ATIKU: CONSENSUS SHROUDED IN CONFUSION

The proclamation by the so-called Northern Political Leaders Forum (NPLF) of the choice of Atiku Abubakar (Turakin Adamawa) as the consensus PDP presidential candidate for the north was as preposterous as the man himself. The former vice president is the worst candidate any region or party will put forward for any contestable office in the land. This is a man that breathes corruption, dines with corruption and is being hailed as corruption personified.

Just after his retirement from the Nigerian Customs, Atiku Abubakar ventured into the nation’s political panorama as a protégé to General Musa Yar’adua. As one of the principal brains behind the General’s People’s Front (PF), which later metamorphosed into Social Democratic Party (SDP) and ultimately to People’s Democratic Movement (PDM), he gained notoriety as the parties’ ‘Master Rigger’. It was that proficiency, and his natural spending spree, that endeared him to Olusegun Obasanjo and PDP. Little wonder then that Obasanjo took him on as his running mate, despite Atiku having already won the 1999 Adamawa State gubernatorial elections.

Atiku’s adeptness in rigging came to the fore in 2003 when he spearheaded the fraud that ensured the return of Obasanjo to power. Few years later, his hunger to ascend the Aso Rock high seat as Obasanjo’s successor, and Obasanjo’s insidious pipe dream to be life president, threw the political cronies apart. Hitherto, Atiku has been so loyal to Baba Iyabo; he once described himself as the ‘briefcase of Obasanjo’.

Atiku Abubakar gained a lot of sympathy from Nigerian and the international community for his role in quashing Obasanjo’s third term ambition and the mouse-cat relationship that transpired between them, which culminated into torrential court battles, most of which Atiku ended up victorious. But I have never for once sympathised with him. He was evidently the major beneficiary of the corruption and business in government; he headed the government’s privatisation exercise and acquired most of the lucrative government enterprises. He purchased almost all sellable properties in Adamawa State, and his private university, ABTI American University, is one of the most expensive in Africa. Atiku is a archetypal bourgeois whose penchant is to own everything and be richer than everybody. Such a person certainly deserves not to be Nigerian leader.

After Obasanjo abbreviated Atiku’s ambition in 2007, and instead anointed Umaru Yar’adua (of blessed memory), the perpetual schemer formed Action Congress (AC), contested, after yet another acrimonious court battle, and lost the presidential elections by a landslide. A seemingly anticipated opportunity came up after Umaru Yar’adua’s demise, with the northern PDP elites disputing that come 2011 elections the party must allow the north to conclude its arranged eight years at the helm, based on the party’s unconstitutional zoning formula. He ditched AC, rejoined PDP and uprooted his old campaign organisation.

With the emergence of Ibrahim Babangida, Bukola Saraki and Aliyu

Gusau, those elites took it upon themselves to choose a consensus candidate out of the four. The method they used is still mysterious, but the committee set up for the selection, under the leadership of wily old man, Adamu Ciroma ultimately came out with the name of Atiku Abubakar as the compromised candidate. Expectations were that Atiku would emerge a distant third behind IBB and ABS.

Now the scuffle for PDP’s presidential flag bearer will be between Goodluck Jonathan and Atiku Abubakar with his band of power-hungry northern elites, who obviously quest for Atiku’s presidency not for the benefit of the north, but for their own selfish advantage. One is apt to ask here what has Atiku contributed to the development of the north, or that of his state? What has he to show for the eight years he was the second in command at the helm of Nigeria’s leadership? We all know that during Obasanjo’s first four years Atiku was running the show and had the opportunity to influence any kind of project to the north, or to Adamawa State, but has he? You only need to take the route from Mayo-Balwa to his hometown, Jada to corroborate that Atiku has abysmally failed his people, and by extension the whole of the north.

If you gauge Atiku’s chances against the incumbent president, you could easily surmise that Turaki will be rolled over in the PDP presidential primaries. Many PDP stalwarts, including those in his home state, are yet to recognise him as a legitimate party member. Despite his proclivity to use money in order to get whatever he wants, he will definitely find it very tough to convince the state governors to rally behind him in the primaries. The state governors have the sole control of the chunk of delegates and the tendency is that they will support Goodluck Jonathan. Few of those delegates, who are naturally conservative, will be poised to choose the less of two evils. From whatever angle you tend to look at it, the odds against Turaki are gigantic.

In the final analysis, my own contention is that the so-called ‘Committee of Wise men’ mandated to select a consensus candidate to challenge Goodluck Jonathan’s unyielding stance, have jeopardised any chance the north has to take over the country’s leadership. Some people might argue that PDP is not the only party in the land, but judging by the swing of the Nigerian political pendulum, it will take a much Herculean task to dislodge the People’s Democratic Party.

 It is a well-known fact that Ibrahim Babangida, as a military president, perpetrated corruption, while Atiku Abubakar, as a civilian vice president, adopted it, embellished it, flourished in it and enriched himself in it. How could such a person ever dream of ruling this country?