Buhari is Atiku’s challenge, not US visa

After the euphoria of securing the Peoples Democratic Party presidential ticket for the 2019 election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is beginning to realise that beyond the hype and newspaper headlines, he has an insurmountable task of outdoing President Muhammadu Buhari on Election Day which is what matters. In the excitement of securing the ticket, a dream […]

After the euphoria of securing the Peoples Democratic Party presidential ticket for the 2019 election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is beginning to realise that beyond the hype and newspaper headlines, he has an insurmountable task of outdoing President Muhammadu Buhari on Election Day which is what matters. In the excitement of securing the ticket, a dream he has chased through almost across all known political parties in Nigeria, Atiku and his supporters behaved as if the biggest challenge to success in the election had been overcome. Observers saw that in that assumption, Atiku turned his attention to little things; settle his long running quarrel with former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and secure a United Sates visa and the presidency was his.

The issue of traveling to the United States was particularly important to  Atiku, to, from the perspective of his camp, erase the image of a corrupt leader which he has struggled with since then president Chief Obasonjo exposed the alleged money laundering investigation in the United States involving him. The story is now common place of how Atiku refused to honour a request to by United States Department of Justice to appear as a state witness in the prosecution of the principal suspect in that investigation and how since then Atiku has been unable to visit the United States. Following that, the view has grown among Nigerians that Ataiku probably was involved beyond what has been told in that money laundering operation and that he stayed away from the trial and subsequent trips to the United States to avoid being arrested and tried there. So Atiku and his party assumes that if he secured a US visa and perhaps actually travels to that country, Nigerians will forget everything else and usher him into the presidency. But wrong.

Atikus’ challenge in 2019 is not this US visa. It is the monumental popularity of President Muhammadu Buhari based on decades long track record of integrity in public office and the towering record of performance of the government he currently leads. The legend of President Buhari’s integrity precedes him. In 2015, that swirls of trust developed into an unprecedented whirlwind that made it extremely difficult for the opposition to even campaign in some places. People trust Buhari and note his lifestyle in spite of having been Head of State. That led former Head of State, General Sani Abacha to seek him out to run the Petroleum Trust Fund. Despite that institution being awash with cash, no ugly story has ever emerged of his leadership there. He continues to live a terse, humble life devoid of the flamboyance that the likes of Atiku characterize. Buhari does not own a private jet like Atiku whose string of wealthy references has provoked questions about their source.

Since assuming office as president and in spite of early health challenges, Buhari has led the nation to overcome trials that would probably have crippled many governments. The government was inaugurated straight into a depression resulting largely from the poor management of the economy of past dispensations. The governance and public management skills that ensured the speedy recovery of Nigeria from that depression and the successes posted since then by many departments of government are the issues Atiku has to struggle with. President Buhari’s government has clearly spelt out programs in every department and defined structures for achieving them. The public is seeing results in huge increases in quantities and now quality of agricultural produces, new universities and other institutions being approved and opened, massive business financing support programs at the grassroots, long term strategic economic planning that is driving growth of foreign reserve and increasing ease of doing business that is attracting world attention. The disdain and contempt with which the world held Nigeria is gradually being replaced by trust and a new confidence. What is Atiku or any other candidate for that matter, offering to make voters choose him over the standard set by President Buhari? Atiku and his team must show Nigerians not just why they should trust him, but why they should trust him over a tried, tested and found to be credible Buhari. That is the challenge before Atiku Abubakar.

The attempt to trivialize the real issues that should define the choice Nigerians make in 2019 and reduce it to whether a country, no matter how important or big that country is, gives Atiku a travel visa insults the collective intelligence of our people. Those who are of the erroneous belief that a visa to the United States is Atiku’s challenge can remain in their daydream. Hopefully, Atiku will secure the all-important visa and probably take his entire parry on the trip to the United States. The real election awaits them on return.

 

Nwakali wrote this piece from Enugu.