By Ikechukwu Amaechi
Published: Tuesday, January 27, 2009
A few months ago, my hardworking correspondent in Adamawa State, Sule Lazarus, wrote a story that former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, met with his political associates in the state to sound them out on the possibility of returning to his former party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). I have always had confidence in Sule, yet the story looked implausible.
My dilemma was compounded by the fact that none of those who were said to have attended the meeting agreed to be quoted. I called somebody, sufficiently close to Atiku, who should know if such a meeting took place. In the past, my source never failed to confirm a story. At most, he would plead anonymity.
But he claimed ignorance of this particular meeting. I made two other calls, drew blank, and decided to drop the story. The golden rule in this profession is, “If you are in doubt, leave out.” I didn’t want to be out the following morning on a limb.
The story sounded incredible because it was hard to imagine Atiku going back to a party that thoroughly disgraced him. How could he, again, associate politically with men and women who, not only chased him out of a party he helped found, but also, almost, denied him the opportunity to exercise his franchise, his inalienable right to stand for election?
What is more, Atiku “won” the 2007 Presidential election and would have been Nigeria’s President today if not for the hanky-panky of the Professor Maurice Iwu-led Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). So, if he was able to win the Presidency on the platform of the Action Congress (AC), why go back to the PDP, a party that has become inconsequential to his political future?
Besides, can he afford to leave in the lurch all those who followed him to the AC, and who not only ensured he emerged, unopposed, the presidential candidate of the fledgling party, but also became victims of the collateral damage of the war of attrition between him and Obasanjo? Such a move by a man described by his numerous admirers as a consummate politician was, simply, imponderable.
But how naïve I was. I failed to reckon with the legendary capacity of the average Nigerian politician to lick his vomit if that will advance his political cause. Subsequent events since I threw away Sule’s super exclusive have shown that Atiku is not only scheming to go back to the PDP but is also prepared to do anything possible, including walking on all fours to Obasanjo, to make that happen.
And that was exactly what he did penultimate Monday when he made a surprise visit to Obasanjo at his Abeokuta mansion. Asked if the visit signals reconciliation, Atiku explained that there was no “personal animosity between me and the former president. We had political disagreement which could even happen between a father and son.” Two days later, the Atiku Political Organisation issued a statement explaining that the fear that unresolved “political feuds and petty elite bickering” will continue to undermine the country’s political and economic progress led both men to resolve to work with other patriots and statesmen to address critical national challenges.
“The meeting was not about the 2011 presidential election as some people have misinterpreted it. The two leaders decided to bury the hatchet and focus their attention, redirect their energies and harness their collective experiences for the benefit of the country
“It was not about the two of them. It is about the future of our beloved country. At a critical moment, such as this, in the life of a nation, great men and women must put aside political differences and work for the progress of the country. This is the context in which the Abeokuta meeting should be seen by all well-meaning Nigerians,” the statement read in part.
What a patriotic duo. Ordinarily, Nigerians should count themselves blessed for having such selfless leaders. Except that the two “altruistic” men had eight years to do what they are claiming to be doing now but frittered away the opportunity on the altar of debauchery. Or could it be that Nigeria is at a much more critical moment now than it was in 1998/99 when the two were given the ultimate powers in the land to pull back the country from the precipice?
Nobody should make any mistake about what is happening. Atiku is no fool. He knows quite well that the enormous goodwill he seemed to have garnered in the last two years of their presidency was more a rejection of Obasanjo than an endorsement of his leadership capabilities. Nigerians, having found themselves sandwiched between the axiomatic deep blue sea and the devil between 2006 and 2007, and in their determined opposition against Obasanjo’s inordinate ambition to rule Nigeria in perpetuity, saw in Atiku an ally.
Atiku played his new role well because he also saw in Obasanjo’s aspiration the cemetery of his own political ambition. So, it was a situation of his desperate fight for political survival finding a meeting point with the overwhelming aspiration of Nigerians to see to the end of an administration that became a curse rather than a blessing.
What is happening now is that Atiku, having not buried his Presidential ambition, a legitimate ambition by all means, and because he is no fool, knows that Nigerians cannot, in good conscience, elect him President in a free and fair election. To achieve his ambition, therefore, he has to fall back on the PDP rigging machine, a machine he knows so well because he was in the saddle both in 1999 and 2003, to capture Nigeria in 2011.
It is not in Obasanjo’s character to forgive past hurts. And Atiku hurt him pretty good. Therefore, if the former President were to live to his vengeful reputation, he may be deliberately baiting Atiku so as to finally deliver the sucker punch.
But even if this reconciliation is genuine, it cannot be because Obasanjo has suddenly fallen in love with Atiku again. He hasn’t that capacity. It may well be that just as it happened between Atiku and Nigerians in 2007, both Obasanjo and his former deputy have now found a new common enemy in the incumbent President, Umaru Yar’Adua, and are prepared to bury their very deep and fundamental political differences in order to deal with this new foe.
Atiku still sees Yar’Adua as a usurper, a man who is reaping where he did not sow. Obasanjo has every reason to feel betrayed by his successor. Both would like to teach the political upstart (his eight years as governor notwithstanding), the political lesson of his life.
But they will see their match in the President, not because of Yar’Adua per se, but because the hawks around him, who believe it is their turn to milk the cow called Nigeria are up for a fight.
So, where do all these intrigues leave Nigeria and Nigerians? In the cesspit where we have always been.
The sad thing is that in this 21st century world, beset with grave economic crisis; a world where governments, in repudiation of neo-capitalism, are beginning to regulate and run businesses once more, every country is putting their best and brightest sons and daughters in leadership positions. In Nigeria, the reverse is the case. We are working hard to ensure that men with tunnel vision entrench themselves in the commanding heights of government. What a country! What a people!
