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2007 Presidency: Atiku Is Qualified To Contest By Jide Ayobolu
Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the vice president of the federal of Nigeria, is not only eminently qualified to be the president of Nigeria, he has every right to contest for the highest office in the land. The EFCC report and the report of the kangaroo administrative panel set up by president Obasanjo to indict vice president Atiku Abubakar did not do a very tidy and thorough job that the president wanted them to do. In the first place, both the EFCC and the kangaroo panel report cannot do anything outside what the president wants them to do, which is to nail the vice president, so that, he will not be able to contest for the 2007 elections. The president has an uncommon hatred for the vice president that he would stop at nothing to make sure at all cost that he does not contest all for the presidential election next year. This because, if he is allowed to contest, he is very popular and almost certain that he would win the election. The president does not like anybody with a promising future; he wants to remain the only star that everybody comes to. But has not created the world for just one man to constantly steal the show. God has given each person a peculiar talent for the betterment and upliftment of mankind. Furthermore, the kangaroo report is not only one-sided, but replete with contradictions, outright fabrications, audacious mendacity and blatant falsehood, but all said and done; the kangaroo report did not indict the vice president in any way, the money that was placed in ETB was given back to government with all interests that accrued to it, when government asked all banks holding government account to give back money in their care to the government. And, the money that was in TIB is still intact with spring bank after the banking consolidation exercise. So, in all the financial transactions by the vice president not only was the due process followed, no money was lost or stolen in the process. So, if no money was lost, and the vice president did not benefit directly or indirectly in the PDTF transactions, on what will his supposedly indictment by the president kangaroo panel be predicated? The vice president remains a man of impeccable character, and astute administrator, a successful businessman and a seasoned politician. In the country today, he has the most formidable and potent political machinery in the country. He has links through the country and has contributed in no small measure to the growth and development of all the geo-political zones of the country. He is the most qualified of all the candidates so far, as he has been the vice president for seven years, coupled with all the contacts and goodwill that he has made and garnered over the years. And, more than any other person, he is very serious about governance, for instance, some few months back, he organized a policy retreat group that looked into all sectors of the Nigerian economy with a view of working out modalities of fashioning out policies and programmes that will have very positive and meaningful impact on the lives of the people. He was worried about why governments policies is having limited impact on the people in spite of all the razzmatazz, as well as how the various policies will complement one another and impact appreciably on the people. This is a person that has been very serious about whatever he sets out to do right from childhood. He is humane, and has the milk of human kindness; he is emotionally stable and a team worker, who does not claim to know it all. This is someone that listens to advice, he does not talk down on people, he does not abuse people, he does not get angry un-necessarily, and he is perspicacious, articulate, sagacious, considerate, liberal, unassuming, energetic, dynamic, resourceful and industrious. There is no doubt that this is the kind of person Nigeria needs to get to her zenith point. Any attempt by retrogressive forces to stop the most qualified and the best candidate will no doubt be a tragedy of monumental proposition, and the people of Nigeria will be the greatest loser in all of these. Again, it is very important to point out here that, it is only the people of Nigeria that has the right to choose whoever they want to govern them, they are the ultimate repository of power, it very undemocratic and a gross violation of the fundamental human right of the Nigerian people for those in positions of authority now at the center to say, they know the people that will not succeed them. They are not God, and should not play God. Atiku is very qualified to contest for the highest position in the land; he can certainly do better than the horrendous leadership Obasanjo has provided since he assumed the mantle of leadership in 1999, and Nigerians deserve a better deal. By
Jide Ayobolu Garki Abuja Nigeria. |