Alhaji Abubakar Atiku is undoubtedly Nigeria’s most experienced politician alive. Not Obasanjo. Not Buhari. Not Jonathan. Atiku’s political experience was forged in the hurly burly of the endless transition programme that Nigeria’s foremost soldier of fortune, Ibrahim Babangida foisted on Nigeria during her fin de siècle from the late 1980s to the 1990s and which Sani Abacha his comrade in arms perpetuated before his death. Atiku underwent tutelage under the masterly soldier-politician called Shehu Musa Yar’ Adua. The Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) were among the platforms which Atiku bestrode as Yar’ Adua’s protégé. Yar’ Adua, who had become a formidable political leader in the 1990s, was among those consumed by the inferno of history.
After Abacha’s death, a new order was set in motion and Atiku cut his teeth as a political titan. He contested and won the governorship election in Adamawa State on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), but clinched the record of being the first governor-elect in Nigeria that never assumed office. He was invited to become the running mate to a timid ex-soldier, rookie ex-head of state, ex-“frustrated chicken farmer”, frightened ex-prisoner, Olusegun Obasanjo, who was then newly sprung from the gulag. It was a politically astute Atiku who gave Obasanjo direction and lessons during the campaigns that led to the presidential election in 1999. Obasanjo, despite being a general and former head of state, would have suffered in vacuo, but for the political horse-trading that subverted the genuine nationalist intention of the original founders of the PDP.
Once elected as president, Obasanjo was unpretentiously diffident and went on to hand over much of state power to Atiku who was deft and nimble. He built a network of political and economic players, befriended state governors and was the supremo. Obasnjo had occasional spell of rumbustiousness, but he was firmly under Atiku’s leash. In the countdown to the 2003 presidential election, some state governors thought that Obasanjo must honour the commitment he made to be president for just a term. The governors goaded Atiku into contesting the party’s presidential ticket. Obasaanjo panicked and did obeisance for Atiku before the latter backed down. However, they both carried the party’s mandate to the poll and won.
In his second term, Obasanjo, feeling humiliated and betrayed, exhibited Dutch courage and moved against Atiku who had then got consolidated and was politically unshakeable. A battle line was drawn and a cat and mouse play began. The presidency announced that Atiku had been relieved of his office as vice president. He went to court and trounced the presidency. However, Atiku was stripped of all the powers and privileges he enjoyed between 1999 and 2003. Obasanjo had his pound of flesh by supporting Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua, the younger brother of Shehu Yar’ Adua, Atiku’s mentor and Obasanjo’s deputy when he was military head of state, to succeed him as president instead of Atiku.
Atiku sojourned in the wilderness of political irrelevance. He unrelentingly contested for the presidential ticket on the platforms of different political parties to no avail. He tried all the tricks in the book to no avail. Eleven years later, Atiku now has in his kitty the presidential ticket of the PDP his original party at the inception of the present political dispensation. He will be locking horns with President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 presidential election and his chances of winning appear very bright.
Nigerian politics since 1999 has been a puzzle which the most politically astute has not been able to resolve. The resurrection of political dry bones is one of such puzzles. When Obasanjo was jailed in 1995 nobody ever had an inkling that he would metamorphose from prisoner to president. Not even the many prophets across the length and breadth of Nigeria famed for their puerile predictions said anything close to his being free how much more becoming president.. Buhari is another case study. After the recurring electoral debacles of 2003, 2007 and 2011, he reclaimed national initiative in 2015. The factor responsible for this unending political hanky-panky is the reality of state capture. A few, but powerful elite have hijacked the instrument of coercion and economic power to the extent that the people have become emasculated.
Obasanjo became president as compensation to the Yoruba over the June 12 debacle that denied his kinsman, M. K. O. Abiola the presidency. Buhari became president because of Jonathan’s monumental failure. It is part of his inherent weakness that he now whines that Barack Obama orchestrated his electoral defeat. Nigerians are today disillusioned with Buhari’s rudderless presidency that has left the nation stranded. Nigerians now want an alternative. There is no doubt that they have found that alternative in Atiku. The All Progressives Congress (APC) is accusing Atiku of corruption, but it should know that “the beautyful ones are” never born in politics. It is trite to state that Atiku has never been indicted or convicted for corruption. On the other hand, he it was as custom boss who burst the corrupt incidence of the 53 brief cases linked to the Emir of Daura, Buhari’s town while he was military head of state in 1984. It should also be noted that the same accusation the APC is hurling at Atiku was also hung around M. K.O. Abiola’s neck until he underwent apotheosis and became Nigeria’s beacon of democracy.
Nigeria is presently asphyxiated under APC’s Buhari and the people are yearning for a new order. Many of those posturing as presidential candidates at the moment are mere attention seekers positioning themselves for appointments in a post-Buhari era. With the exception of Oby Ezekwesili and Obadiah Mailafia, the rest of the pack does not understand the contradictions assailing Nigeria. But can Ezekwesili or Malafia wrest political power from the present cabal? The answer is no. Both of them need to galvanize a new movement that should be made to gather momentum till 2023 when the people would have been politically educated, enlightened and edified. Genuine change, not the APC kind of change, doesn’t come overnight. It takes time to incubate. For now this is Atiku’s moment.
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