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I am still struggling in desperation to figure out one fact: Am I real or am I dreaming? I am hardly ever overcome by this feeling of daydreaming. It happens on rare occasions, when I fantasize on what I would do with my wealth if I won a million-dollar jackpot. This time however, I am neither asleep nor am I fantasizing. Still, I am in doubt if I am real or daydreaming. The headline on the Nigerian Tribune was no “April fool” in the middle of May. The Vice President of Nigeria Atiku Abubakar has confidently declared that he will head the next government after Olusegun Obasanjo. In Nigeria of years gone by, many would read through the piece as a flimsy write-up to fill the pages of the newspaper. The value is sensational. But hold it! In present-day Nigeria, where everything is possible, no one can afford to underrate Atiku Abubakar any longer.
The die has been cast several times before. Atiku Abubakar stands tall one way or the other. Rather than a convict in a prison cell for charges of corruption, the Vice President is currently the doyen of traditional propaganda coups! He stands out today as a symbol of democratic values and ideals for his admirers and cheerleaders. Unfortunately however, he is never lacking in underscoring and pushing home, the driving force underlying the pageantry of court victories flanking his propaganda machine. The urge for power. Presidential powers. Almost against all senses of realism, many observers have themselves wondered aloud, why Atiku did not make way for Muhammadu Buhari in good time, as a consensus opposition candidate, which would have guarantied him some form of political relevance in shaping Nigeria’s future. The Vice President was apparently, more than confident that he was a man of the people, at least in media perception. All made possible by the common enemy of the nation – Olusegun Obasanjo. Atiku seems to have visualized himself a thousand fold on the Presidential desk as the hero of people’s power!
Gosh! Daydreaming? Loss of realism? Inflated self-estimation? One fact is certain though. Atiku Abubakar is obviously the last man standing failing to see the setting sun in the shadows of Mount Everest! The Harakiri course of his long-drawn fight and all those court victories that served no other purpose but keeping him away from the Prison cell seem to be perceived by him as bringing him closer to the Presidential palace.
Now, to the facts. Quite recently, the Minister of Information Nweke Jnr. was given a verbal dressing-down in a Nigerian newspaper. He was ridiculed and derided. He was described by one Ochereome Nnanna as “insolent”, a man of “general bad manners” etc. His offence? He dared to come in the open to accuse the President of the Senate Ken Nnamani of involvement in a ploy to form an Interim National Government. The charges made by the Minister against the President of the senate were trailed by vehement denials in all forms by the Senate henchman and his cohorts. Ever since, a lot has changed.
The suspected ploy was reportedly leaked to the Federal government by foreign intelligence agencies. Nnamani has long distanced himself from such unholy coalition. Foreign governments have long accepted and recognized the controversial victory of the President-elect Umaru Yar A’dua. Atiku is now in the comfort of some Pontomac, Maryland luxury days from where he dreams of returning home to head some imaginary government of a yet unfounded Nigeria.
No wonder the vocabulary in Nweke’s accusation is now being re-echoed in the Nigerian media by a completely different body. The so-called opposition umbrella group “Nigerians United for Democracy” is no longer making any secret of the call for an Interim National Government. One last cry in desperation?
A few weeks ago, Atiku Abubakar loudly decried pressures that have been brought to bear on him by foreign governments warning him to desist from destabilizing Nigeria. He sounded it loud and clear that he would leave no stone unturned in fighting to attain justice for the flawed Presidential elections for the sake of democracy! Today however, we are aware that this democracy means nothing else to Atiku but his own inauguration as President of the next government. What does it matter that he came only a distant third in the faulty election? What does it matter that there are other politicians considered far more credible by Nigerians? Nothing at all! Democracy is power and power is Atiku!
Atiku emphasized that he is ruling out a coup d’etat to bring him to power. The courts will do his bidding or so he is reported as saying. In a country where “incorruptible” judges at all levels have subordinated all other credible factors of national peace and unity for the dubious victory of an egocentric Vice President, nothing is indeed, impossible. Alas, a lot has changed again.
During Atiku’s ominous vacation in the land of his spouse late last year, President Obasanjo had obviously put all contingency plans in place. The office of Vice President was declared vacant. He was to be replaced and probably arrested if he dared to return. Atiku launched a personal lobby in the USA consulting with politicians as high up as the powerful Chairman of the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee. In the end, the Americans were reported to have obtained assurances from Obasanjo that Atiku’s office will be retained and that he will not be arrested upon his return. He was even rumored to have returned with American security agents on board. Obviously, no Supreme Court judge would have been able to help Atiku for the days he would have spent in detention if all those plans were carried through.
Reports reaching consumers today however, tell a different tale. It is the Americans that are now reportedly wooing the likes of Orji Kalu to support the incoming government of Umaru Yar A’dua. By all indications, Atiku’s obstinacy driven by his boundless personal ambition is now also being visited on his hitherto most influential ally – the Americans.
Precisely this point will mark the lethal perils in the adventures of the Vice President. A man that will definitely stop at nothing to realize his ambitions. A man that will sell his own grandma for the sake of power and fame. No doubt, there will be “incorruptible” judges, who will not care a bit about national integrity. “Incorruptible” judges, who will not care about moving the nation forward in the interest of the suffering masses. There will be judges ready and now willing to annul all elections, if possible, those of 2003 retrospectively as well. The ball of the judiciary has been set rolling in a single direction of teaching the President a lesson that he will never forget.
Given the reality however, that President Obasanjo is more likely to readily succumb to the forces of powerful nations than the appointed authority of “incorruptible” individual judges at home, Atiku will henceforth have to tread a thousand-fold more carefully. Should his planned ascension to power without the force of an incited military coup fail to succeed, he will need to recite, “Lord have mercy”. Then, he will have no more hiding place. No American government will provide refuge and certainly not the British.
The failure of the Nnamani option has now seemingly thrown the opposition in disarray. Deriding and ridiculing the Minister of Information for stating the obvious in clear and audible terms marks nothing but a spell of frustration and desperation. This is further compounded by the helpless cry and yearning for an Interim National Government.
Atiku Abubakar may be rest assured by his followers and admirers at all levels that he is the non-elected President-elect, ready to be sworn-in to succeed Olusegun Obasanjo. I will agree with him and assure him with all my heart that he – Abubakar Atiku – will be the President extra-ordinary of the next administration to succeed Obasanjo! But only over Obasanjo’s dead body! It is the last call of a Desperado!
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Posted by Robot| 18.05.2007 09:58