Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the one better known as Turaki Adamawa has
spoken. It is not as if he had been struck dumb by a strange spirit, or
something close to such and there had been protracted efforts to recover his
speech and good result only came last Tuesday when he spoke at a book launch in
Lagos.
In fact,
the man has been talking since the beginning of this democracy on May 29, 1999.
It is just that he has been saying other things that do not command hot
attention. Things like how his love for the new found democracy in Nigeria pushed him and others to stop former
President Olusegun Obasanjo from evolving into a life president as Robert
Mugabe of Zimbabwe .
He has also
been talking on his unequalled leadership prowess, and how such had put him in
a better stead to occupy Aso Rock Villa in 2007, instead of late President
Umaru Musa Yar’Adua; in 2011, instead of Goodluck Jonathan, and even in 2015,
instead of the incumbent, President Muhammadu Buhari. It was while waiting till
2019 to represent the same matter that the Turaki, launched more forcefully
into the subject matter of Restructuring Nigeria.
He got the right attention for the first time since 2007. Essentially, he said
this Nigeria
that Nigerians love so much would vanish, leaving everybody fantastically
short-changed if we continued in our ways. His words: “our current structure and the practices it has encouraged have been a
major impediment to the economic and political development of our country. In
short, it has not served Nigeria
well, and at THE RISK OF REPROACH (emphasis mine) it has not served my part of
the country, the North well. The call for restructuring is even more relevant
today in light of the governance and economic challenges facing us. And the
rising tide of agitations, some militant and violent, require a reset in our
relationships as a united nation.”
Atiku said
much more in his about 2000-word message. The choice of that quote is actually
to underscore the inherent hesitation in his speech. He came close to
confessing that he was being compelled (apparently by forces beyond his
control) to say something he shouldn’t say as a Fulani man from Northern Nigeria . In all, ‘Restructuring of Nigeria ’
is not among the high topics taught at all levels of intellectual engagement up
North. And if it is ever discussed, it is to explain that restructuring of Nigeria into
anything other than what obtains currently, is a sin against the North and
Islam.
This is why
Atiku, in all sincerity, shall need some support from his northern constituency
to be able to stand by his big message, come rain or shine. If he remains a
lone voice in this wilderness of political restructuring, his people may think
he is ‘possessed by demons.’ Although Alhaji Babarabe Musa and even Dr. Junaid
Mohammed have said something, voices with higher pitch are required to make the
Atiku’s message get close to a reflection of Northern thinking in the light of
current national challenges.