Atiku – back to his vomit?

Could one then compare Nigerian politicians to dogs without risking the accusation of vulgarity and disrespect? Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar’s decision to return to the brood of vipers from which he had earlier escaped rankles. The house he left was divided, the one to which he has returned is even in a worse disarray. […]

Could one then compare Nigerian politicians to dogs without risking the accusation of vulgarity and disrespect? Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar’s decision to return to the brood of vipers from which he had earlier escaped rankles. The house he left was divided, the one to which he has returned is even in a worse disarray. Definitely, the house to which he returned does not want the company of quondam friends? Finding answers to the raison d’etre of Atiku’s return would require a re-run of the political C.V. of the graduate student of the enviable Shehu Musa Yar’adua School of Politics.

It was the impeccable credentials that Abubakar was thought to have earned in that school that turned him into a precious bride of Obasanjo in 1999 even though he (Atiku) had won the ticket of his party to become the governor of his home state, Adamawa. With hindsight, perhaps, Atiku should have been left to cut a practical teeth as governor and not be exposed to the shenanigans of politics at the national level rather prematurely. But then, Atiku proved a formidable vice when for four years, he was virtually the engine-room of the Obasanjo presidency until the megalomaniac began his delusional inclination to become the emperor of Nigeria. Atiku became a pin that was used to deflate this insane balloon of delusional optimism to the good of all Nigerians. And when, having found out that he would become an easy prey to the ravening wolves in the party, he abandoned ship and berthed safely in the harbor of the Action Congress.

If you judge the AC by its two succeeding governors, Bola Tinubu and Raji Fashola of Lagos state and the constant heckling of the drift of the PDP led government at the centre by its mouthpiece, Lai Mohammed, you get a feeling that these are the people Nigeria needs to reinvent itself. When Atiku spread his political tentacles to embrace the likes of General Muhammadu Buhari and Balarabe Musa, you thought that finally, Nigeria was inventing a hammer to break the hold of the brigandage of the PDP. The trio and their political friends had the capacity of wresting the country from its gradual slide with people with credentials Nigeria can truly use.

It is saddening to see that Atiku’s bail out of that ship of salvation only to return pirateland. His excuses that the unbending attitude of some of his friends killed the mega party is lame at best and shows that political intolerance and his inability to surrender his personal political ambition for the greater good of Nigeria.

Indeed, this volte face will not do the political terrain any good. The party to which General Buhari showed immense loyalty has shown itself a pack of hungry wolves looking for carrion. Musa cannot single handedly deliver an agenda or manifesto to suit and woo all parts of Nigeria. He needs the charm of the Atikus of this world and the doggedness of the Buharis. Atiku’s exit has robbed the so-called mega-party of the drive it needs to make a mark in Nigeria’s political evolution. His return to the PDP will not do him any good and definitely would not advance his political career. If, as some say of him, he is so eager to become president of Nigeria, the last place to have that ambition met is the camp to which he returned. There is a vital lesson here for all politicians; they should work more to see their ideals institutionalized rather than for the actualization of personal ambitions.

Nigeria, at all times is more than the sum total of all personal ambitions. If politicians would seek the good of the nation and subsume personal ambitions under that, this country would move further. But then, if that happened, politics would no longer be politics, neither would politicians; which is why people know that we need a man like Buhari, but would hardly vote for his emergence. If you have hidden skeletons in your cupboard, the last thing you want to do is either to leave it open or to lock it and drop the key carelessly around