Atiku Abubakar
It’s Atiku’s Time, Time and Chance Have Happened to Him, By Kings UBA
President Muhammadu Buhari’s lack of capacity to steer Nigeria’s political ship has thrown up Atiku Abubakar, a former Vice President. Buhari’s inflexibility in policy matters that demand flexibility has made Atiku an alternative, who is likely to defeat Buhari. Summarily, Atiku would not have been able to garner the type of support he is currently getting if Buhari had been able to live up to expectation.
When I saw Atiku Abubakar shed tears on the national television for the sake of his aspiration to lead this country, my heart-beat skipped. He was overwhelmed with emotion and he could not complete the statement on his lips. He struggled with tears, trying to hold them back. But he could not. Then he lowered his face to his left hand side and let the hot tears roll down his cheeks. Then he reached for his immaculate white handkerchief to wipe the tears by himself. At that moment, it occurred to be that Atiku may be becoming Nigeria’s next President and Commander-in-Chief.
Atiku’s ambition to be Nigeria’s president did not start yesterday. It started almost immediately after he was sworn in as Vice President to Olusegun Obasanjo on May 29th 1999. And he started working at and for becoming the President. By 2003, Atiku, a purposeful politician, already had the political structure of Nigeria under his armpit. President Obasanjo did not know that while he was busy championing some innovations to stabilize Nigeria’s economy after long military misrule, Atiku was busy consolidating his own hold on the political structure of the country. It dawned on Obasanjo that Atiku was the landlord close to 2003 general election when he wanted a re-election. Then Atiku wanted to run for the office of the president too. Then the political horse-trading began. Atiku was the VP but, by his inclination and fore-sight, he was more powerful than the President. All state governors in the country had direct loyalty to Atiku instead of Obasanjo. Obasanjo needed the structure to win the election but Atiku refused to hand it over to him.
The then President had to swallow his pride and knelt down before Atiku, pleading for a second chance. Politically savvy Atiku did not give up the political structure without some trade-ins. He used that opportunity to negotiate for power and economic influence in the coming years. When the deal seemed to have been sealed, he gave his support and Obasanjo was re-elected. When the time came for Obasanjo to hand over to Atiku as agreed, Obasanjo reneged, and instead, wanted a third time. Then Atiku opposed the third time bid vehemently and vigorously. That was the genesis of Atiku’s disagreement with his boss, Obasanjo; a disagreement that sent Atiku into political wilderness where he wandered prodigiously for close to 12 years.
Obasanjo’s and Atiku’s meeting on Thursday signaled the end of Atiku’s political wilderness experience and this is significant politically. Obasanjo had vowed not to support Atiku. And he worked towards that. When Atiku becomes the President, he will be remembered as someone who is not wont to giving up.
Atiku’s testimonial is evident in Obasanjo’s typical ode to him during the Thursday visit. “Let me start by congratulating President-to-be, Atiku Abubakar, for his success at the recent PDP Primary and I took note of his gracious remarks in his acceptance speech that it all started here. Yes, when it started, it was meant for Atiku to succeed Obasanjo. In the presence of these distinguished leaders of goodwill today, let me say it openly that we have reviewed what went wrong on the side of Atiku. And in all honesty, my former Vice-President has re-discovered and re-positioned himself. As I have repeatedly said, it is not so much what you did against me that was the issue but what you did against the Party, the Government and the country”.
Obasanjo said he took stand against Atiku based on the character and attributes Atiku exhibited in the position he found himself.
“For me, relatively and of all the aspirants in the PDP, you have the widest and greatest exposure, experience, outreach and possibly the best machinery and preparation for seeing the tough and likely dirty campaign ahead through. From what I personally know of you, you have capacity to perform better than the incumbent. You surely understand the economy better; you have business experience, which can make your administration business-friendly and boost the economy and provide jobs.
You have better outreach nationally and internationally and that can translate to better management of foreign affairs. You are more accessible and less inflexible and more open to all parts of the country in many ways. As Pastor Bakare, one-time running mate of the incumbent President said, “You are a wazobia man.” And that should help you in confronting the confrontable and shunning nepotism.
As you know, along the road to where you are today, many leaders and ordinary people cooperated and overtly and covertly worked hard. On your behalf, I thank them all. May their coast continue to be expanded. And when you become Nigerian President which, insha-Allah, you will be, remember what we did together in government – we ran an administration by Nigerians for all Nigerians where merit and performance count more than blood relationship, friendship or kith and kin. Although some time and ground have been lost, you should endeavour to start from where we stopped and recover some lost ground, if not time”, Obasanjo said.
Atiku’s tears reminds me of Buhari’s tears. It is no doubt that President Buhari has a passion for what he believes in. He believes that he is meant to rule his people. It does not matter to him if he has the requirements to be the president of Nigeria, what matters to him is that he becomes the president over any other person. That may be the reason why Buhari has never voted for any other individual for the office of President of Nigeria. He has always voted for himself. It is certain that Nigerians who voted Buhari as a result of his passion to rule would today be regretting voting him. Buhari has performed abysmally poorly.
Atiku’s passion for the leadership of this country is evident in all ramifications. Even when some aspirants had not gotten their acts together, Atiku had rolled out his blue-print. From all indications, the time has come for Atiku. Time and chance has happened to him.
Kings UBA is the Political Editor of Discover Africa News. Contact: discoverafricanewsroom@gmail.com, Mobile: 07058310287