/obasanjo-atikus-ding-dong-battle-who-is-fooling-who-by-olu-fasan\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Obasanjo-Atiku\u2019s ding-dong battle: Who is fooling who? By Olu Fasan"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/","name":"EduNews","description":"No1 Education & General News Platform","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/#organization","name":"Edumark Consult","url":"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/edumark-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/edumark-logo.png","width":316,"height":159,"caption":"Edumark Consult"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/edumarkconsult\/","https:\/\/x.com\/EdumarkNG","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/edumark-consult-limited\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/edumarkng\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/a5b374d36d8a925f42febcfabddf8339","name":"eduadmin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b0687d3dd3be0e5ec81505e7230affc3ceed78e9b3553ff03c301832b1bb91d4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b0687d3dd3be0e5ec81505e7230affc3ceed78e9b3553ff03c301832b1bb91d4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b0687d3dd3be0e5ec81505e7230affc3ceed78e9b3553ff03c301832b1bb91d4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"eduadmin"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news"],"url":"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/author\/eduadmin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edumarkng.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}