The Hausas have a profound saying that ‘Ana barin halal domin kunya’ roughly translates to mean – you can avoid certain things even if it’s permissible and rightful.
This idiom aptly describes the Abubakar Atiku and Bola Ahmed Tinubu conundrum – two age-long friends united intricately in friendship and almost same political ideology. They were the best of political pairs and easily spotted as reference of unity between the north of Nigeria and the West of Nigeria. When in 1999 with the return of Democracy, when then President Olusegun Obasanjo made life hellish for Tinubu as Lagos State Governor, it was Abubakar Atiku, then vice president of Nigeria that provided succour for him.
So it is just unfathomable to imagine the cruel turn of events to the extent that it is Alhaji Atiku that Turakin Adamawa that would be the cheerleader digging the pit of falls for Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. How did the water suddenly become the one offering to boil the fish when all her life, the fish had lived in water?
In 2007, after a very vicious political fight with President Olusegun Obasanjo, Atiku found fortress in the political garden of Asiwaju where he was given the ticket of the Action Congress of Nigeria where he hoisted the party’s flag as its presidential candidate. Coming a distant third in that election having lost to the People’s Democratic Party’s candidate Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua.
He returned to the PDP in 2010, and lost the presidential primaries to then-incumbent Goodluck Jonathan, before departing to help form the All-Progressives Congress (APC). He then lost the 2014 presidential primaries to Muhammadu Buhari.
With such a trajectory and what seems to be an unfulfilled political aspiration to be Nigeria’s president, Atiku Abubakar should have found solace in divine providence and submitted wholeheartedly to Allah’s decree. He should have looked at the past and aligned it with today, – with lost chance and a friend’s win! A Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s victory should have been a soothing balm to Atiku’s presidential loss. But the heart of man is not programmed like those of superhumans – we bemoan our loss without consideration to time, providence, and God’s plan.
From whatever prism you look at this from, this is Atiku’s government because – the two come from a long-knit political family. Former President Obasanjo never forgives Atiku for providing succour for Tinubu, and an Obasanjo would have been more enraged if Atiku had accepted the reality that a Tinubu’s win was his victory- but the human hubris didn’t let that happen. So instead of congratulating Asiwaju, Atiku went politically vicious – shredding to pieces Asiwaju. The result was the needless character dislocation witnessed in the history of Nigeria’s political album. From alleged certificate forgery to age falsification and impersonation – these infamous jackets were what Atiku robbed Bola Ahmed Tinubu with.
Imagine if Alhaji Atiku Abubakar had congratulated Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the 25th of February, 2023 when he was announced by the Independent Electoral Commission INEC, he would have laid claim to the ‘Emilokan’ presidency and sat in the same iconic hall of reference as former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan who ‘distinguishedly’ conceded victory to President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015.
Again, one can unabashedly stand in testimony of Atiku’s resilience, determination and unceasing drive to become Nigeria’s president through the ballot system, this is part of strengthening democratic ethos. When history of political struggles are written, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar will dominate many dotted lines of reference- as one man that has contested against four different candidates in presidential elections- a near reference to Abraham Lincoln except that Lincoln eventually won the race of life. For Atiku, unless otherwise, this may be the end of a political era – one which dates back to 1993.
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