Years ago, former Nigerian President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo thrilled Nigerians with the scintillating tale that his then Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar was corrupt.
Ironically this accusation was made when they both served Nigerians in the highest capacity…yet Chief Obasanjo had no credible facts, strong enough to back-up his claims in a court of law…despite his unlimited access to the then EFCC and even after leaving office after these many years.
Current Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari and his many apologists within the ruling APC have inadvertently borrowed from the same play-book of “call him names without evidence”…yet, President Buhari’s government has not been able to bring Atiku to any form of legal justice…except its whimsical attempts to engage in both subtle and overt attempts to cripple some of the business organization of Atiku.
But in all of these media fights against Atiku, Atiku seems to be very articulate in his measured steps back to political reckoning.
Atiku used the tools of democracy to stop Obasanjo’s subtle attempt to engage the Nigerian National assembly to amend the Nigerian constitution for a possible third term in office.
Atiku used the tools of democracy to question the ability of a sitting President to sack a Vice President who was voted into office on the same platform.
When Chief Obasanjo could not handle Atiku’s political dexterity, he marshaled the PDP machinery to engage in a re-registration exercise that excluded opposition figures like Atiku out of the then PDP.
Having being forced out of the PDP, Atiku left for the APC…And when the Buhari-led APC government began to deny their campaign promises, including that of re-structuring Nigeria, Atiku was the first prominent voice in that party to remind Buhari and the APC functionaries concerning the need to keep their several high falutin promises to the people.
In all of the above submissions, my take is not to defend Atiku if he has a case to answer…It is an attempt to call on the Buhari government to either prosecute Atiku with whatever corruption charges they may have against him especially now that they are in power or stop the continuous negative diatribe of tarnishing the image of Atiku, the Waziri Adamawa on the social media.
While It is my wish that a newer breed of political gladiators can rescue Nigeria from the current leadership shackles that Nigeria has found herself in, if we are, however, left with the options of Atiku and Buhari at the end of the day, Nigerians will be left to choose between an articulate and democratically-minded Atiku and an incoherent cum-dictatorially-minded Buhari.
Some may tinker with the idea that Buhari’s anti-corruption selling point may come handy again as a deceptive tool to confuse gullible Nigerians.
Interestingly, Buhari’s touting maxim of “I will fight corruption” will not sell like hotcakes anymore. Nigerians have now seen how Buhari handled the corruption incidents that took place under his own watch as oil Minister and within the oil ministry in his own regime.
A word is enough for the wise because foisting a directionless Presidency for another four years on Nigerians will not help anyone. What do you think? #ReflectionsOnLeadership
Yours sincerely,
Iyke Nwambie
Dr. Iyke Nwambie is a Leadership consultant
