Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, is the issue on the lips of almost every Nigerian at the moment due to his latest move, which is not a new thing.
Atiku has dumped the All Progressives Congress, APC.
Although he has not mentioned what party he would be joining, most political observers believe that he would join his former party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
This is not the first time that Atiku would leave one party for another. Over the years, the Turakin Adamawa, in his quest to achieve his political ambition has joined one party or the other.
His presidential ambition began 24 years ago when he contested the presidential primaries of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, in 1993 and came third after Chief Moshood Kashimawo Abiola and Ambassador Babagana Kingibe.
In 1999, Atiku was elected Vice President to President Olusegun Obasanjo under the PDP. He spent eight years in power.
Atiku fell out with Obasanjo and when he realised that his boss supported Umar Musa Yar’Adua, he defected from the PDP to the Action Congress, AC. He lost to Yar’Adua in the 2007 election.
Yar’Adua died after two years in office. Dr. Goodluck Jonathan who was the Vice President was sworn in as President to complete the four year term, which ended in 2011. The Northern leaders in the PDP were furious with Jonathan when he decided to run for President in 2011 going against the ‘gentleman agreement’ regarding zoning of the presidency to the North.
The former Vice President saw this as an opportunity, since he is from the northern part. He contested the presidential primaries and lost woefully to Jonathan at the Eagles Square in Abuja.
He remained in the PDP but not without plotting the downfall of Jonathan. Atiku alongside some other bigwigs of the PDP dumped the party for the APC. He was one of those who formed the new PDP and walked out of the party’s national convention in 2014 due to leadership crisis. Atiku joined the APC to become president in 2015.
He promised that it would be the last time that he would jump ship. Three years later, Atiku has left the APC. Unlike the past when he would leave one party and join another immediately, Atiku has not made mention of any party.
The signs were clear to all that Atiku would eventually leave the party. It was just a question of when. The reasons are not far-fetched. Atiku had complained openly that he was not being carried along in the scheme of things. When Buhari assumed office, he advised his administration to “break special interest cabals in the power and oil sectors to make significant economic progress.” But it seems they never listened.
Part of his resignation speech reads: “While other parties have purged themselves of the arbitrariness and unconstitutionality that led to 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.”
In the statement, he made mention of Governor Nasir El-rufai’s leaked memo to President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said, “Only last year, a governor produced by the party wrote a secret memorandum to the president, which ended up being leaked. In that memo, he admitted that the All Progressives Congress had ‘not only failed to manage expectations of a populace that expected overnight ‘change’ but has failed to deliver even mundane matters of governance’.
“Of the party itself, that same governor said ‘Mr. President, Sir, your relationship with the national leadership of the party, both the formal (NWC) and informal (Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Atiku Abubakar, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso), and former Governors of ANPP, PDP (that joined us) and ACN, is perceived by most observers to be at best frosty. Many of them are aggrieved due to what they consider total absence of consultations with them on your part and those you have assigned such duties.”
He continued “Since that memorandum was written up until today, nothing has been done 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.
“Be that as it may be, after due consultation with my God, my family, my supporters and the Nigerian people whom I meet in all walks of life, I, Atiku Abubakar, Waziri Adamawa, hereby tender my resignation from the All Progressives Congress while I take time to ponder my future.”
That statement did not seem to go down well with the Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-rufai, as he reacted swiftly to the resignation of the former Vice President.
The former FCT Minister addressed reporters immediately after he joined President Muhammadu Buhari in observing the juma’at at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Friday.
He said, “It was good that former Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar left the APC early.”
El-rufai added that, “if given the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku is not a threat to President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 presidential election.” He further described Atiku as “a serial defector.”
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While El-rufai thinks Atiku is not a threat to Buhari’s re-election bid, some others think Atiku’s resignation from the APC is a huge setback for the party because it may give room to most aggrieve members to leave the party.
Political analysts are of the view that Atiku must have consulted widely before taking this step.
Felix Ugochukwu, a political analyst told The Next Edition that, “Atiku is a bridge builder. There is relief that he has left the APC. Now, everyone who wants a united Nigeria is praying that Atiku joins PDP and clinches the party’s ticket. He may not be the best candidate, but many Nigerians across the divide feel he is better than Buhari.”
Founder and publisher of Ovation Magazine, Dele Momodu, is of the view that the APC will be in ‘hot soup’ if the PDP puts its house in order.
He said, “It is certain that APC failed to learn any lessons from how it sacked PDP and history is about to repeat itself so soon. This was how PDP allowed some of its golden assets to walk away from the party.
“If PDP manages its affairs better, and more democratically, by eliminating fifth columnists among them, APC would be in hot soup,” he wrote.
The former Vice President maintains robust political structures across the country and he is believed to have cross-party sympathy. Atiku is thought to have a huge war chest for campaigns and maintenance of his structures.
One of his strong points given the divisions in the country right now is that Atiku has friends across religious, ethnic and political divide. He is seen as a bridge builder. It should be noted that he has wives from Northern, Eastern and Western parts of Nigeria. His first wife, Hajia Titi Abubakar is from Osun State and a force to be reckoned with in the South West.
With the current move, it is obvious that moving in and out of PDP or any party, for Atiku, is not an issue and nothing to be ashamed of. As far as he is concerned, from all indications, what is most important is the move that will make him realise his ambition to become President of the largest concentration of blacks in the world, the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The question that may beg for answer now is whether his dream will come true with the current move. Better to conclude that only time will tell.
