Atiku: The Al Gore Option
By Reuben Abati

How far can Atiku go? This was the question I asked when the conflict between President Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku Abubakar took a turn for the worse months ago. That question has now become relevant again. The President had declared publicly that Atiku is a disloyal person who cannot be trusted with higher responsibilities. He stated categorically, that he, Atiku will not be allowed to succeed him in office. Subsequently Atiku was accused of corruption, and an administrative panel set up by the President, and working at break neck speed, had indicted the Vice President.

On the basis of this, the Presidency and INEC, which obviously serves the interests of Aso Rock, invoked Section 137 1 (i) of the 1999 Constitution which states that any one who has been so indicted stands disqualified from running for the office of the President of Nigeria. When Atiku later defected to the Action Congress, a rival party, and began to sound like the leader of the opposition against a government in which he serves as No 2, the Federal Government rushed to court with the prayer that the Vice President had by that fact, constructively resigned his position as Vice President.

Since then, Vice President Atiku has shown so much bravery and determination, seizing every opportunity to defend his integrity. His lawyers have been in and out of the courts, and they have won most of their cases. For the most part, the courts have upheld Atiku's right to run for the office of President. They have dismissed his so-called indictment by an Administrative Panel of Enquiry and the Code of Conduct Bureau, and only last week, a Federal High Court ordered the Electoral Commission to put Atiku's name on the ballot. Besides his fights in the courts, the Vice President has been very active on the campaign fields, selling himself to Nigerians. He has spent money, time and energy to ensure that the President does not have his way in this matter. It is this conflict, the drama of it, the intrigues involved, its very character that I have described before now as the "Bolekaja Presidency".

In the course of the drama, so much was revealed about the collapse of amity between the President and the Vice President and the division of the Presidency into two camps. This was not just a fight between two men, their supporters also queued up behind them. Governance was affected, Nigeria's image also suffered as a bewildered audience was treated to tales of malfeasance at the highest levels of government. Now, a week to the elections, where are we? How do the gladiators stand in relation to each other? Two rulings from the courts: one by the Court of Appeal affirming INEC's powers to disqualify candidates and the other by the Federal High Court insisting that Atiku should be allowed to contest, had brought the issues to a head.

It seems to me that what is now certain is that the Obasanjo camp has managed to stop Atiku by all means possible and President may just have had his way. INEC has announced its decision to appeal the ruling of the Federal High Court ordering it to put Atiku's name on the ballot. INEC does not intend to do so. It is foreseeable that by the time this matter is eventually resolved, the 2007 April elections would have been won and lost. Faced with such a situation, would the courts still rule in Atiku's favour? Not likely at all. Should Atiku not review the situation and take a decision? I think he should. It is time to adopt the Al Gore option. Al Gore Jr., former Vice President of the United States was adjudged by many as the winner of the 2000 US Presidential elections. He had won the popular vote but lost the electoral vote narrowly to George Bush Jr, the current President of the United States. Gore was the third Presidential candidate in American history to win the popula vote but lose the electoral vote.

He had chosen to challenge the results in the courts, and there were many alleged irregularities in the US elections particularly in the state of Florida where the race was eventually decided with a narrow margin of 537 votes. In Bush vs Gore, the Supreme Court of the United States had decided against a recount of the Florida votes on the grounds that it could not be completed before the deadline of December 12. Gore disagreed but he conceded victory to Bush. He said: "for the sake of our unity as a people and the strength of our democracy, I offer my concession". Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has not even been allowed to stand election, he has been stopped ahead of the 2007 polls. He has been rigged out of an election in which he is yet to take part. His supporters in the Action Congress have threatened that without him, there will be no elections. But I think Vice President Atiku has made his point. I do not, at this moment, see him overcoming the conspiracy that has been set up against him. He has reached such a moment when he must borrow the words of Al Gore and act "for the sake of our unity as a people and the strength of our democracy".

