Consensus and the Atiku Abubakar

Consensus and the Atiku Abubakar Challenge

Aonduna Tondu

One way of understanding the profound significance of the Atiku Abubakar choice is to see it as the decision of a wing of the PDP, that is to say an internal party affair with, no doubt, potentially far-reaching national ramifications.

To the extent that the Jonathan/Obasanjo-led wing of the same PDP, by all intents and purposes, has already settled for the incumbent president as its own choice for the forthcoming presidential primaries, this, in direct contravention of its party's constitution, the effort by the Adamu Ciroma Committee to come up with a 'consensus candidate' of Northern provenance should be seen as a logical reaction to the Jonathan 'coronation' which has assumed a disturbingly and deliberately sectarian-cum-sectional orientation. And this is where the rank hypocrisy on the part of some segments of the civil society irritates most.

The Ciroma-led Northern Political Leaders Forum (NPLF) is criticized mainly by individuals or groups imbued with barely disguised primordial allegiances who are too myopic to realize that, in their reactive posture, Ciroma and co. had to organize or consult in the manner that politicking for power acquisition has always been done over the ages. It is therefore unjust when one seeks to denigrate the tactics adopted by Ciroma and his outfit as being unrepresentative. Adama Ciroma and his partners are not that naive to delude themselves that their consensus candidate is anything but a product of a section of the PDP and that eventually, he must subject himself to the democratic scrutiny of the majority. It has to be emphasized that there is nothing inherently undemocratic in the 'nomination’ process adopted by Ciroma and his organization. So, instead of being starry-eyed or overtly concerned regarding the Ciroma project, opposition voices should evolve ways and means that would enable them provide credible democratic alternatives to any candidate that emerges under the PDP banner.

Whether or not one is in support of Atiku Abubakar as a potential presidential candidate of the PDP, one should know that in the eyes of many a Nigerian, he has come to symbolize opposition to those polarizing and centrifugal forces of impunity that have congregated around the former tyrant, Olusegun Obasanjo, who prides himself as a mentor and ally of President Jonathan. Atiku's former association with Obasanjo seems to have been forgiven for the simple reason that in the anti-Third Term struggle, he came to epitomize the people's democratic aspirations through his courageous defiance of the former dictator and especially his rigid opposition to the man's tenure elongation gambit. Crucially, Jonathan, on the other hand, is regarded as a surrogate that the ex-despot imposed on the nation in 2007 as part of a diabolical plot consisting in the actualization of Obasanjo's tenure elongation plan by proxy. Rigging into Aso Rock a terminally ill and incapacitated Umaru Yar'Adua as Jonathan's boss was part and parcel of the Obasanjo-conceived scenario. Key sections of the national media did warn the nation of Obasanjo's evil schemes whose principal objective was the self-perpetuation fantasies of the Ota tin god, fantasies that have apparently materialized with the death of Yar'Adua and the ascendancy of Jonathan as substantive president. This terrible situation alone has created a lot of resentment in the populace across the country. That resentment is directed toward not just the former imperial ruler but significantly also, toward his acolyte who is the current president. The anti-Jonathan/anti-Obasanjo resentment is getting worse , what with the confounding incompetence of Mr. President and his regime.

It is not enough to say that people like Ciroma and his group did nothing to prevent Obasanjo from having his way in 2007. The whole country did little to stop the reckless impunity of the former dictator. It is also not enough to deny or even seek to minimize the corrosive influence on the Jonathan presidency of the former dictator whose track record has had the effect of provoking a sense of abiding revulsion on the part of much of the citizenry. Instead of trying to correct the negative image the people have of him and his administration, Jonathan has been perpetuating it through his bad ways, thus creating the impression that he cannot be trusted.

Atiku's chances of defeating an increasingly desperate Jonathan at their party’s primaries will depend on the ability of his campaign machine to garner support across the various divides within the PDP behemoth and beyond. The former vice-president’s history of beating the odds in the face of injustice and daunting adversity should reassure his followers. It is good news for the Atiku team that the former dictator, Babangida, and Aliyu Gusau, President Jonathan’s erstwhile National Security Adviser (NSA), have reportedly said that they support his selection by the Ciroma Committee. Babangida’s campaign organization, it is understood, will be put at the disposal of Atiku and his presidential ambition.

The proverbial cat with nine lives, Atiku survived the orchestrated onslaught of a marauding tyrant and, at the end of it all, emerged stronger as a true statesman, the embodiment of the democratic yearnings of the people. At least this is what the former vice-president’s supporters think of the man. His ability to sustain those popular yearnings while tapping into the deep well of bottled-up resentment toward the current regime in Abuja will be tested in the days and weeks to come. His political itinerancy which sensible Nigerians understand was a deft and perhaps inevitable move considering the circumstances of the time, ought to remind all and sundry of former Vice-President Atiku’s capacity for political mobilization and the building of strategic alliances, necessary ingredients in any democratic contest of the type the man is currently engaged in within his party.

It is important to note that Atiku and his team do rightly consider the support by a powerful wing of their party as a serious and worthwhile happening. That support is based on the need to reassert once again, through concrete deeds, those core values that bind us together as a nation amongst which are the respect for the rule of law and unity that is predicated on the acceptance of our ethno-religious differences. ‘’ I hope that the conclusion of this consensus process will mark an end to the divisive politics which our opponents have been promoting. In the days ahead I shall be addressing the press, and will continue to unfold my agenda for providing good governance and building a new Nigeria for all Nigerians irrespective of their ethnic, religious or sectarian affiliations. With your support and prayers we shall make good things happen’’. Thus, the Atiku presidential quest is being proposed as a challenge to re-invent the country, to effect a transformation away from the present state of paralysis and hopelessness under an increasingly distracted administration. But the nation as a whole must also see the Atiku challenge as a patriotic call to duty – the prodding to sit up and genuinely work toward the change we truly want.

Now is the time for the opposition to concentrate more on the organization of the nation's live forces ahead of the critical electoral battles next year and less on the PDP's internecine squabbles. Desired change of the positive kind may continue to elude us as long as key opposition players and the civil society in general remain fixated on the PDP's byzantine quarrels.

Aonduna Tondu.