2027: Integrity debate heat up as IMPI questions Atiku’s moral standing amid Mambilla saga

The political fallout from the Mambilla power concession dispute continues to ripple through the political landscape as policy analysts challenge former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to address the substantive ethical findings of the Paris International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) tribunal rather than hiding behind legal technicalities.

The development follows an exchange between the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council and Atiku over calls for his withdrawal from the 2027 presidential race.

Atiku had challenged critics to produce explicit text from the ICC award proving a direct corruption conviction.

But in a statement evaluating the public interest dimensions of the controversy, Dr Omoniyi Akinsju, the Chairman of the Independent Media and Policy Initiative (IMPI) in a recently released policy statement, argued that Atiku’s defence relies on “an escapist resort to legalese” that ignores the troubling executive misconducts documented in the ICC Tribunal ruling.

The group emphasized that public leadership requires satisfying both strict legal thresholds and high ethical standards. It added that contradictions between testimonies given to the US Senate in 2010 and statements made during the ICC cross-examinations regarding the origin of the $`500,000 transfer remain unaddressed.

“When high-ranking public figures dismiss documented red flags of proxy transfers as simple non-issues because an arbitral tribunal did not issue a formal penal sentence, it erodes public confidence in political leadership,” IMPI declared.

As the political atmosphere towards 2027 gathers momentum, IMPI insists that candidates seeking the nation’s highest office must demonstrate full transparency regarding their past stewardship of national assets and public procurement processes, and further noted that: “We find the associated rendition of executive misconduct deeply troubling, as it smacks of corruption and breaches of the Nigerian federal government procurement processes under the direct supervision of the former Vice President.

“For us, the crux of the Mambilla-ICC saga is the `$500,000 cash transfer made to Jennifer Douglas, Atiku’s former wife and the purpose it was supposed to serve in securing the Mambilla Power project concession. It is not a surprise, therefore, that it was red flagged by the ICC Tribunal.

“When an international arbitration body like the ICC red-flags a conduct in a transaction, it signals a potential risk of illegality, such as corruption, bribery, fraud, or money laundering. It is to this dimension that we question the integrity, and by extension, the moral standing of Atiku in the whole gamut of the process that led to the off-grid concessioning of the Mambilla Power Plant to Adesanya’s Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited.

“We therefore assert that the ICC tribunal’s rejection of Adesanya’s FX transfer to Jennifer’s foreign account defence, is a critical diagnostic indicator of a compromised administrative process.

“While the arbitration focused on contractual liabilities between the state and a promoter, the underlying facts demonstrate that undisclosed financial flows between project promoters and high-ranking public officials (or their proxies) undermine public trust, breach international governance norms, and justify strong suspicion of corruption surrounding the initial concessioning of the Mambilla Power Project.”