Despite INEC's decision to appeal the ruling of the Federal High Court, Vice President Atiku had continued with his presidential campaigns. He even promised his audience in Bauchi, three days ago, that he, as President will build an international airport in Bauchi. A man must know when he has been beaten. This is not a sign of cowardice; it is sign of strength. In the fight against President Obasanjo and the PDP establishment, it is instructive that the weight of public opinion is on the side of Vice President Atiku. His enemies had tried to portray him as a crook. There are not too many Nigerians who share that view. Instead, Atiku is today the most popular Presidential aspirant, in terms of name recognition alone. They tried to portray him as a coward who could not resign his appointment after defecting to another political party.

But in the court of public opinion, Atiku is considered a courageous man indeed. He stood up to President Obasanjo and challenged him to a fight. The Obasanjo group is obviously afraid of Atiku. He has shown so much resilience that is unbelievable. They could have allowed him to run for President and let the Nigerian people to decide. But they are so careful, they would not dare try that option. The strategists of Aso Rock also do not trust the Governors in the states. They don't want Atiku on the ballot and then on April 21, the Governors who may be treacherous, would swing the votes in his favour. They have chosen to be pragmatic and it has paid off so far. They and President Obasanjo have made the exclusion of Atiku from the Presidential election, a do-or-die affair, and what we now have is the story of the rise and fall of a Presidential ambition. But the Vice President can still seize the moral high ground by walking away now; if he insists on fighting till the end, his influence and politics may become yet another footnote in the presence of more urgent, emergent national issues. His consolation should be this: there is still a place for him in the future.

Since 2000, Vice President Al Gore has moved on to become a statesman He is a respected voice of reason, and an award-winning author. He is a visiting Professor in three universities, a leading promoter of environmental issues, and a 2007 Nobel Prize nominee. Apart from being President of Nigeria, there must be other things that Vice President Atiku can do. He can focus on building the Action Congress into a more formidable political machinery. He can begin the campaign now for the 2011 elections and after. No one will hold his fight with President Obasanjo against him. It will be remembered that he lost on the grounds of politics, not anything else. The villains would be the Aso Rock strategists who have shown that in politics all is fair as in war. Atiku was allegedly disqualified because he was indicted by a panel of inquiry. But how about Oyo state where a similar situation has arisen? Baba wants Atiku out of the race, and finally, it looks like that has been achieved. And indeed Baba must be happy.

In the future however, when a proper assessment of the Obasanjo era is attempted, both the President and Vice President Atiku would be called upon to account for their stewardship. There were questions of morality and accountability that were raised in the course of their battle for the soul of Aso Rock, and these were overtaken by the politics of the moment, with the Vice President alleging victimization, double standards and collective guilt, and the President claiming to be innocent. Under better circumstances, those issues would have to be re-opened, because indeed what is at stake ultimately is the integrity of the Obasanjo administration of which the two gladiators were the main drivers. Vice President Atiku can begin to prepare his proper defence long before that aspect of the future arises, and it would not be enough for him to claim, as he now does, that he was an outsider in the Obasanjo government. That excuse would no longer be tenable with the passage of time.

Hopefully, lessons have been learnt on all sides, the principal lesson being the realisation again that in politics, there are no permanent friends, and that here in Nigeria, the professional political class is a victim of the ego of its members. As the Atiku-Obasanjo fight resolves itself, let us hope that all the foot-soldiers, the errand boys, megaphones and the abobakus who profitted from it will now find more useful tasks for their talents.

Robot  # 1 | 08.04.2007 02:04

Since 2000, Vice President Al Gore has moved on to become a statesman He is a respected voice of...Read the full article.

