Marwa: Boni and Atiku’s Reality Check

By

Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo

razbell73@hotmail.com

 

 

The people of Adamawa State must have had a weekend of consternation at the sight of people trouping to Yola to witness the declaration of Marwa as a presidential candidate of the PDP come 2007. Those who were at the declaration that Saturday, in this small North-eastern state capital where the off-shore winds are as humid as the still Lagos air, with an average temperature of between 30 and 40 degrees Celsius, would have noticed two things very clearly: first is that the sandy roads fry the bare feet and second, that our governor has gone mad again, (a Michika son wishing that trouble be taken to Michika). The ones who were in Yola for the first time would have been surprised that people survive at all in this arid town, which is very unlike their part of the country where beautiful flowers are blossoming and jostling for space with road-side businesses. Unlike in their states where sundry entrepreneurs are full of hope, in Yola every thriving business now belongs to Atiku. The situation is reminiscent of one of the IBB governors that the “evil genius” himself used to call “dan tireda” (Hausa for trader). Marwa’s guests would have left their states where opposing political opinions are allowed to flourish to come to Yola where all things democratic are but a nightmare.

 

I imagine by now that those who were in Yola to see how the dividends of democracy have changed the Vice President’s home state are convinced that Adamawa State is in the hands of the dumb, blind and now shaken. A clear evidence of this is the jitters exhibited by the state government when General Buba Marwa was to declare his presidential ambition. Not knowing that another season of acrimony was the last thing that Yola wanted, the governor hurriedly coerced the state assembly into passing a Bill on sanitation on Friday to stall Marwa’s formal declaration for the presidency and set the stage for confrontation with the nationally popular aspirant. Marwa was decent enough not to link the action with the Vice president but even a child knows that Boni governs Adamawa for his master alone. The two men evoke the picture of a father, his son, and a bike – the father helping the son to learn how to ride the bike while he pushes the son to several obvious falls.

 

By denying Marwa the permit to declare publicly at Ribadu Square Boni’s mistake is monumental. When he cited security reasons, the police commissioner cleared the air that there was no cause for security alarm. So the governor had to juggle excuses like a child trapped in his own lies. This type of cowardice and intolerance of opposing aspirations can only encourage the opponent and win him even more support. Had they allowed Marwa to openly conduct his business, people would have had the impression that they have nothing to hide. It is well known, given that all tools of engagement in the PDP and all tools of coercion from ward to state level are in the hands of Boni and Atiku, that Marwa’s aspirations may not see the light of day but the two men continue to put one giant foot wrong after another with each passing day.

 

How did they allow him to have membership card number 1796? Students of political history especially of the United States will notice something in that number. In 1796 America’s first president Geo Washington delivered his valedictory address and John Adams was elected president. One man stepped aside and another was elected. In 1796 factions were to emerge in American politics for the first time but the arrangement instead where the president’s electors were Bay Staters and the Vice president’s were Jeffersonian demonstrated that America’s fledgling democracy could work. 1796 was the first and only time in American politics that the president and his Vice would represent opposing political parties. If a politician in Nigeria now holds that to be his registration number, there must be something in store for him in our arrangement as well and to stop that candidate will take divine intervention.

 

Any mundane being who dares to stop him, through any other means than democratic could be living in a fool’s paradise. To accuse Marwa of arrogance and name-dropping, as Boni did, is most uncharitable. If he were arrogant, which he is not, it is because his accomplishments cannot be diminished. Not in the eyes of the people of Adamawa State. Not in the eyes of the nation. For the people of Adamawa, Marwa is not just anybody. He is the embodiment of our collective pride. As in saying, he is “the Adamawa citizen!” Niger state has its IBB, Kano state has its Murtala and Abacha and Boni cannot take our Marwa away from us.

 

Since Marwa decided to pursue his presidential ambition, Yola will continue to want for him until the last day. The people will line up behind Marwa based on his meritorious service to states he was opportuned to serve, namely Borno and Lagos. Many families are bound to follow what they believe will emancipate them from a thieving and uncaring elite. Some individuals will be hostages to their action. The first will be Boni Haruna, the political “godson” of Atiku who shares a maternal relationship with Marwa. Boni will be hunting with the wolves and running with the hares. In as much as it is known where his loyalty lies, it is also known that any decision he takes will come to him at great personal cost. Those who have no sympathies for him as a person, say that his goose is cooked, literally. But human feelings compel us to sympathise with the governor because, he is a clear case of those who the gods set out to destroy, they first make mad. Whichever way the pendulum swings, at the end of the day Boni will be a blushing bride. How does Boni explain to Atiku that Marwa was (assuming Marwa wins the contest and which I think with almost certainty he will) a better or preferred candidate in Michika? Or how will he explain the loss of Michika (which is certain to come as the next days sun) to Atiku?

 

Boni can now never lay back and think of Adamawa any more. What should pre-occupy his mind is to begin to count the number of deserters from his camp. It wouldn’t be easy to admit, but life itself is not a walk in the park.

 

Just a little over two years ago, the Vice President Abubakar Atiku was the beautiful bride of PDP politics and the talk of every house-hold in the country. Many people had thought Atiku would flex his muscles and kick his boss General Obasanjo out of Aso Rock, or at least off the PDP ticket since Obasanjo rejected the path of honour that was then popularly called “the Mandela option.” Atiku’s influence on the political space was near total, going by his clout among PDP governors. Obasanjo had done a bad job of the highest office and Atiku had all the governors working underground for him. Things would have been different today if he had dared his boss. But he chickened out.

 

Atiku pulled his entire weight behind Obasanjo once again, for reasons best known to him. And what needs to be said here is that one does not trade horses at mid sea. Obasanjo is a soldier who easily forgets a favour and hardly forgives a slight, the kind of guy to whom every hard bargain is like a war. In keeping with his military tradition, he hates disloyalty above everything else. And because all these amount to a man who must exert revenge at all cost he is now, like it or not, part of a booby trap for Atiku. The more time there is the messier.

 

The Adamawa state government can decide to do whatever it likes but its efforts in providing dividends of democracy can not counter Marwa’s tremendous goodwill. For six years it has played the ostrich and pretended that Atiku’s way is God’s way thereby burning all its bridges. This time around, even local politicians are regrouping against them. It is a reality check and nothing else and rigging could come with a backlash.

 

razaque