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The President We Don’t Need and Atiku a Pro-Democracy Activist? By Ibrahim Salihu
His Excellency, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, GCON, Turaki Adamawa and Vice-President, Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a man of means, who has generated stupendous wealth for himself and his associates. As a young man of 23, he had joined the Nigeria Customs Service, rising, twenty years later to the rank of Deputy Director [the equivalent of today’s Deputy Comptroller-General].
Using his resources and contacts, he went into business for himself. He then followed up with investments in oil, freight-forwarding, insurance, agriculture and publishing.
The Nigerian environment has indeed been kind to Atiku Abubakar. His foray into mainstream Nigerian politics began in the late 1980s, when he warmed his way into the People’s Front of Nigeria [PFN], a political association founded by the amiable Major-General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua [Rtd.] who had served as Number Two in the then military administration of General Olusegun Obasanjo. With the death of Yar’Adua in the custody of General Sani Abacha, Atiku Abubakar emerged as the de facto leader of his late mentor’s political machinery. He put the apparatus [now known as the People’s Democratic Movement] into use, scheming it to become one of the pillars of the People’s Democratic Party [PDP, which is today the dominant party in Nigerian politics. Possibly in deference to the memory of his erstwhile deputy [Yar’Adua], Chief Olusegun Obasanjo named Atiku Abubakar his running mate in the presidential election of 1998. They both assumed office in May 1999 as President and Vice-President respectively.
Effectively, Atiku was the controller of the ruling PDP, a confidant of the President, Chairman of the National Economic Council, Chairman of the National Council on Privatisation, among other influential positions and roles. He had access to political and economic power, and dispensed and traded in patronage at will! The Nigerian Press had portrayed him as an icon of Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, hero of the struggle for democracy, a man of the people, and generous friend of the media. This society could not have been kinder to any other individual.
Then came the crunch, and the treachery! Abubakar Atiku and his co-travellers have been the principal beneficiaries of the present post-military dispensation, particularly in the first term [1999-2003]. As the Obasanjo reform agenda firmed up and took roots, entrenched selfish interests began to feel the pinch, and react negatively, like bad losers. Discerning Nigerians would recall the Privatisation Programme re-visited, the restoration of the FCT Master Plan, strengthening of Due Process, Reforms in the Civil Service, Political Reform, among others.
As is well-known, acknowledged and appreciated, the deepening sanity in the conduct of Government business and public affairs has upset a lot of people whose predatory interests are represented by fifth columnists in the present administration.
One of the facts of nature [and this includes humanity] is that error would eventually float on the surface. After all the subterfuges and pretensions to loyalty and patriotism, latent motives have become manifest. VP Atiku Abubakar has not only lamely alleged that his boss has a ‘‘Third Term’ agenda, but indicated his desire to run for the highest office in the land come 2007.
Whether or not the Nigerian Constitution is amended to include a third term option for political office holders, the point is that elections must be held next year – whether the current VP likes it or not. As a Nigerian citizen, Atiku Abubakar is entitled to aspire to any office in the polity. The snag, however, is that he is adopting under-hand tactics in the pursuit of his goals. Surely, a man of his presumed stature should be able to generate his own platform for such pursuits. It is strange that he has opted to undermine the integrity of the administration that has tolerated him these past seven years.
The opportunistic and predatory antecedents of the PDM in the post-Yar’Adua era are well known. At all tiers of governance, they have schemed their members into office, helped themselves liberally, and turn out to demonstrate their generosity through hand-outs and other forms of patronage – for a price, of course!
Is democracy about ‘handing over’ to one’s deputy? Is the VP informing Nigerians that he expected Obasanjo to ‘hand-over’ to him in May 2007 without due process? Why did it take him this long to betray his boss? Is that his notion of ‘stabilising’ democracy in Nigeria? This is the crux of the matter
Is this the kind of person Nigerians want to be their President? People of clouded purpose should no longer be allowed to enter the places of leadership in this country. And neither can they continue to hold the country and its people to ransom. The money-grabbing venality of this class of Nigerians should give way to ascetic idealism of nation building. May God continue to rescue us from the machinations of charlatans.
“the vice president has by his recent actions demonstrated that he is a true democrat, a man of the people, a down to earth person who would not succumb to blackmail…….” MR LANRE FAYEMI-General Secretary of the Turaki Vanguard
The above quote unarguably contradicts what many reasonable Nigerians feel at the moment about vice-president Atiku Abubakar’s recent verbal onslaught against President Olusegun Obasanjo.
According to newspaper reports, the ‘veepee’ boasted that he would expose the president for all to see; stating that he had taken so much from the president already such that there is nothing more obasanjo can do to him. He warned that he would not go down without a fight, assuring that when he talks; Nigerians will know more.
The vice president’s outpouring on Wednesday night has no doubt brought to the fore a raging battle. Many are of the view that the vice president merely wants to eat his cake and have it. The few who were hitherto sympathetic to him have since changed their minds on seeing how he is going about his ambition to attain power at all cost including becoming a renegade.
If it is true that a house divided against itself cannot stand, suffice it to say that Atiku is leaving no stone unturned in an attempt to tear down this government. Methinks if the vice president has any grudge against the government in which he is serving and is currently a part of, the most honourable line of action would be for him to resign. But oh no! This is Nigeria where we always want to eat our cake as well as have it. Mr. Abubakar would rather hang on to the office of vice president than take the noble path.
In case the vice president does not know it, many Nigerians are openly criticizing, denouncing and accusing him of cowardice, treachery and mischief.
This is of course Nigeria where everyone is entitled to the freedom of expression, a place where everyone is entitled to their own opinion; no one is contesting this but for a vice president of a country to come out in public to make the statements credited to Atiku on Wednesday night reeks of lack of patriotism. While making his point on Wednesday, there was no need making disparaging remarks about his boss. This showed a gross lack of respect for the president. I am afraid the vice president may have bitten more than he can chew because instead of winning over sympathizers as he must have envisaged, he has only succeeded in attracting criticisms from all angles.
Quite a few claim that Mr. Vice President is a democrat. I dare ask; would a true democrat tear down a government he is a part of in the manner the V.P has done? Obviously not, he has only shown himself to be disloyal and lacking in integrity.
ATIKU A DEMOCRAT? I THINK NOT.
Salihu sent this piece from Potiskum
Salihu sent this piece from Potiskum.
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