Northern Nigeria may have settled for Atiku Abubakar in its quest to reclaim the presidency. This view represents the majority of opinions sampled in Yola sequel to his (Atiku) defection penultimate week to the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC.
Therefore, going by the estimated views, the opinions were swayed by a perception which rendered the erstwhile vice president (Atiku) as a widely accepted politician across the northern region. Several such people who hold this view have posited Atiku in enigmatic terms, describing his rise to limelight as mysterious, hence a conclusion that “Atiku is the man to rescue the region”.
They celebrate Atiku in glowing terms and credit him with unfathomable political sagacity, arguing that he had all along schemed his way to the top. Atiku, they brag had in many political contests, beaten his opponents to pulp and even subdued other northern contenders two times to clinch a place in a presidency contest. They further argue that Atiku is perhaps the only northerner with a wild political benevolence that can rattle aspirants from other regions of the country. As such they insist he is the right man to effectively ruffle feathers with the incumbent president.
In 1999, they say, an obscure Atiku, then Adamawa governor-elect, stunned political watchers when he snatched the vice presidential ticket of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP in Jos and was paired with Obasanjo to the dismay of the highly rated Abubakar Rimi. Back then, Rimi (now late), bitterly recounted how he was schemed out, but blamed everything on then President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Rimi recalled how in company of the current PDP national chairman, Ahmadu Adamu Mu’azu and late Solomon Lar, he was anointed to deputize for Obasanjo but Atiku dislodged him the following day at the convention.
However, Atiku’s lieutenants have also recalled how the same Rimi later made a u-turn in 2006 and joined the vanguard for the enthronement of their principal. To them, Rimi’s u-turn on Atiku demonstrated his enormous capacity to whip his political opponents into line.
Atiku repeated the feat during buildup to the 2011 presidential primaries by scheming his way atop the region’s pruning process of its aspirants. To their chagrin, they say, the duo of Generals Aliyu Gusau and Ibrahim Babangida, watched Atiku maneuvered his way to become northern Nigeria’s most preferred in political representation.
His numerous admirers cited these facts, alluding to how the Chiroma led committee dumped the trio of Bukola Saraki, Generals Gusau and IBB in favor of Atiku who later lost the PDP ticket to President Jonathan. They further celebrate him as a man with a rare network of associates spanning the entire nation due to the spread of his matrimonial disposition. To his lieutenants, Atiku naturally has an edge over all others due to his matrimonial linkage to all the regions of the country, which they say, has distinguished and predisposed him to a broader national view of the country.
However, feelers within his Adamawa political base sends rather unsavory signal, and from all indications the former VP may have prematurely collided into the law of diminishing returns politically. To some of his associates who have refused to join him on what they have termed, “defection rigmarole”, Atiku, who recently dumped the PDP for the second time, is credited with the title of a “Permanent Presidential Candidate, PPC in some political parlance”, they taunted.
Despite that, Atiku enjoys an estimated admiration of the masses for deploying his wealth at home. In that regard, the general feeling is that the man is rated the most patriotic Adamawa indigene for bringing his stupendous wealth to bear on the economy of the state. Many in Adamawa believe Atiku has no match for bringing to the rural agrarian state of Adamawa, world class investments like the American University of Nigeria, AUN and other conglomeration of industries.
But his austere critics who feel differently quickly countered the euphoria, dismissing his wealth as ill-gotten. To them, it is illogical to celebrate a man on the strength of his wealth. Instead, they raised fundamental moral questions bordering on what they have termed, “Atiku’s desperation to rule”. Making reference to his recent political realignment, they accused him of playing the ethnic or regional card in order to gain advantage against President Jonathan.
As a result they urged the public to discountenance what they framed “sweet talk about Atiku” insisting that, parochial view of a person’s private investments cannot be deployed to define his suitability for the office of the president.
Further still, they insist, “the qualities of a president transcend that”. Stressing, “The qualities of a man who seeks the plum job of a country’s president must be abundantly reflected in their nationalistic character, which they accused Atiku of lacking”.
“Atiku”, they say, “has owing to his recent political “(mis)calculation” betrayed himself as a regional champion of some sort”. This allegation is hinged upon a premise of how how Atiku is deploying his wealth and exploiting all possibilities to fly the APC flag to slug it out with President Jonathan in 2015 if he decides to run.
Against this background, Nigerian Pilot undertook to gauge public mood and to further determine what the masses think of him. This will be to the extent of establishing whether his critics or admirers have captured the right perspective of what the generality of Nigerians feel about his nationalistic disposition or otherwise in the face of the vexed rotational presidency that is currently threatening the country.
To start with, Atiku’s zealous supporter have vehemently argued that picking the APC presidential ticket cannot in anyway reduce Atiku to a regional politician as his critics would want to tell the world. They insist that Atiku’s towering pedigree stands him out as a politician who sees the entire country as his constituency.
On whether Atiku’s decampment could be tied to desperation to grab the APC ticket, the answer was “Going by his pedigree, the former VP is not the kind of man who will dump the party he cofounded just to sit on the fence in another party”.
Pundits also corroborated the view and clarified thus, “Atiku must have jumped the PDP ship because he was assured of the APC ticket”. As to whether anybody has the capacity to contest the APC ticket with Atiku, political watchers say “the question remains open”.
As events continue to unfold, we, at the Nigerian Pilot will follow the developments and keep you posted. This we will dutifully do with a view to providing numerous readers of our newspaper the needed information to make informed political decisions.
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