All Hail Atiku, The New Democrat

By

Mohammed Ibn Bello

mohammedibnbello@yahoo.co.uk

 

Even the most cursory observer of Nigeria’s political future would have discerned, from developments in the 90’s, that the inglorious days of military rule were numbered.  The infamy it had thrown up, which  we are all so familiar with, had long revealed it to be an aberrant system of government, one whose anachronism was bound to give way, sooner or later, to the inevitable desideratum – the much-sought–after and severally attempted democracy.

 

And indeed, it came to berth on our shores on May 29, 1999 with the emergence of civilian rule under the leadership of President Olusegun Obasanjo, himself a former military head of state, and his deputy, Vice President Atiku Abubakar, an emerging political gladiator on the Nigerian political firmament.

 

While Obasanjo was not known to have any political antecedents, the same could not be said of his deputy who was known to be no political greenhorn, having sprouted from the political tutelage of the late Shehu Musa Yar Adua (rtd); a political strategist of no mean credentials and Obasanjo’s dependable colleague in the army.

 

Needless to say the duo of Obasanjo and Atiku symbolised to Nigerians a new hope, a new beginning, a breath of fresh air from the putrid offerings of the past.  Finally, the prospect of democratic rule, after repeated miscarriages, was clearly, and with good reason, full of promise; promise of a better Nigeria, of better benefits to and for Nigerians, a desired harvest which we have come to term as “dividends of democracy”.

 

And so Nigerians, in anticipation of democracy and its dividends, voted into power President Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku Abubakar.  Obasanjo, being the political newcomer he was at the time, rode on the political machinery of the existing political juggernauts – a cardinal player of which was Atiku – to usher in democracy.  The party of the day was the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and it carried the day.

 

Upon assumption of office under democratic rule, Obasanjo, to safeguard the inchoate democracy, pounced upon his only constituency – the Army – and peremptorily retired all officers in the Nigerian Army who had tasted of political office.  He owed his allegiance now only to his party (the PDP) and the political realities that brought him to power.  Atiku, who had a better understanding of the political intricacies as well as personalities, meanwhile consolidated political power.  A consummate politician, with deft political manoeuvrings no doubt enhanced by an immensely moneyed clout, Atiku, by the end of Obasanjo’s first tenure in 2003, had absolute control of the party machinery of the PDP, so much so that he only needed to declare his rumoured candidacy for the Presidency for it to be a done deal.  The State governors, almost entirely, were his loyalists, and Obasanjo was to realize, at the PDP primaries, how severely hamstrung he was.  Though Atiku was to later capitulate on his Presidential ambition, Obasanjo had witnessed firsthand how politically superior and powerful his deputy was.  No doubt, it would perturb any President, whose name a government bears, to discover his leadership was subject to the acquiescence of his deputy; a man whom he had chosen to be part of his administration.

 

Enter 2003, and the tables were turned.  Ghali Na’abba, fiery speaker of the House, was no more, having lost his seat in the House of Representatives.   Two years later, Audu Ogbeh stepped aside as PDP chairman.  Obasanjo brought in a team of technocrats who, relative to his first tenure, delivered the goods – the putative dividends of democracy – a whopping 12 billion dollars is wiped off our debt profile, a scenario that sees us being totally debt-free by the end of April; a banking sector reformation  that enlists Nigerian banks as power players in its ever resilient and burgeoning economy with salutary implications on the deepening of Nigeria’s financial markets (the money and capital markets); and in that line also, the evolution of a pension scheme for all income earners in the economy.  In the light of these, amongst other things, even Obasanjo’s staunchest critics have had to concede a measure of success to him in this regard.  Borrowing the words of one staunch critic, the venerable Wole Soyinka, it is obvious that it is these “quite considerable successes” that have spurred some to advocate that Obasanjo stays for a third term, setting him invariably on a collision course with his deputy, Atiku, who was/is hoping to actualise his Presidential ambition come 2007.

 

With Atiku’s powers drastically whittled in the political space, it is now that Obasanjo can rightly proclaim his mantra of ‘I dey Kampe’.  Atiku, however, would not take this lying low and demonstrated just this in his address to the Forum 2007 meeting in Abuja on Wednesday April 5, 2006.  An unusually plucky and assertive Atiku denounced his boss in strong terms, alluding to Ghali Na’abba (a vocal Obasanjo opposer) twice in his speech.  The question then arises that since when have Atiku and Na’abba started drinking from the same calabash?  And this, we are told, is in defence of democracy.  Should we weep for this façade or laugh at its incredulity?  Must our political elites turn democrats only after their egos have been bruised, or they are politically disadvantaged? Another latter day apostle of this gospel would seem to be Audu Ogbeh, a man who ordained the “family affair” rape of the 2003 Anambra gubernatorial race, but is now a converted democrat.  What about Jim Nwobodo?  Or Victor Malu?

 

How sad it is that our fight for democracy in Nigeria is not about issues or ideas, but personalities.  What does this portend for the future of our politics and the entrenchment of our democracy?  Alas, individualism concerns itself with self-interest and self-interest negates the essential principle of democratic governance – SERVICE.  While there cannot be democracy without politicians, there can be politicians without democracy.  Sadly, Nigeria seems to evince the latter.  So help us God!

 

 

Mohammed Ibn Bello, 12, Bama Road, Maiduguri