gwobezentashi  # 2 | 08.04.2007 04:17

Here we go again. Abati seems to have stuck his foot in his mouth again!!! Al Gore did not throw in the towel until the judicial options were extinguished. So what other choice did he have? The problem we have here is that when illegality and unconstitutionality is challenged, the same crowd of lily livered appologists are quick to cite some pious sanctimony, some illusory higher moral imperative to capitulate to wrongdoing whereas it would seem that it is cowardice and the pursuit of self interest that may be driving such postures. We saw this during the early years of Obasanjo's government when impeachment proceedings were brought before the Senate. What was the excuse? The sake of our nascent democracy. So the wrongdoer walked to persist (and got entrenched) in his wrongdoing thanks to the fourth estate. The result is what we are seeing today. Did it strengthen our nascent democracy? Did it not knock it off course? Has illegality and unconstitutionality become the hallmark of the government? Is Nigeria the better that Obasanjo's megalomania and inflated sense of being was preserved? When Abiola was battling for the reinstatement of his electoral rights, did we hear the same people urging an Al Gore option for the sake of our common good? I don't recall. Instead, they were tacitly encouraging young people to go out and die. So what is different now? Atiku did not choose this battle. It was forced on him by the forces of darkness. He has nothing more to lose in fighting this cause to the very end. Nigeria has a lot to gain from such an exercise. If he loses at the Supreme Court or in a free and fair election, that would be the time for an Al Gore option. Not before. Aluta! Gwobezentashi

akuluouno  # 3 | 08.04.2007 05:28

I think the best option is for Our father to allow Atiku to stand and let the voters pass judgement on his corruptability and not the Al Gore Option. Al Gore Option can come for Atiku if he chooses after he has contested the elections. I believe that the apotheosis of Atiku might be completed if he is prevented from contesting the 07 elections. :redface: :rolleyes:

ozoodoo  # 4 | 08.04.2007 05:46

=akuluouno;166787>I think the best option is for Our father to allow Atiku to stand and let the voters pass judgement on his corruptability and not the Al Gore Option. Al Gore Option can come for Atiku if he chooses after he has contested the elections. I believe that the apotheosis of Atiku might be completed if he is prevented from contesting the 07 elections. :redface: :rolleyes: Who belong to this group of "our"? Sorry for making you feel sad. Atiku may be a thief but "our father" is equally a thief, a lawless and a failed "messiah" wannabe.

ozoodoo  # 5 | 08.04.2007 05:51

=gwobezentashi;166774>Here we go again. Abati seems to have stuck his foot in his mouth again!!! Al Gore did not throw in the towel until the judicial options were extinguished. So what other choice did he have? The problem we have here is that when illegality and unconstitutionality is challenged, the same crowd of lily livered appologists are quick to cite some pious sanctimony, some illusory higher moral imperative to capitulate to wrongdoing whereas it would seem that it is cowardice and the pursuit of self interest that may be driving such postures. We saw this during the early years of Obasanjo's government when impeachment proceedings were brought before the Senate. What was the excuse? The sake of our nascent democracy. So the wrongdoer walked to persist (and got entrenched) in his wrongdoing thanks to the fourth estate. The result is what we are seeing today. Did it strengthen our nascent democracy? Did it not knock it off course? Has illegality and unconstitutionality become the hallmark of the government? Is Nigeria the better that Obasanjo's megalomania and inflated sense of being was preserved? When Abiola was battling for the reinstatement of his electoral rights, did we hear the same people urging an Al Gore option for the sake of our common good? I don't recall. Instead, they were tacitly encouraging young people to go out and die. So what is different now? Atiku did not choose this battle. It was forced on him by the forces of darkness. He has nothing more to lose in fighting this cause to the very end. Nigeria has a lot to gain from such an exercise. If he loses at the Supreme Court or in a free and fair election, that would be the time for an Al Gore option. Not before. Aluta! Gwobezentashi My brother leave these guys to continue to act like the ostrich that hides its head in the sand deceiving itself that the rest of its body is hidden. We are used to their duplicitious and self serving opinion.

