Poll 2019 and Atiku’s frantic denial

Is it too early for a politician to think of the 2019 general elections? Apparently, former vice president Atiku Abubakar thinks so. He believes that every member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC)

should be single-minded in their support for the Muhammadu Buhari presidency than to expend energy generating political schemes for an election that is still a long way off. His view on this subject came to light when his media adviser, Paul Ibe, reacted to social media reports that the former vice president recently hosted political meetings at the Burj Al-Arab, Dubai. Those who peddled that unfounded and unsubstantiated information, said the statement, were nothing but “ill-motivated busybodies that don’t wish the country well”.

Alhaji Atiku is probably right, and the feral beast called social media, the graveyard of many great reputations, is most probably wrong. The former vice president says he is in Dubai with some members of his family to treat his injured knee. That injury is of course public knowledge, and his constant resort to physiotherapy is not hidden. He adds, exasperatingly, that he is entitled to his private vacations and to seek medical help anywhere without those simple, natural and familial engagements becoming subjects of speculations and rumourmongering. Had Alhaji Atiku stopped at that simple and effective task of denying the motives ascribed to him, perhaps few would have taken notice of anything untoward. Instead, the former vice president couches his denial in terms that neither do credit to his standing nor to his image and politics. He was effusive and unduly patronising.

Mr Ibe believes it is necessary to restate Alhaji Atiku’s perception of the Buhari presidency in order not to give the impression of hostility. Apparently, to the former vice president, to play politics so early is to engage in hostile action. Says Mr Ibe: “Whether at home or abroad, the Turaki (Alhaji Atiku) is preoccupied with his unassailable support to President Buhari and his administration, especially in this critical time, as it works assiduously to turn the fortunes of our dear country around and make Nigeria work for the greater good of Nigerians”. The former vice president’s support is unassailable, the time is critical, and President Buhari is working assiduously. The impression produced by the former vice president’s adjectival effusiveness, an impression probably birthed by Alhaji Atiku’s unpalatable experience as former president Olusegun Obasanjo’s deputy, is that the Nigerian presidency is so close-minded and insular that it has become a vengeful tool in the hands of an egotistic president to coax or cajole rivals.

But, as if he was not already groveling, the former vice president pushed his disavowal to an inordinate level. Says he: “This is yet another plot of the enemies of our country and democracy to divide, divert attention and distract the APC in its avowed commitment to secure the country, provide jobs for the mass of unemployed youths, build needed critical infrastructure, enthrone a regime of probity and accountability and pull the country out of the economic woods it has been consigned to by locust years of mismanagement.”

Alhaji Atiku is not always the steadiest of party men, having as it were moved from one party to another in a rather casual manner in his inimitable fashion of responding to frustration. Perhaps, this time, he is in the APC to stay. But instincts tell the observer to be wary. For now, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is simply not an option to anyone, not to talk of a man of his unique gifts. The opposition party is not only demoralised, it shows no inclination at all for transcending its internal crisis, let alone plotting a way out of its self-imposed cul-de-sac. Its big men, who have chosen to stay when the party’s main brain trust has fled the burning deck, are confused and even apoplectic in their boyish denunciation of the ruling party’s policies. And the structure of the party, which needed repairs even when the party was in power, has virtually disintegrated. The party no longer has a soul, nor a reason to live. Such a party could not be welcoming to Alhaji Atiku’s free-floating spirit and footloose habits.

From experience too, the former vice president seems to have come to a more realistic perception of his limitations both as a party man in the general sense and as second-in-command in particular, with fate dealing him a cruel hand at a time in his political life when his every instinct was to grab and caress the ultimate power of the presidency. He knew what punishing regimen he was subjected to on account of showing his political hand too early in a political milieu so idiosyncratically suffocating, intolerant and paradoxically monarchical.  He was nearly driven out of town, and would have suffered political death had he not crossed to the vibrant but upstart Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and was quickly canonised as the party’s presidential candidate. Having been beaten once, Alhaji Atiku appears determined not be more than twice shy.

But herein lies the great dilemma for a man and politician who prides himself on his wiliness, astuteness and courage. Much more than the mere fact of denying hosting political meetings in Dubai, a rumour more APC leaders will have to battle with as they travel abroad and meet their friends and associates between now and next year, the statement appears more worryingly to indicate that Alhaji Atiku possesses none of the mettle ascribed to him by his admirers and supporters. Yes, he is more expansive and accommodating than the messianic President Buhari, and even more outgoing and friendly, but does he have the leadership character that should enable him to pursue his causes no matter how unpopular, no matter whose ox is gored, and no matter how alone he stands?

Sadly, the temper of his rebuttal does his image a lot of damage. He seems to be desperately anxious to stand in President Buhari’s good books. He seems eager to curry the president’s favour. Perhaps, like many others in the APC, his instincts tell him that the 73-year-old president may be uninterested in a second term, and might endorse a successor of his choice while strangulating those he disfavoured. If so, Alhaji Atiku is much more naive than first imagined. Power, they say, is the ultimate aphrodisiac. Those who grab it do not just handle it; they fondle it with all the exaggerated prurience of regular Casanovas. Given the abrasive manner President Buhari is deploying his energies and constitutional powers, and his remarkably better looks than the gaunt old days of electioneering, and his constant exudation of messianic fervour, there is nothing, not even a scintilla, that indicates the wiry old man would opt for the Nelson Mandela option.

Alhaji Atiku would have done his image and politics a great service if he had not in the same breath and by a curious corollary denuded his dignity as he set the record straight early in the week. He should have indicated that nothing he knew, whether in common sense or in the constitution, precluded him from pursuing his ambitions now or in the future. He should have stated clearly that if he entertained his friends in Dubai or anywhere else, he was at liberty to do so. In short, Alhaji Atiku should have stood tall, stood proud, stood unapologetic, and trust that the fate he and many other devout religionists often profusely, garishly and sometimes offensively, subscribe to would bring about an implacable outcome neither he nor anyone could change. Instead, early in the week, a chafing Alhaji Atiku fawned on the president, and despite his own large-heartedness, bonhomous visage and talent to attract brainy technocrats, corroborated the depressing impression of him as a scheming politician and opportunist.

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