Between Atiku and Pontius Pilate

Comfort Obi

On Saturday, November 25, I watched Vice President Abubakar Atiku as he declared interest in running for the presidency in 2007. Atiku’s interest is not new. I really don’t know when this ambition started, but if the Vice President is to be believed, it didn’t start before May 27, 1999. At a breakfast with media executives in 2004, where he more than hinted at his frustrations (working with President Olusegun Obasanjo), he had said that his greatest ambition was to be the governor of his native Adamawa State.
I don’t know now if Atiku regrets that elevation. I don’t know now if he would have preferred being a second-term governor of Adamawa State. Thinking of it, perhaps, Atiku would have stood a better chance running for the presidency in 2007 if he was a two-term governor. If he was in Adamawa, he would have had no business with the Petroleum Trust Development Fund. Having an ambition, by the way, is legitimate. It becomes a sin only when you must destroy others, lie against them, and/or betray them to achieve your ambition. But I digress.
Nobody can confirm when Atiku decided to make his ambition to take over from his boss, public. But those in the know say it began when he suggested the Mandela option. I don’t know why the Mandela option was suggested to Obasanjo. In 2003, he was not as old as Mandela was during his (Mandela’s) presidency. He is still not as old. Nobody had the courage to ask Atiku if he was, indeed, behind that suggestion. But his subsequent actions showed that he was in a hurry to take over from his boss. It became obvious in 2003 when months before the primaries, he had his blue-print prepared. With some encouragement from those who refused to back him publicly, he wanted to run against his boss. At the convention ground, it was all too obvious. It was so bad that Obasanjo lost confidence in his ability to win the primaries. The then PDP national chairman, Chief Audu Ogbeh, was angling for a postponement. Given the benefit of hindsight now, nobody can say on whose side he was then – Obasanjo or Atiku. It took two governors – one from the South east, and the other from the South south – to instill confidence in Mr President to run. At an informal discussion with Boni Haruna, Adamawa governor, inside an aircraft one day, he did tell me that he asked Atiku then not to run against his boss. “I told the Vice President that it would not be right for him to run against the President.” Atiku himself did not help matters after the convention, as he confirmed that he had options, either to run against his boss or to run with former Vice President Alex Ekwueme (against his boss). Ekwueme had allegedly promised Atiku that he would abdicate the presidential seat for him midway. Obasanjo felt humiliated and never forgave Atiku.
In fairness to Obasanjo, during his first tenure, he trusted Atiku. He handed over everything, almost, to him. The party, the economy, all. Atiku relished that, especially as politically then, Obasanjo had no structures and was a JJC. The President became strong after 2003, built his own structures and stripped Atiku of his powers. It was so bad that Atiku disclosed, publicly, that he was an idle Vice President. But that is a fate he brought upon himself. In the past few months, Atiku has done nothing but fight for his political life and yes, even fight to keep himself out of jail, and, as he alleges, alive.
Penultimate week when he publicly declared his ambition, I admired his courage. I admired his ability to make the best of the mess he has found himself in. I admired his ability to respond to every political dagger thrown at him. I admired his courage to still, publicly, declare his interest, even though he knew it could well be a fruitless exercise. I was almost overwhemled with emotion when he didn’t mention the platform on which he would run. Of course, everybody knows Atiku had since been the force behind the Action Congress (AC), but, he didn’t have the courage to say: “I will run on the platform of the AC.”
It may not have been for lack of courage. Atiku definitely wants to stay in the PDP and destroy it. He wants to still answer the Vice President in name, but not in action. He wants to destroy the government he has been an integral part of. It was all so obvious in his declaration speech. Listening to him, I thought of the Biblical Pontius Pilate, who washed his hands off the killing of Jesus Christ by the Jews. Yet, he was part and parcel of the decision. When Atiku talks about the forgotten masses in his speech, what he is saying is that the Obasanjo government is insensitive to the needs of the masses. Atiku: "It is a contest for, and about uplifting the lives of the forgotten millions of our fellow citizens who work very hard but get very little.... It is a contest for, and about the millions of hardworking middle class families in Nigeria, whose standard of living is progressively being eroded.”
The question is: When did Atiku realise all these? When he poo-poohed the government's economic reforms, the question is: Since when? Atiku: “This re-engineering process has had very little impact on the basic living conditions of the average Nigerian. Rather, it has made a few people extremely rich. This is unacceptable. This is immoral. This is dangerous.” When he says, “our government will not try to solve all problems... It will not be an all-knowing government,” he was no doubt referring to Obasanjo.
We should not let Atiku get away with this. He was part and parcel of the Obasanjo government. We should not allow him to play Pontius Pilate. We should not allow him to play the later day Saint. Truth is: Time was, when Atiku ran the show. If this government is a failure, then Atiku shares the blame. There was a time when he was full of praises for the economic reforms of the government. What he is telling us now is: I lied to you.
Now, why should we believe he is telling the truth? I don’t. This is politics at its worst.