Omovudu  # 6 | 08.04.2007 07:21

Dr Abati, This particular piece of yours doesn't go down well with both parties (and hence some earlier postulation that you prevaricate and never take a firm opinion. For me, am dissappointed in that you seem to, in many of your writings, always show sympathy to the Atiku cause, and several have for good reasons concluded that you may have been compromised in this direction. There is very little to conclude that Atiku has any shred of a stateman that you should liken him to such. If he had been he would have toed the honorable path and resigned when he no longer felt comfortable in the present government. For him to remain "No 2" and still be lambasting the government at every turn is nauseating and debasing his person at the best. To want to cling to the priviledge conferred on him by a party (the PDP) while romancing with the opposing party (no matter how justified his angst) is unpardonable for a statesman. And lastly to continuously present a case of "collective guilt" rather than responding to the damaging allegations of corruption against him is shameful for a man of such public responsibility. From a moral and ethical standpoint, Atiku has no business whatsoever in the public square talk less of the corridors of power, and has only gotten then because of the absurdities of the Nigerian political system. This said, and in spite of any moral claim, Atiku has a legal case going for him (and this is why he has won most of the court cases). As No 2, he is entitled to an over arching immunity against civil or criminal prosectution and has even recently been extended by the courts to the code of conduct beareu. His indictment by the panel of inquiry would not stand the scrutiny of the law and there is the possibility of the supreme court ruling in his favour, if guided by the reasons of legal justice alone. This would have been a serious setback to our quest for building an upright nation. So in the final analysis, for Atiku's disqualification, it can be said that the end may justify the means. Nigeria is better off in the present situation, without an Atiku candidacy on the ballot box, given, as you rightly indicated the inability to trust the current crop of governors. They are actually the power brokers in the nation and who could turn without warning and deliver votes to Atiku and so it was a risk not worth taking. While we concede that the April 2007 elections may not be excellent in preparation and execution, as I written elsewhere, the fact that they hold and come to closure is more important, in our setting, than the excellence of the elections. We are still a long way for "Uhuru" in our political development, and the legal loss of Atiku in this instance is not as important, on a balance of scale, as the fortune of the future we desire as a nation. We should leave the rest to the perspective of history to judge.

ikechiji  # 7 | 08.04.2007 08:02

I think it would be a sad commentary on Nigeria if Atiku throws in the towel now and allows INEC to perpetuate illegalities, violation of court orders and the constitution, and corruption of the electoral process. Atiku's fight is bigger than Atiku as a person. Like him or not, call him a thief nor not, Obasanjo has turned Atiku into a "fighter" for the rule of law in Nigeria. My prediction is that the Supreme court will eventually overrule the Appeals court on the matter of the power of INEC to disqualify. INEC does not and should not have the power to disqualify candidates that have been validly nominated by political parties and sworn affidavits in courts of law stating that they have met the constitutional eligibility requirements. Given the power to disqualify, INEC will turn the electoral process in Nigeria into a circus with "kangaroo" admin panels and "baboon" litigations. They have already shown that with the candidates they've disqualified so far in the 2007 elections. Instead of asking "Dr" Andy Uba (PDP) to produce his WAEC, Bachelors and Ph.D. certificates, they disqualified Ngige(AC), Ukachukwu (ANPP) and Obi (APGA) in Anambra for the flimsiest of reasons. The only hope we have in Nigeria is the rule of law. Atiku has taken a stand. We should as well. Odego

