ATIKU’S 30-YEAR RACE FOR THE PRESIDENCY: Is This His Time?

Will Alhaji Abubakar Atiku be second time lucky? He lost the presidential election in 2019 when he ran on the People’s Democratic Party ticket, the first time he was getting the ticket of a major party, one on which platform he had previously served as Vice President between 1999 and 2007. But his presidential journey goes way back to 1992, a 30-year trip that has seen him play at the very top of the contest for power. He was a protege of the late General Shehu Musa YarA’dua, founder of a formidable political group during the military regime’s political transition programme in the early 1990s. At that time, Atiku pitched his tent with the Social Democratic Party, one of the two parties created by the military government. In the SDP he contested the presidential primary alongside Alhaji Babagana Kingibe and Chief MKO Abiola, the eventual winner. He further lost out in the politics for the VP ticket. He lost to Kingibe. He bounced back seven years later in 1999 to become the VP to President Olusegun Obasanjo of the PDP. Unfortunately, Atiku fell out with Obasanjo and was denied the chance to succeed his boss. That loss has dogged him since then.

In the 2007 election he ran on the Action Congress ticket, packaged by his friend and now political adversary, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, but lost to the incumbent PDP candidate in the person of Umaru Musa Yar’Adua who eventually won the election. Atiku remained in the political wilderness of failed ambitions until he won the PDP presidential ticket in 2019. It was always going to be a tall order beating an incumbent, especially one like Buhari whose northern support base is solid. Atiku lost but there are those among his supporters who swear that he was robbed of victory. Now, with Buhari not on the ballot, Atiku fancies that he has the first real opportunity to win since he’s not running against an incumbent.

Relying on his deep political roots in the north Atiku looks to win the northern vote and hope that the Obi momentum is not overwhelming enough to rob him of all support in the Southeast and southsouth. But his campaign ran into some headwinds too early that have refused to abate. The most formidable is the insurgent coalition of five governors and some southern PDP leaders led by Rivers State governor Nyesom Wike. With Wike are Benue State governor Samuel Ortom, Oyo State governor Seyi Makinde, Enugu State governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi and Abia State governor Dr Ikpeazu. In an election predicted to go down to the wire, with every vote important, Atiku will seem to be in a bad position.

Despite the problems facing the party, Atiku is confident of victory. Speaking to the Voice of America Hausa Service early November, the PDP candidate said he and the party have done best to make the governors see reason to no avail. On their key demand that the party’s national chairman Dr Iyorchia Ayu resign for a chairman from the south, Atiku said, though legitimate, it is not practicable at a time all hands should be on deck to pursue the election. So, the party had moved on to focus on the Campaigns.

Atiku believes in a very liberal economic policy, which emphasises private sector led growth. As VP between 1999 and 2007, he supervised the sale of federal government owned loss-making companies. He advocates the same, even now. In the 2019 election he campaigned that he will sell loss-making national assets including the refineries for which he was attacked by the ruling APC and other parties, but the losses have not stopped, winning more converts to him now.

His argument is that when privatised they will be better run and meet the goals. “The same thing will happen if we privatise the NNPC. Productivity will increase, corruption will decrease, and availability of petroleum products that will not destroy your vehicles will also increase!”

Amongst the candidates that have so far emerged, nobody is more prepared to be President than Atiku Abubakar. He is the man with the plan of how he can man the wheel, his supporters say.

Rebo Omokri, who backs Atiku says that: “Even if he had a plan, which he does not, Tinubu, like Buhari, his echo, will be distracted by his very obvious health issues and I am not prepared to spend the next four years staging, HarassTinubuOutofLondon protests. We need a leader who will not be encumbered by ill health. The task ahead is demanding. Our nation has gone from the third fastest growing economy in the world on May 29, 2015, according to CNNMoney, to the world headquarters for extreme poverty today, according to the World Economic Forum. Surely, the party that put us here cannot be the same party that will raise us up.”

In 2019, ex-President Obasanjo who fought Atiku at previous elections, became softer and backed him for president. Explaining his endorsement, Obasanjo said: “as a leader, you must understand the fundamentals of the problems you have to solve and be courageous, visionary and ready to reach out sufficiently to build a credible team of experts, knowledgeable men and women, concerned and interested citizens and non-citizens to work hard and tirelessly for solutions that will benefit all Nigerians and indeed Africans and humanity. He must have the ability to build a credible team, lead them, listen to them and give them enough leeway to achieve and make meaningful contributions without abdicating his responsibility. He must be accessible to them. From my personal knowledge of Atiku, he has these qualities. I must reiterate that Atiku is not a saint and who is? But from what I know of Atiku, he will be a performer in all respects. I can say that again from my personal experience. He knows the problems and he handled some of them or similar in the past.” The former president now backs Peter Obi on account of political equity.

Atiku still has his deep structure in the southeast, courtesy of the PDP, while his choice of Delta State Governor Dr Okowa as his VP resonates with the demands for Igbo representation in the presidential ticket. With Okowa on the ticket, the party fancies its chances. Prof Obiora Okonkwo, a member of the Atiku Campaign Organisation explains the benefit of an Atiku presidency to the southeast this: “The primary needs of the Igbo man today in Nigeria are the restructuring and devolution of power, which will automatically impact on the lives of every South Easterner owing to our commerce and business mindset.  During Nigeria’s first republic, the Igbos were leading in commerce and paramilitary; that was possible because power was devolved for regions to grow and develop themselves; so far, only Atiku Abubakar has shown a serious interest in the development of the South East, with restructuring at the top of his campaign manifesto.  “Since he has always preferred an alliance with Ndi-Igbo since 1993, Atiku Abubakar is the only person who can pay close attention to the needs and aspirations of the South East. He is liberal, educated, and has built bridges across all the regions in Nigeria. He is also a member of a party with members and supporters in all the wards in Nigeria.”