Does Atiku deserve our pity?
By
Abdulaziz Ahmad Abdulaziz Fagge
faggenian2005@yahoo.co.uk
Wise men profit more from fools than
Fools from wise men; for the wise men
Shuns the mistake of fools, but fools
Do not imitate the success of wise”
Cato the Elder
(234 BC – 149 BC) from Plutarch, Lives
I am optimist that
sociologists as well as psychologists will testify in my favour, when I say Nigerians are the most merciful, forgiven
and sympathetic people living on today’s earth. It is only a
Nigerian that you will cheat, insult and subject under all
form of molestation and inhuman treatment today, because you
have opportunity (such as power or money) to do so. And
wonderfully, if tomorrow life turned itself away from you,
that person will join mourners to show you sympathy, pity and
even forgive you despite all what you did to him.
Of recent there is massive flow
of write-ups, opinions and analysis in both print and
electronic media in support and sympathy of the Nigerian Vice
President, Atiku Abubakar. At the same time, such write-ups
are condemning what the authors call “injustice”
“victimization”, “harassment”, “illegal” e.t.c
treatments the VP receives from his boss, President Olusegun
Obasanjo.
Atiku Abubakar was a man with low
reputation in Nigerian polity before his nomination as the
Obasanjo’s running mate during the 1999 general elections
which once again brought
Nigeria under civilian rule. The Vice President
ticket was offered to Atiku, considering the role he played
both financially and using his political machinery to won the
election. The then political camp which Atiku was identified
with was the People’s Democratic Movement (PDM) which was born
out of the People’s Front of Nigeria (PFN) both associated
with late Tafidan Katsina, Gen. Shehu Musa Yaradua (rtd.).
It was due to the nature of
Nigerian politics, which favours only those that can ‘spread’
naira, that Atiku fresh from the Nigerian Custom Service,
where he served for twenty years and accumulated wealth,
became a factor in the PDM and on Gen. Yaradua’s death he
‘inherited’ the throne. Consequently, when it came to forming
transitional political parties, Atiku merged his PDM with the
then G34 to form the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Albeit,
Atiku had secured the gubernatorial seat of his home state,
Adamawa, he was dashed the Vice President ticket against many
bidders at the time as reported the VP’s official website and
I quote “It is came as a surprise to Atiku shortly after
that, when Obasanjo sent for him, following his emergence as
the PDP flagbearer, in the heat of lobbying by many candidates
for the vice-presidential slot..
‘Turaki, are you prepared to take orders from me?’ he asked
Atiku, calling him by the traditional title in his native
Adamawa state. .
‘Ah, I have always taken instructions from you, sir’ Atiku
replied, ‘because you are a general.’.
‘Okay you are my vice-president’, Obasanjo told the
stunned Atiku, ‘go and break the news to the party leaders!’”
That was how it all began and
that was the beginning of all nastiness and cruel governance,
a super-military rule under the guise of civilian and above
all democratic mode of governance. At the begging Atiku was
extra-loyal to Obasanjo and adhered to his likes and dislikes,
dos and don’ts.
During
those hey days of their relationship, Atiku have been bragging
and proud to associate himself with any step and actions of
his boss, Chief Obasanjo. In several occasions the VP had
identified himself as the President’s “hand bag”, “loyalist”
and affirming that “the views of the president is the view of
the VP” But the question on the tongues of Nigerians over the
last two years is simply “Why did that sweet romance turned
sour?”.
There are some speculated reasons, for that and the widely
believed is that; the president did not want Atiku to succeed
him. However this allegation was falsified by the eldest son
of the president, Dr. Olugbenga Obasanjo, in an interview with
Somore
Omoyole exactly a year ago where Dr. Gbenga was reported to
have said “On Atiku, I think people get it wrong thinking
that Baba is working against him. Atiku just thinks that the
presidency is his birthright”.
Whatever is the reason; we should also consider the level of
support, complimentary, empathy, pity and commiseration in the
media and in our informal chats, in favour of the VP and ask
ourselves whether the same Atiku we knew deserve all these.
His Excellency, the Vice
President is a twin brother of the president Obasanjo in terms
of characters and policies. All the economic hardships, all
the reforms are done with Atiku’s active participation; he
never pointed accusing fingers at the reforms which cause
hardship to Nigerian common man. He only turned t be a
“democrat”, “a fighter for the cause of poor”, overnight when
Obasanjo abandoned him. That was why I laugh and shook my head
when late last year at the heat of their hokum and loggerhead
Atiku came out displaying crossed checks and other documents
that are evident of embezzlement shamefacedlessly through his
agents, accusing President Obasanjo of corruption and money
laundering. The question to ask the VP then was “Why did he
not expose all those gauche happenings in the presidency
since, and why didn’t he resign for the good of poor”.
Therefore reasonable Nigerian could believe and trust him. It
was a matter of “You chop I chop” and the game of “He is bad I
am ugly”.
When
it come to looting and embezzlement no one can backed Atiku
from the vulgar business in the PTDF, where the VP is accused
over diversion of multi-billion PTDF funds, since he himself
could not defend himself from such allegation. Another
instance is the VP’s chairmanship of the Bureau of Public
Enterprise (BPE), where significant government owned companies
and properties are sold out in
a dishonest and
opaque way. In most cases those properties were sold to
friends and associates and the money siphoned to personal
treasury. Yet no comprehensive explanation whatsoever from the
VP to at least prove himself innocent against accuses like
this one from the Obasanjo’s child; “Look at AP and the
privatization process, they just sold the entire country to
themselves. Look at the Pentascope deal; they stole over 1
billion dollars from
Nigeria without fixing a single telephone line.
This was done between El-Rufai and VP Atiku, go to the
Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and see those who owns
Pentascope you will see the fraud perpetuated against
Nigeria.” I don’t know whether it was lack of
convincing evidences to falsify such claim that backed him
from protecting his image.
The same Atiku who brutally and
massively rigged the 2003 elections to illegally allow him and
his master perpetuate on power, is now harmless and hopeless
democrat. What a drama! It is not something hidden from the
fore that the role Atiku played in 2003 to see that the ruling
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has retained its presidential
and capture many states’ gubernatorial seats is
unquantifiable. It was to the extent that no one did more than
him to see the “success” of the PDP.
If this is the real figure Atiku Abubakar, the “victimize” and “harass”
Vice President represents, so why are we so concern about him,
about his relationship with his boss? It is nothing but like a
saying “If elephants are fighting it is only grass that will
suffer” thus, we are just pitying someone who does not pity
and never pity us, someone who when oil price is escalated
would only glow and cheer someone who when prices skyrocket
could not remember us – the poor. He is now someone whom we
don’t like to see his tears, we don’t want to him to be
offend, we only like to see his golden side not the blunt as
Gbenga said it in interview with Somore Omoyole thus; “…but
the press would never report these things; they like to paint
him nice even when the facts about these misdeeds are public
knowledge.”.
.
Whatsoever, I am of the opinion
that Atiku Abubakar does not deserve all these concern,
sympathy, pity and support Nigerians are extending to him,
simply because he does not reciprocate the same gestures to
us. I would like to rest my case here with this wise saying
from a renowned philosopher, physicist and author in person of
Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955) said he “If you are out to
describe the truth leave elegance to the tailor”
Abdulaziz Fagge, Public Relations Officer,
Trust Writers Forum, resides at Fagge,
Kano. E-mail
faggenian2005@yahoo.co.uk
or
mylittlewisdom@yahoo.com
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