WEDNESDAY COLUMN BY USSIJU MEDANER
info@medaner.com, justme4justice@yahoo.com
2022 has finally gone; a year shrouded in political intricacies. Being a prelude to a general election year, it was as usual, many periods of political dramas, expressed in much calculated rhetoric that were difficult to segment into truth on one side and fashioned lies and propaganda on the other. Candidates for the 2023 general elections as usual were flooding the media and streets, weaponising religion and tribal differences to garner support across delicate divisive lines. More worrisome, a section of the citizens themselves are moved more by emotions and affinities than by capacity and candidates’ antecedents, leading to an unprecedented support for apparent nonentities without presentable records nor current capacity to occupy a presidential office.
2022 was full of dramas of candidates’ endorsements; and as usual, candidates traversed the country to literally buy and beg for endorsements. Groups and individuals cashing out on candidates rushed to create the illusion of acceptances through propagated open support across the country. I remember the caricature of endorsements that pervaded the 2019 presidential election; Atiku Abubakar did really pay his way through many endorsements across religious, tribal and statesmen media approval and declared support. At a time, to crown the illusion of statewide support, Olusegun Obasanjo, who had never hidden his disdain for President Buhari, led a team of revered clergies across religious line and other highly placed citizens to declare Atiku Abubakar as the Nigerian President-in-waiting. The endorsements, as they all turned out, failed; Nigerian people proved to them that it is a game of one man one vote and we are largely and individually rational enough to know what is good for our country.
It is now 2023 and I say a hearty happy New Year to all my readers, both the regular and otherwise. Let’s all begin the journey of another 365 days together. As usual, objectively and restraining my emotional biases as a human, I would do justice to issues and topics of national relevance as I have always done as the year 2023 unfolds.
The news of former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s endorsement of Peter Obi of the Labour Party was the first that attracted my attention this year. Actually, I wasn’t surprised at the news, in fact I expected him to have dropped the ‘bomb’ long before now, just that I wasn’t sure if it would be in favour of PDP or the Labour party. The only thing I was perfectly sure of was that he wasn’t ever going to support the presidential ambition of Tinubu as an APC candidate, not because he is in APC, but because he is a Yoruba man. There is something about Obasanjo that has become routine; he would never support a candidate of Yoruba extraction. He opposed and worked against the candidacy of Awolowo, in fact he openly handed over the position to President Shagari at the expense of his kin. In 1993, he was among the strongest forces against an Abiola presidency and has never hidden his hatred for Bola Tinubu as a promising rising figure since the NADEC days. Maybe, Obasanjo is fighting hard to keep his record of being the only Nigerian president of Southwest extraction during his lifetime.
Beyond Obasanjo’s expected theatrics, my subject for the week is Atiku Abubakar. I wonder what drives the man to desperately want to sit on that exalted seat, despite the loads of garbage tied to his waist. No Nigerian politician alive has ever been accused of malpractices against Nigeria and Nigerians as Atiku Abubakar. Yet, for all the accusations, he has never for once rebuffed them or threatened anyone for wrongfully accusing him. Why? Because the allegations could be true; though he has never been convicted by a court of law, the allegations of mass corruption and every other one against him seem to be true. While it has been proven all through history that a name is one of the most, if not the most valuable asset to every man, the candidate of PDP does not seem to care about his name or what people call him. This is seen in the account of the lives of men who are reputed by history to be honorable. Since the emergence of Atiku Abubakar as the flag bearer of the PDP in the 2019 presidential election, the myriad of attacks on his personality on all fronts has been massive and would not stop because he could not afford to confront them.
It must, in the first instance, be accepted that it is common for people of his status and aspiration around the world to be exposed to such attacks, and also for the victims of such attacks to be left with one of three options in response to all perceived disparagements and allegations; rebuff the accusations and allegations with contrary factual evidence; accept liabilities for the accusations and make restitutions; or rather keep quiet and allow the streets to conclude who you are without a fair hearing. When the last opening is preferred, then, there is a general conclusion of acceptance of guilt.
