Former Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, can be regarded as the most perennial aspirant for the position of the President of Nigeria in the history of this country. He had contested for the position six good times in the past albeit unsuccessfully.
Atiku is not the only democratically elected vice president that the country has ever produced. Before him, there was the late Dr Alex Ekwueme who was the vice president of the country in the second republic. After Atiku, there are also Alhaji Namadi Sambo and Professor Yemi Osinbajo SAN who were vice presidents just like Atiku in this extant fourth republic.
Atiku seems to be the most influential or the most powerful among the college of former vice presidents. From all indications, Atiku is not just comfortable to be among this esteemed and privileged college of a handful of Nigerians. Atiku is obviously tired of the prefix of vice president being attached to his name. He craves to be the president of Nigeria even if for 24 hours just like Chief Obafemi Awolowo reportedly craved for in his lifetime. Atiku wants to change his name to President Atiku Abubakar perhaps by all means possible.
That undying ambition could account for why he doesn’t want to give up in his pursuit of the ambition against all odds. Since 1992 till date, he doesn’t want to be a spectator in every general election in the country. Either he was stopped at the party primary level or he was defeated as a presidential candidate in the main election. Regardless of his ageing bones, he doesn’t want to give up his ambition.
This writer doesn’t begrudge Atiku about his presidential ambition. It’s his inalleniable right as guaranteed by the Constitution of the country which is the grund norm. This writer was in fact one of the strongest supporters of Atiku’s ambition in the 2019 general election when he ran a joint ticket with Peter Obi as the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). I was the chairman of a strong support group ( Vote the Atiku Initiative) which was acknowledged and registered at the presidential campaign office at Abuja. I still have the letter of acknowledgement. The 2019 presidential election was the best efforts of Atiku to become the president of Nigeria. We put our best efforts in that election, and the heavens know that Atiku and Obi won that election but the system truncated it.
However, this writer and millions of Nigerians are becoming tired and bored of Atiku’s recurring presidential ambition. The tiredness and lethargic feelings are as a result of Atiku’s miscalculations once he became the presidential candidate. For Atiku, once he became the presidential candidate, he relapsed into complacency. He seemed satisfied with just becoming the candidate, and not winning the election itself. Could it be over confidence or what exactly?
Pray, he had a dossier on then Candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Confess(APC) about his past educational background and qualifications on the issue of the Chicago State University but couldn’t use as campaign tool prior to the general election, only to rely on the Nigerian election tribunals to help him after Tinubu had assumed the coveted position. That CSU scandal could have done a lot of damage to the victory of the current president if it was deployed on time.
Atiku is out again for the 2027 presidential election. There’s no space for him in the PDP again as Nyesom Wike has emasculated the party. Atiku and his loyalists have migrated to the African Democratic Congress (ADC) for the forthcoming general election.
All this talk and hoopla about the coalition is just about Atiku’s ambition. With the former Senate President, David Mark and Rauf Aregbesola as the interim chairman and secretary respectively of the party, Atiku would be the presidential candidate for the party. But then, what would he do differently this time around? If he could not win in both the 2019 and 2023 on the platform of the PDP that had serving governors at the time, is ADC that has no single serving governor that will make him perform wonders?
Atiku seems overrated in his political sagacity. It still baffles this writer and millions of Nigerians why Atiku couldn’t choose Peter Obi as his running mate in the last election to consolidate his sterling performance of 2019 where his joint ticket with Obi almost defeated a very popular serving president. Perhaps, he thought that choosing a serving governor of a very rich state would provide enough funds for the campaign. Granted that money matters a lot in elections but it’s not the ultimate. Even if Atiku had chosen Wike, the results could have still been the same.
The irresistible truth is that the current coalition has Peter Obi as the most valuable politician among them. Without the presence of Obi in that group, Nigerians wouldn’t take them as seriously. In fact, the presidency wouldn’t be jittery.
Peter Obi is the only politician with millions of voters in his kitty even without any campaign. The feat he achieved in 2023 could only be replicated by Muhammadu Buhari of old and not the current Buhari.
Peter Obi is the only man who didn’t have a common councilor on the Labour Party’s platform but recorded over six million votes as allowed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Neither Atiku nor Tinubu can achieve that feat on their own personal strength.
By 2027, Atiku would be 80 years old according to him. He’s likely to contest again. Peter Obi has already declared his intention to contest. Two of them are the best presidential material in the coalition. Should Atiku become the coalition’s candidate, this should be his last attempt. We don’t want to be disturbed again about his presidential ambition in 2031 even if the seat will return to the north.
Therefore, how does Atiku cajole and persuade Peter Obi to drop his own ambition, and be his running mate? It will be a very difficult decision for Obi to make considering how his Obidient followers would react to such a proposal. If God truly destined Atiku to become the Nigerian President, the Obidients should accept it in good faith. The vice president position is not a small position by all ramifications. Half bread is better than nothing.
However, Atiku should have a very comprehensive written agreement with Peter Obi to serve for one term and hand it over to him in 2031. But I doubt if Atiku would relinquish a constitutionally guaranteed second term once he captures the presidential seat. It’s almost impossible considering the number of times he had craved the position. There lies the dilemma because Peter Obi is the only living politician from the southern part of Nigeria who can help any northern presidential candidate defeat Tinubu in 2027.
Apart from God who controls the affairs of men on earth, Peter Obi will determine if Atiku will ever be president or not. No other such politician currently exists.
Maduako writes from Owerri via [email protected] (08061562735)
