Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has pursued his quixotic dream of becoming president of Nigeria for nearly three decades now, longer than any other politician dead or alive. Reaching his goal has become as elusive to him as an ever disappearing mirage as it was to Don Quixote, the protagonist in Miguel de Cervantes masterpiece Don Quixote: The man from Lamancha.
Now the flag bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party in the presidential election next February, Atiku will once again hope to realise his ambition of being the number one citizen in Nigeria.
The first time he gave a shot at being president, though not many Nigerians will remember now, was in 1992. In that year, he contested as a presidential aspirant of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). SDP fielded three candidates for its primaries: MKO Abiola, Babagana Kingibe and Atiku Abubakar. MKO polled 3, 617 votes to Kingibe’s 3, 255. Atiku had 2,066 votes.
After the primaries, there was talk of Kingibe and Abubakar teaming up for a rerun against MKO. Late Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, it was said, persuaded Atiku to withdraw, thus paving the way for Abiola’s victory on June 12, 1993.
A good five years would elapse before Atiku would throw his hat into the political ring again, this time as a founding member of the United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP). He won as governor of Adamawa State under UNCP in 1998. Yet to be sworn in, Atiku joined the PDP and was thus selected as running mate to Olusegun Obasanjo in the 1999 presidential election. They won twice, first in 1999 and then in 2003.
For the 2007 presidential election, Atiku defected to Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) where he was pitted against Umaru Musa Yar’Adua of the PDP. Atiku lost yet again. He would lose in the 2011 and 2015 elections, first to incumbent president Goodluck Jonathan and then Muhammadu Buhari. Atiku’s record of honourable failure was unbroken when he lost, again, to Buhari in 2019, making him a consistent loser since his first bid in 1992.
As a perennial loser angling for political office, Atiku is in good company, if not here in Nigeria but elsewhere, especially in the very country Nigeria borrowed its presidential system of government from. There was the case, for instance, of an American politician, Endicott Peabody, who lost virtually all the electoral offices he sought for.
Writing of his obituary in December 1997, The Economist reminisced thusly: “In 1956 Endicott Peabody stood for election as attorney-general of Massachusetts. He lost. In 1958 he stood again, and again lost. In 1960, he sought the Democratic nomination for the governorship of the state, and failed. In 1966, he was a candidate for the United States Senate, and lost. In the 1980s, he moved to New Hampshire and tried for both houses of Congress, but, sadly, lost again. Endicott Peabody’s record of honourable failure was briefly interrupted in 1962 when, after a lengthy recount of the votes, he was elected governor of Massachusetts. But two years later, he was defeated.
“The fame that came to Mr. Peabody was not simply because, in a land which normally hails political winners, he drew attention as a spectacular loser. That was certainly part of it. His determination was admired. But he was also an individualist, a Don Quixote, whose persistence took him into areas more conventional politicians would have avoided.”
You could say that Atiku has also ventured into “areas more conventional politicians would have avoided” by his declaration, late last month, when he appeared in a town hall meeting with Northern Elders Forum. Asked by Hakeem Baba-Ahmed why voters from the north should vote for him, the PDP presidential candidate enthused thusly: “What the average Northerner needs is somebody who’s from the north and also understands that part of the country and has been able to build bridges across the country…This is what the Northerner needs, it doesn’t need a Yoruba or Igbo candidate, I stand before you as a pan-Nigerian of northern origin.”
Political analysts have since called him out on his rather uncharitable remark. Writing in The Guardian of October 25, 2022, headlined “2023: Atiku and the North,” Luke Onyekakekah observed that Atiku’s statement is “anti-north and anti-unity in Nigeria. It is a statement that seeks to perpetuate poverty, illiteracy, backwardness and gross underdevelopment in the north. The north has held the north to ransom for too long and needs change. If there is any section of the country that needs drastic turnaround; a section that needs a new brain to bring real time development and change, it is the north. There is no doubt about this fact. The north needs a turnaround more than any other region.”
Continuing, Onyekakekah writes that “the remark has since gone viral on social media and attracted opprobrium. A former minister of aviation and member of the APC, Femi Fani-Kayode, reportedly denounced Atiku and stated: “This is the height of desperation and daredevilry on the part of Atiku! This is so horrendous, so horrible and so thoughtless for Atiku Abubakar to use ethnicity to campaign, saying the north does not need a Yoruba or Ibo candidate. My God! Atiku needs to quit the race.”
Atiku, Onyekakekah went on, ”enjoyed strong support in 2019 in the South-East and South-South but the emergence of Peter Obi appears to be threatening his party’s stranglehold in the two zones. His chances now clearly depend on improving his support in the north. And, indeed, it was to play for the northern votes in the light of President Muhammadu Buhari not running again that the main opposition party has jettisoned its zoning policy that would have handed its ticket to a southern aspirant.”
As if this faux pas were not enough trouble for the Turaki of Adamawa, a traditional title since bequeathed to his son like a family heirloom, there is now speculation that the PDP presidential flag bearer may be out of pocket.
Is Atiku Broke?
It is a question political pundits are now mulling since Atiku emerged the PDP point man for the 2023 election. And there are good reasons for that. Soon after the Presidential Campaign Committee was inaugurated, for instance, Atiku jetted out to Europe and the UAE for business, his aides claimed. In reality, according to reliable sources, the man had gone to canvas for support, financial and otherwise, from those he visited during his trip with a possible payback if he wins the election next year.
Some even traced his insolvent state back to 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. On May Day that year, Gotel Communications, a media outfit owned by Atiku, sacked 46 workers. Three days later, the American University of Nigeria Yola, a private university founded by Atiku, sacked over 400 staff at a go.
Linda Ikeji, a popular blogger in Nigeria, quoted an affected staff in a publication of May 5, 2020, that the reason for the termination of appointment was because “they (AUN) couldn’t generate revenue.” The sack became necessary “due to a desire to align the University’s expenses with available revenue and all financial projections of the university.”
For a politician, who has been contesting elections since 1992 – in a country where winning elections cost millions and millions – there might just be some element of truth that the man is not quite up to it financially. Nor has his current face-off with Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers state helped matters much. With the limitless resources at his disposal as governor of one the richest states in Nigeria, Wike would have lent a helping hand.
About the Author
Michael Jimoh is a Nigerian journalist with many years experience in print media. He is currently a Special Correspondent with THEWILL.