It is, therefore, logical to think that these accusations or lies, as they turn out to be at times, could become positive tools for gaining mass popularity and support if well attended. It is on this premise that I advise the PDP presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to review his stance, especially how he and his team handle the load of allegations against his person in time before it is too late. We have seen several allegations leveled against Atiku Abubakar and the management of the response from his team only complicates the case for him further.
From a vantage point on the sideline, I can only see Atiku Abubakar make for a dishonourable path: refusing to rebuff sensitive allegations of corruption against him but rather choosing to run a smear campaign on others before the electorate. Thus, in a bid subliminally implicative to Nigerians that we are all corrupt and should both be seen as such by the masses, is a clear signal to the masses acquiescence of all the allegations of corruption directly upon, or linked to him. And for his choice of a smear campaign against the APC candidate, for each allegation against Tinubu from Atiku’s camp that is proven to be wrong as they all would be, Atiku further damages the little chances he has at the poll.
It is therefore on this premise, Mr. Atiku Abubakar, that I offer that you set your mind to respond to a lot of the allegations riding about your person and salvage your reputation now. The weight of corruption allegations hovering above you could hinder your steps up the ladder toward your destination, hence, heed my advice. The G-5 governors are enough challenge to you no matter how you pretend you are good without them; you cannot afford to carry further unnecessary loads.
Mr. Abubakar Atiku, since 2018 Nigerians have had questions for your responses; would you kindly for your case and their cases, give answers to these questions with factual evidence and cow your enemies in shame for good:
• You are generally seen as a successful businessman and you can make Nigeria a prosperous country. Yet, there is no clear explanation of how you became wealthy. Your salary and pay up until your retirement from the Nigerian Customs Service as Deputy Director is not commensurate with your current state of wealth. Can you identify a particular breakthrough business deal you had that made you this wealthy?
• Your ex-boss, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, has described you in his book titled, ‘My Watch,’ in one of the most spiteful ways. You have, as yet, neither sued him for libel nor vigorously countered his allegations in the book publicly; does this mean that they are true? I mean this; “What I did not know, which came out glaringly later, was his parental background which was somewhat shadowy; His propensity to corruption; His tendency to disloyalty; His inability to say and stick to the truth all the time; a propensity for poor judgment; his belief and reliance on marabouts; his lack of transparency. His trust in money to buy his way out on all issues and his readiness to sacrifice morality, integrity, proprietary truth, and national interest for self and selfish interest.” These are very strong remarks to make about anyone Sir.
• Some documents and publications are in the public domain which indicate you might have criminal cases to answer in the United States of America. At least one of your known associates, former US congressman, William Jefferson has been convicted in the US for corruption. How do you react to these events and allegations that appear to tarnish your image considering your candidacy?
• What is your biggest achievement so far in life, which you think Nigerians should know about and for which reason they should consider voting for you?
• Many Nigerians seem to agree that corruption is Nigeria’s biggest problem. The World Bank has stated severally, that corruption is the source of all woes in Nigeria. Not much has been heard from you on how you would fight it. Can you tell us how you intend to fight this menace of corruption?
And very importantly, Nigerians would want to know what pushed you to make the eternal error of selling out significant national assets such as ALSCON and Delta Steel Company, among others, for peanuts to your friends and cronies, when you can never make such a mistake with your personal businesses.
These questions I subscribe to, having seen them littering our airspace, our media all these while and without any response to any of them. With these, I am sure the original compilers of the questions and all nationalists will agree I have spoken their minds on this subject.
I hope Alhaji Atiku Abubakar will heed my advice and take time out to answer these questions to deepen our democracy and enlighten the electorate. More importantly, he would be doing himself a great lot of good to save his reputation.
Hold this dear! Money cannot win elections again in this country, but a good name and reputation can. It is not easy to cope with a bad reputation at a time when you need the public to vouch for you with their mandates.
As it has always been, in all humility, I welcome constructive criticism and superior argument on the above submission
God Bless The Federal Republic Of Nigeria!
