2019: Why Nigerians Are Highly 'Atikulated'

By Dan Amor

Until recently when the erstwhile Vice President of Nigeria, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, (Turaki Adamawa), began to attract my attention in a very edifying and ennobling manner, I had almost concluded that President Muhammadu Buhari had no challenger within and outside the All Progressives Congress enclave. At the risk of alienating himself from his regional political constituency, Atiku, as he is popularly called, who is better appreciated as a child of events and circumstances, has espoused a large vision of a new Nigeria.

*Atiku Abubakar

"No section of the Nigerian State can claim correctly that its people are better served by the current structure of the federation within the context of the past 50 years of a failed unitary federalism", he boldly proclaimed. Atiku, one of the most respected and consistent national voices, especially in the current political dispensation, has also said that state actors and other politicians who insist that Nigeria cannot be renegotiated and who equate every demand for restructuring with secession may actually be setting the stage for unsavoury outcomes.

Not known for political passivity, Atiku seems to be the perfect riposte to the devotees of unitary federalism, tribalism, bigotry and cabalism which is the hallmark of the Buhari-led Federal Government. By consistently driving his message for a new Nigeria to all corners of the country without fear or favour, he undoubtedly stands out from the maddening crowd of lewd politicians whose stock-in-trade is self interest or outright regression. It is against this backdrop that the prevailing yearnings and calls by several groups of Nigerians and even individuals for him to be elected the next president of the country in 2019 can be better appreciated. Even before his recent victory as the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), a consensus had already been built around him as the next president of Nigeria given his sterling leadership qualities and the abysmal failure of President Muhammadu Buhari to deliver on his campaign promises to the electorate. Yes, Buhari is the incumbent president. But there has never been an insurgent denunciation and condemnation of a sitting president like what is happening to Buhari in recent years. In 2015, there was an elite conspiracy against Dr. Goodluck Jonathan because he stood against his party's internal agreement for political power to shift to the Muslim-dominated political North, the South having held on to power for more than 13 years (excluding the Yar'Adua years).

Jonathan's political 'harakiri' created the opportunity for the formation of the All Progressives Congress (APC) by strange bedfellows whose only common denominator was the capturing of power from the PDP, a house which was already divided against itself. But the depredations of the hunter are not always the result of any fundamental blood lust. Perhaps he is only, more often than not, merely lacking in imagination. And so, the greatest political tragedy of the twenty first century Nigeria is the capturing of political power by a group that calls itself "progressives" but lacking a formidable structure and the imagination to provide comfort for the people. Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the national leader of the APC has always been mouthing attenuations anywhere he goes that they are "progressives" without giving a thought to the fact that their government is the most retrogressive since the foundation of the country. It is difficult to imagine that it is the same Tinubu who gave a world-class leadership to Lagos State between 1999 and 2007 who is also the national leader of the APC, a party under whose watch Nigerians are dying of poverty and hunger and gnashing of teeth all over the place. The tragedy is that the so-called progressives are ironically led by the most tacit representative of the reactionary faction of the Nigerian ruling class, that apostle of feudal revival who wants the country to remain in mediaeval servitude.

For all you may care to know, Buhari rode to power in 2015 on the crest of INTEGRITY. It was bandied all over the place that he was incorruptible. That was his only credential to assume leadership of the most populous black nation on the face of the earth. It was not because he possessed the intellectual power or imaginative prowess to turn things around. Not at all! Even the myth of INTEGRITY has long been demystified by developments since the past three and a half years. Despite allegations and proofs of massive corruption within his very cabinet, only those who took time to study Lord E. E. Dalberg Acton's theory of the corrupting influence of power would appreciate that "power corrupts absolute, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." It is assumed, according to Lord Acton, that the office sanctifies the holder of it. But leaders or holders of power should also be aware of the venality of office and moral rectitude with which they are to be judged. Tribalism and bigotry are also vestiges of corruption. Consequently, there is nothing over which Nigerians are against Buhari more than his stubborn refusal to govern according to the dictates of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which is the groundnorm or the most important document that determines how the country should be governed. Next is his lopsided appointments, his indifferent to the killings of innocent Nigerians especially Christian minority tribes in Benue, Taraba, Zamfara, Plateau, Kogi, Adamawa, Southern Kaduna, etcetera by Fulani herdsmen. Hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children are daily slaughtered across Central Nigeria and even beyond and not even one killer has been brought to book. All we hear from government officials and even presidential spokesmen is that the victims of the genocide should surrender their lands to the herdsmen for their lives to be spared.

As if that is not enough pain on the neck of the nation, the economy has gone totally comatose. The APC administration has spent almost four years blaming the immediate past PDP government for its failures. You said that the PDP plundered the economy for 16 years and yet things are miserably bad under you that know how to manage the economy. Under the immediate past administration that you alleged to have looted the economy, a bag of rice was still N7,500; a liter of petrol was N86 and the nation's currency was exchanging for N187 to the American dollar. But under your administration, a bag of rice sells for N17, 500; a liter of petrol for N145 and the Naira has gone many octaves below its metropoles as it now exchanges for N360 to the American dollar.

According to the Debt Management Office, whereas the immediate past government of PDP had a total debt overhang of N6trillion in 16 years, your prudent government of integrity has borrowed over N18trillion and still counting in just three years with nothing to show for it. This does not include the sale of crude oil, the internally generated revenue and retrieved Abacha loot from foreign banks. Yet, you announced recently that you have invested N2.7trillion in infrastructure in the past three years. Where are the infrastructure? Nigerians still believe in the entity called Nigeria and the need to sustain its unity. Therefore, they want a Nigeria where every person has equal right of association without molestation, harassment, and cheating; a free country devoid of ethnic or religious sentiments.

In view of the fast approaching general elections of 2019, many Nigerians are still interested in the well being of the country, its leadership, and the way forward. In dealing with this highly important and sensitive matter, Nigerians believe that they have a major stake in the politics of their country. Having X-rayed Nigeria politically, socially and economically as presently constituted, Nigerians, from all walks of life, irrespective of tribes or religions, have come to a common consensus that the country must move forward. And they so much believe in credible leadership which they have found in ATIKU.

They believe in Atiku because of his meekness and his services to his fatherland and because he is a good manager of resources. He has made a remarkable, noticeable impact in several other businesses just like Donald Trump of the United States of America and other notable world leaders who have excelled in life. Politically, with the demise of the late General Shehu Musa Yar'Adua, Atiku automatically took over the leadership of the Grassroots Democratic Movement (GDM) that became one of the strongest political dynasties ever existed in this country. His astute leadership role brought him to the position of Vice President under PDP. He is a very detribalised, loyal and hardworking man whose heart is receptive to ideas and open to all Nigerians. Indeed, there is great tension and cries of marginalization and ethnic cleansing across the country. Not even during the unfortunate Civil War was the country this divided. Only a restructured Nigeria can escape another national doom or holocaust. And Atiku has promised to restructure the country if he wins come 2019. It is this that has made all well-meaning Nigerians fully electrified and highly Atikulated.