Atiku and his inordinate ambition

For starters, I'm not a fan of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. I did not want him to win the last election nor did I want anyone of the three frontrunners to win because none of them appealed to me as having the credentials to run a nation as beleaguered as Nigeria. When I talk of this, I'm not talking of economic credentials or dexterity but moral standing to lead a nation into stability and progress. But seeing Abubakar Atiku and his antics, I'm inclined to the point of righteous indignation that I feel I must make a bold statement.

Atiku will do anything including schemes and stratagems to rule, note, not to serve Nigeria. Atiku does not love Nigeria and is a great liar and pretender. What do I mean? He was the chief instrument that gave the presidency to Bola Ahmed Tinubu. If he had given his support to Peter Obi who ran behind him in the 2019 election, Obi and the PDP would have won that election. By tribal bigotry, Atiku felt he could upstage Obi in the PDP and indeed he did, and that pushed Obi into the Labour Party. If Atiku truly loved this nation as he wanted people to believe, he would have known and accepted that it was morally wrong for him to succeed Muhammadu Buhari, a Fulani like himself. He would have known that it was morally wrong to keep Ndigbo out of the power loop in the centre.

Atiku's pretension to love the nation was punctured and exposed when he told a gathering of emirs that he was the best candidate to represent the interests of the north. What is the interest of the north that is different from the interest of Nigeria? By that, Atiku was not a Nigerian but a Fulani. He could not save Nigeria or build a nation out of up to 350 ethnicities. Atiku Abubakar cannot convince reasonable Nigerians that he is in any way better than Bola Tinubu in terms of public morality. Not with all the statements made by his erstwhile boss, Olusegun Obasanjo, the president when he was the vice president. Were the judiciary to be as upright as in other climes, Atiku would have been jailed concerning the number of allegations made against him. It is for the same reason that Bola Ahmed Tinubu has escaped all the accusations levelled against him in different courts in Nigeria. Atiku Abubakar is as bad as Bola Ahmed Tinubu, if not worse. In short, this is a clear case of the pot calling kettle black.

Atiku Abubakar should be asked to pocket his "holier than thou" attitude as far as morality and the unity and progress of Nigeria are concerned. Like Muhammadu Buhari before him, Atiku will run a Fulani-dominated government like Bola Ahmed Tinubu is running a Yoruba government and like Peter Obi would have run a Ndigbo-dominated government. The Yoruba have a proverb that juju maestro Ebenezer Fabiyi, Obe, turned to a song: "Baba leni, taaba bani, iwon laa bani sota mo." It means if you run after a man and you are not able to meet him, you should backtrack. Anger should not be forever. Atiku's pursuit of Tinubu is unnecessary and that he has not backtracked means he wants to keep anger forever. It means that Atiku will not mind sacrificing the interest of Nigeria to satisfy his narrow ambition. At this stage in Nigeria, there is a sitting president, at the stage that the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, PEPT, has dismissed all the grounds of petitions against Tinubu, the wise thing for Atiku to do is to backtrack. But Atiku still thought he could get fresh evidence against Tinubu that his lawyers did not plead at the PEPT. Atiku is getting his lawyers to drum to the public the legal argument that he can still do this at the Supreme Court.

Atiku has invited Peter Obi and Rabiu Musa Kwankwanso to join him in his treachery against Nigeria. The same Obi that he upstaged from PDP. If he loves Nigeria that much why did he not allow Obi to run in PDP? Fortunately, Obi has refused to join in the treachery and it does not look like Kwankwanso will join either. If Atiku truly loves Nigeria, he should have allowed Obi, whose tribe has not been given the chance to serve Nigeria at the centre since the civil war, to pick the PDP ticket. It is wrong for Atiku to think to succeed Buhari while it is equally wrong for Bola Tinubu to think it is his turn in his selfish "emilokan" ("it is my turn" campaign slogan).

Atiku would likely lose at the Supreme Court. Just like the Obidients who thought the justices of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal were not human and intimidated them with social media campaigns abusing and cursing them, Atiku is also about to learn that these judges are also Nigerians who are affected by what happens to all of us. If he thinks the judges will kowtow to him by his mindless pursuit of Tinubu at every twist and turn, disparaging Nigeria in the international community, he would soon get his comeuppance when the Supreme Court makes its ruling which eventually may not favour him. Does Atiku think the Yoruba nation will keep quiet to allow their son to be upstaged by a Supreme Court ruling just like the northern military annulled the election of one of their own, Chief MKO Abiola and subsequently killed him? To upturn Tinubu's election at the Supreme Court may lead to a chain reaction the end of which no one would be able to predict. Even if Tinubu is the most flawed character on earth, the majority of Yoruba people will prefer he retains power. Nigeria is at a critical juncture and the ruling of the Supreme Court will determine which way forward.

Tunde Akande is both a journalist and pastor. He earned a Masters degree in Mass Communication from the University of Lagos.