Last Friday, Atiku Abubakar, a former vice president of Nigeria (1999-2007), in a letter of resignation from the All Progressives Congress (APC), alluded to the fact that his journey to the broom party was rather disastrous.
From the account of his voyage, the Waziri Adamawa lamented that the ills that drove him away from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) were being served a la carte in the APC.
Atiku’s unproductive journey could be likened to that of Elimelech, who left his native country Bethlehem in Judah for Moab. According to bible accounts, Israel and Moab were not friendly nations, and so it was curious that of all the countries, it was Moab that Elimelech, a citizen of Israel, could settle for.
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Like Atiku who ran away from the famine of ideology and internal democracy in PDP, Elimelech also ran away from famine and harsh economic situation, but he died in Moab along with his two sons.
He left behind a widow and two daughters-in-law who were also nationals of the strange land (Moab).
Although unlike Elimelech, Atiku did not lose his life in APC, he, however, lost his integrity, camaraderie, happiness, freedom of association and some other things dear to his heart.
The former vice president said he left PDP as a result of the “the fractionalisation of the People’s Democratic Party on August 31, 2013”.
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According to him, “It was under this cloud that members of the APC appealed to me to join their party, with the promise that the injustices and failure to abide by its own constitution, which had dogged the then PDP, would not be replicated in the APC and with the assurance that the vision other founding fathers and I had for the PDP could be actualised through the All Progressives Congress.
“It was based on this invitation and the assurances made to me that I, being party-less at that time, due to the fractionalisation of my party, accepted, on February 2, 2014, the hand of fellowship given to me by the All Progressives Congress.”
Contrary to expected values that attracted him to the APC in the first place, Atiku discovered, to his chagrin, that “while other parties have purged themselves of the arbitrariness and unconstitutionality that led to their fractionalisation, the All Progressives Congress has adopted those same practices and even gone beyond them to institute a regime of a draconian clampdown on all forms of democracy within the party and the government it produced”.
As part of his reasons for exiting the broom party, Atiku said that the government formed by the party has “not only failed to manage expectations of a populace that expected overnight ‘change’ but has failed to deliver even mundane matters of governance”. He was quoting a memorandum written by an APC governor to President Muhammadu Buhari.
Atiku alluded to a frosty relationship existing between the president and some important figures in the party. He said that even though the APC governor in his memorandum drew the president’s attention to the perceived “frosty relationship”, Aso Rock has done nothing “to reverse the treatment meted out to those of us invited to join the All Progressives Congress on the strength of a promise that has proven to be false. If anything, those behaviours have actually worsened”.
In his verdict, Atiku noted that the “party we put in place has failed and continues to fail our people, especially our young people”.
“How can we have a federal cabinet without even one single youth? A party that does not take the youth into account is a dying party. The future belongs to young people,” he said.
A return to his vomit?
Before now, there had been speculations that Atiku may have concluded arrangements to return to the PDP with the hope to pick its presidential ticket for 2019. Although neither the former vice president nor his media office has been forthcoming on the true position of things, the development last Friday appeared to have given a fillip to those insinuations. Crafting his resignation letter, Atiku had said he was taking his time to “ponder my future”.
While Atiku indeed ponders his next move, analysts wonder if the pondering will include considering the options of floating a new party or going back to the PDP?
“From what we have heard so far from various sources, I think Atiku is on his way back to the PDP. Some people say he was going back to his vomit, but I say no. This is politics; when you are not wanted in a party, you move ahead and try your luck elsewhere. You have to be restless to achieve some of your dreams,” said Eddie Ekpeyong, a data analyst with a tech firm in Lagos.
“For me, I think it would be more beneficial to him if he swallows his pride and goes back to the PDP than floating a new party. Don’t forget that former President Olusegun Obasanjo is no more in PDP and has recently reiterated that he was never going back again, so the coast is clear for Atiku.
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“If Obasanjo were to be in the PDP, then one would say Atiku would have had the problem of being accepted. But I want to tell you one thing today, if God HAS SAID Atiku will be the next president of Nigeria, nobody can stop it, and if otherwise, no matter how hard he tries, he would not get it. So, let the will of God be done,” Ekpeyong said.
Francis Apoti, a youth member of the PDP, told BD SUNDAY that Atiku seemed to be the best option for Nigeria at the moment.
“I think the situation we have found ourselves in now needs a person of Atiku Abubakar’s stature. He seems to be a detribalized Nigerian; he is visionary and I also think that he is acceptable across the ethnic and religious divides that make up Nigeria. I believe he can pull this nation back from the brink of destruction,” Apoti said.
“I have listened to the debates on restructuring and I am happy about what he has continued to say. He has continued to canvass the need to alter the status quo for Nigeria to achieve sustainable peace, unity and progress, whereas most of our politicians are committed to the sustenance of the failed status quo,” he further said.
Zebulon Agomuo
