Atiku Abubakar’s cap in the ring

This put an end to speculations about when presidential candidates vying under the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s ticket would make their intentions publicly known. By throwing his cap into the ring, Atiku Abubakar has announced tellingly that he intends to make another foray for the highest political office in the land. It needs to be […]

This put an end to speculations about when presidential candidates vying under the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s ticket would make their intentions publicly known. By throwing his cap into the ring, Atiku Abubakar has announced tellingly that he intends to make another foray for the highest political office in the land. It needs to be said that his move is hardly unexpected, because when he joined the APC, everyone knew he would settle for nothing other than the highest office available.  
Does staking a claim to be the flag bearer under the APC make Atiku Abubakar a formidable front runner? A pertinent question to ask, and particularly so too when other aspirants that include General Muhammadu Buhari-an indubitable giant figure in the APC party whose ambition is well known, and others like Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, the Kano State governor and his Imo State counterpart, Rochas Okorocha and Bukola Saraki, former governor of Kwara State, now a senator, are considered. Not a few political pundits would retort that it is too soon to know who the front runner would be, a prospect that would be more than evident when the campaign for the nomination begins in earnest. And talking of campaign for nominations, many APC faithful have hinted at the party’s seeming lethargy in expediting the process towards getting an acceptable presidential candidate for the 2015 general elections.
At a time when the ruling party -the PDP has abandoned all pretences at obeying the law governing political campaigns and flaunting its candidate’s person and his “policies” on both national and international televisions and on billboards all over the place, as if party political campaigns have started in earnest, the APC, it would seem, is still bogged down, contenting itself with snapping at inconsequential government actions and inactions. The PDP political campaign so far, even though against the law and as the party claims being undertaken by supporters and not the party itself, has given the party and its candidate some momentum and traction in the quest for supremacy in 2015. The APC would therefore have to play catch up, and one way to do that is to set about the process of coming up with a flag bearer who would serve as the representative of the party to articulate its policies.
Alhaji  Atiku Abubakar’s indication to contest serves therefore as a shot in the arm for the party to wake up to its responsibilities of installing the props for the electoral showdown between the two parties. One such prop is finalising state congresses to pave way for the national congress that would produce a presidential candidate. The point must be made that not having a presidential candidate in place as the PDP does, is a huge disadvantage.  Whereas the PDP  has President Goodluck Jonathan in place as an incumbent enjoying all the visibility the position accords him, of course this is not to discountenance  intended challenges he might face from people like Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State who has been called upon to stake a claim for the PDP presidential slot, the APC having no such incumbent equivalent, enjoys no gratuitous advantage at all, which is why it has to make haste if it must fulfil its ambition of given Nigerians a better leadership.
Now, at least we know one contestant has stepped forward in the person of former vice president Atiku Abubakar, it is expected that many others may come out of the woodwork, quite apart from the ones we are aware of us. At some point in this process, the party may have to decide whether to hang its fate and fortune on established names like Atiku Abubakar or Muhammadu Buhari- both already household names in Nigeria’s politics or root entire for a total new comer, a younger and energetic rookie to carry its banner.
The party would have to make a choice between experience and political sagacity as against an innocent fresh face politician as flag bearer, a person as unknown as Barack Obama before he broke on to the American political landscape in 2004 as a presidential candidate. The former qualities are in ample supply in both Atiku Abubakar and Muhammadu Buhari but with all the political baggages that dog the two of them. Muhammadu Buhari especially whose abstemious look portrays him as austere and disciplined, which some say are values that are urgently needed in Nigeria at present, but are nonetheless seen as anathema in certain quarters. Yet to think a party grappling with the teething problem of establishing itself as a formidable alternative party would let itself dissipate energy and fritter away the tenuous goodwill among its followers would amount to wishful thinking. In other words, the need for party stability may motivate it to simply root for already made candidates with track records of having endured gruesome political campaigns and simply hope for the best. There is a palpable fear that such an outcome is fraught for the party’s cohesion.
But granted that all goes well and party members are agreed to root for an established candidate with track record of experience, it still has a herculean choice to make between its twin foremost candidates– Atiku Abubakar and Muhammadu Buhari. Party members would find themselves torn between the choice of personal magnetism and charisma of the latter and the former’s well oiled campaign machinery that currently goes by the name of Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) put in place since the 1990s during the Social Democratic Party days and still waxing strong, a mark of the adroit organisation and keen political ambition of its prime mover.
The APC should therefore be enthused that it has such formidable political giants as its possible flag bearers. The two together packs a huge tailor made experience for the job they are coveting. Muhammadu Buhari ran Nigeria in the early 80s, in that brief 3 year stint he succeeded in instilling the discipline that had been lacking in government and in the people. By hindsight we can only wring our hands in self pity on what Nigeria could have become had that milieu been sustained. As Vice president under the Obasanjo’s first term, Atiku  Abubakar garnered a rare experience in running a government immediately following the long chaotic military rule and contributed to the gradual re-orientation of governance from its ruinous wilful nature into one of deliberation and consultation.   
 Yet considering that both are driven by an uncommon ambition for power, would the party still be the same after the contest for the top post has been won and lost? Would the one agree to play second fiddle to the other in the same party? Not long ago, notable names who joined the party with fanfare from the PDP stormed out dramatically and indignantly because they did not get what they wanted. Can the party withstand what could be the ultimate drama of an aggrieved party henchman storming out with his followers? Surely, the APC has his job cut out for it and how it navigates the numerous booby traps on its way towards confronting the PDP for the contest for power would excite more than passing interest.