By Daniel A. Noah Osa-Ogbegie, Esq.
Nigeria’s former Vice President and former Customs officer, Abubakar Atiku has become a re-occuring decima in the politics of Nigeria .
My first knowledge of the man was in 1993 when he contested with the likes of Moshood Abiola for the Presidential ticket of the Social Democratic Party ( SDP) and later frantically sought to be running mate to Abiola after he lost the ticket.
MKO Abiola refused to make Atiku his running mate then. He instead settled for the charismatic diplomat, Babagana Kingibe in similitude to what Bola Ahmed Tinubu has done just now.
People who knew Abiola, knew that he was a very wise man that could smell treachery from a distance. Perhaps Abiola had his reason for rejecting Atiku as his Vice, but this decision would soon be vindicated when Olusegun Obasanjo, thinking that since Atiku belonged to the Shehu Musa Ya’radua political family, would have same discipline and character as the great Shehu. If Obasanjo’s various complains about Atiku are anything to go by, Atiku was a wrong choice for him and for anyone else. He’s untrustworthy, callous and extremely corrupt. Please read an except from MY WATCH, a book written by Obasanjo where he gave us strong insights into the person of Atiku Abubakar:
“What I did not know, which came out glaringly later, was his parental background which was somewhat shadowy, his propensity to corruption, his tendency to disloyalty, his inability to say and stick to the truth all the time,a propensity for poor judgment, his belief and reliance on marabouts , his lack of transparency, his trust in money to buy his way out on all issues and his readiness to sacrifice morality, integrity, propriety truth and national interest for self and selfish interest”
Olusegun Obasanjo
MY WATCH
Volume 2
Pages 31- 32
The Above is Atiku disected by Obasanjo as someone who was a VP under him. Obasanjo knew him well enough to have described him this way.
Such a man as described by Obasanjo should be kept away from our highest seat, very far from our common partrimony and not tossed on it for any reason whatsoever.
Nothing has changed with him. He is still the same desperate Atiku as before. He has changed political parties more than a Prostitute changes sex partners. His looting tendencies have also not changed in any way. He claims to be the highest employer of labour in Nigeria after the federal government, yet he hustled for his daughter to go through the back door to get a Central Bank of Nigeria job few years ago, without regards to Nigerians who have no one to speak for them.
Atiku Abubakar has contested for every Presidential election since 1993, 30 years ago by next year when the Presidential election holds. I was in SS2 then going to SS 3, at age 15 to 16. Today, wobbling from Dubai, where he lives, to London, where he seeks approbation to be Nigeria’s President, then to Nigeria, where he wants to satisfy his long held hedonistic desire to be President, Atiku seeks to break the Nigerian spirit of creating a balance in a multi ethnic entity by rotating power between North and South.
The APC in its wisdom, deliberately zonned the Presidential ticket to the southern part of the country, to maintain national unity and balance . The PDP, ever so motivated by power grabbing, saw an opportunity in this and pulled all stunts to give the ticket to Atiku, a Northern fulani muslim to take over from buhari, another Northern fulani muslim, having no thought about National unity and continued coexistence, yet this same party, long described as a nest of killers, quarrel with the APC nomination of a kanuri muslim as running mate to a Yoruba muslim, two ethnic groups whose muslim population have generally been described as liberal.
If it didn’t matter in Osun for PDP to have a Christian/Christian ticket in a State with probably a higher Muslim population, why should it matter in Nigeria for the APC to have a muslim/ Muslim ticket? If it didn’t matter for the PDP to give their ticket to Atiku Abubakar, an almost 80 year old Northern fulani muslim man to replace a Northern fulani muslim man after 8 years, why should it matter for the APC to give their ticket to Bola Tinubu?
2023 will be a very decisive year . An opportunistic Atiku cannot be the purveyor of the new Nigeria of hope , equity and fair play.
Abubakar Atiku is 75 years now. He would be 76 years in 2023 and 80 years at the end of his four years tenure. We don’t need a recycled geriatric to continue to superitend over us and determine our future. We need a quick-witted dynamic President that thinks on his feet and can articulate an agenda for the Country very quickly.
First of all, it would be unfair, unjust and unconscionable for a northern, fulani Muslim to succeed buhari after buhari’s 8 years. Secondly, Tinubu has shown leadership over the years, clearly showing that he has a strong ability to spot talents and give them room to deploy their talents for the general good. Again, Tinubu is transgenerational, with a multi cultural persuasion. I believe after these 8 divisive years of buhari’s clanishness, Nigeria would need a Tinubu to heal the wounds of the past and bring everyone together, on the same table, to chart a new Nigeria where we can sail in the same direction, while understanding our differences.
He would attract egg-heads from all over the Country into Government, aggregating our very bests. He did it in Lagos and every State in Nigeria copy Lagos Civil and criminal proceedings and adjudication systems; every State copy the Lagos economic road map,transportation system and their world class civil service system and even Housing.
Daniel Osa-Ogbegie writes from Akpakpava Business District, by King’s Square, Benin City.
ogbegie@ogbegie.com
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