MrOneNaija  # 8 | 08.04.2007 08:25

AS THE CHAIRMAN OF THE GUARDIAN'S EDITORIAL BOARD PREACHES DEFERENCE TO TYRANNY AND RIGGING =gwobezentashi;166774>Here we go again. Abati seems to have stuck his foot in his mouth again!!! Al Gore did not throw in the towel until the judicial options were extinguished. So what other choice did he have? The problem we have here is that when illegality and unconstitutionality is challenged, the same crowd of lily livered appologists are quick to cite some pious sanctimony, some illusory higher moral imperative to capitulate to wrongdoing whereas it would seem that it is cowardice and the pursuit of self interest that may be driving such postures. We saw this during the early years of Obasanjo's government when impeachment proceedings were brought before the Senate. What was the excuse? The sake of our nascent democracy. So the wrongdoer walked to persist (and got entrenched) in his wrongdoing thanks to the fourth estate. The result is what we are seeing today. Did it strengthen our nascent democracy? Did it not knock it off course? Has illegality and unconstitutionality become the hallmark of the government? Is Nigeria the better that Obasanjo's megalomania and inflated sense of being was preserved? When Abiola was battling for the reinstatement of his electoral rights, did we hear the same people urging an Al Gore option for the sake of our common good? I don't recall. Instead, they were tacitly encouraging young people to go out and die. So what is different now? Atiku did not choose this battle. It was forced on him by the forces of darkness. He has nothing more to lose in fighting this cause to the very end. Nigeria has a lot to gain from such an exercise. If he loses at the Supreme Court or in a free and fair election, that would be the time for an Al Gore option. Not before. Aluta! Gwobezentashi Well said, Gwobezentashi! This is one of Abati's most hypocritical, dishonest pieces. And should any pro-regime person care to know, I'm very comfortable using those strong terms to qualify Abati's shameful conduct. What the chairman of the The Guardian's editiorial board is invariably preaching in this nauseating rigmarole is surrender to the criminality and lawlessness of a vicious despot called Obasanjo. And it is amazing that Abati should seek to trivialize the scope and enormity of Obasanjo's lawlessness by simply putting the tag of "politics" on it. There is just no basis of comparison between the American situation - the Al Gore vs. Bush case - and the reign of depravity being inflicted on the nation by that hedonistic leviathan at Aso Rock and his agents. In Nigeria, we have a King Kong and his horde of outlaws deliberately setting out to see to it that, preferably, elections don't take place, and if they do, only those pre-determined characters from their fold are declared "winners". Corrupt and illegal tactics including the use of brute force are brazenly deployed in order to prevent credible opposition candidates from participating in elections as is the case with the crminal hounding of V-P. Atiku. The courts are approached and asked to show guidance and so far, their verdict is that the Nigerian constitution is being desecrated by "ambo" - that is "gorilla' in Tiv - and his confederates. But whta do the likes of Abati tell us? That the crminal will of one man - Obasanjo - should in the final analysis prevail! What Abati is saying is that Nigerians should accept the rigging of the 2007 elections which is under way, all that, in the name of a so-called Al Gore option! This is bunkum! The tragedy playing itself out there in Nigeria is not about Atiku per se. It is about the destiny of a nation held hostage by some of the most reactionary and most evil influences any nation has ever been confronted with in the history of mankind. Just think of places like Oyo, Anambra, Ekiti, Benue, Gombe, Bayelsa, in short the whole country. It is that bleak. And Abati says we should let these sinsiter clowns have their way. I hope to get back to this topic in due course.

NWA-DIKE!  # 9 | 08.04.2007 08:26

Now I Understand What Efcc Boss Means When He Says 70% Of Nigeria Media Belongs To Corupt Individuals........ Aluta

Akb  # 10 | 08.04.2007 09:46

Reuben, This piece is one of the most dubious from your stable. You seem to have totally lost the plot and given yourself up for some serious bashing. Where as for the national interest left us? June 12, we let go for national interest; Bola Ige, we let go for National interest; Sharia, we let go for national interest; Impeachments, we let go for national interests; 2003 elections, we let go for national interests. Where and what has it gotten us? It is high time the rule of law is allowed for National Interests!!! The good I see in Atiku's fight is for our democracy! For the following reasons: 1. The entrenchment of the belief in the rule of law. 2. The fact that rule of law is forced down ruling government and they must comply. 3. The chance for the Supreme Court to affirm if INEC can disqualify 4. The chance for the Supreme Court to let us know what constitutes an Administrative Panel as regards the constitution 5. The interpretation of section 137 of the constitution. In all the above, the beneficiary is Nigeria and Nigerians. It is very strange indeed that an Umpire goes about appealing cases against candidates and not instituting cases for clarification of it's powers. Let the courts decide in the National Interests and not in some myopic interests. BTW: Reuben, Pat Utomi brought your face (not your person) some How much of recognition with his Patito's Gang, how much of campaigning have you done to support him?

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