It’s tough to brag with bona fides you hardly have. But that seems the self cul-de-sac former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has rammed himself. Even if he tried, he appears honestly incapable of extricating himself from that hole.
Atiku’s umpteenth bluster, of course, flows neatly into PDP’s well-established bluff, in a classic case of the blustering man meet the posturing party. Despite feasting on the current insecurity challenges, which have triggered heightened hysteria on the ethnic exit front, it’s not clear on what credible past records Atiku and party would campaign in 2023.
In a leaked memo, in which hope seemed to spring eternal in the Atiku presidential dreams, the former Vice President rhapsodized: “We are fully prepared to work in synergy to restore hope, pull Nigeria back from the brink and relive the patriotic spirit of our founding fathers!” Nice pitch!
“I believe that together we would rebuild our broken fences, mend our cracked walls, restore hope, and return Nigeria to the path of greatness again. Surely, we can, and we must.” Great!
But was Nigeria ever great when Atiku was Vice — pun absolutely unintended — to President Olusegun Obasanjo; and when the duo feuded, not to raise the lot of the common man under their charge, but to secure privileges each was creaming from the system?
And if Nigeria was never great under the duo, on what past “greatness” is Atiku the dreamer bench-marking a future nirvana under Atiku and party? Of course, the cunning politician knows this vacuous pitch would register with not a few among the starry-eyed, since Nigerians generally lack collective memory. Still, it’s at best a mirage, the emptiness of which is exposed at the earliest opportunity!
The other day, Atiku rubbed it in, mocking that kidnappers and allied bandits could well go ahead and register their nefarious trade with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC). That was hook well connected, given the current plague of these criminals.
Besides, it was the sort of laconic, if devastating, wit Alhaji Lai Mohammed patented during his Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN)/APC days as national publicity secretary, from which poor, ruling PDP, back then, painfully reeled.
But since displacing PDP from power, Muhammed’s APC has gone ahead to chalk up some feats: Nigerian rice, for starters, as general metaphor for strides in local agriculture and path to food security; then, modern rail — again as general metaphor for renewed restoration in infrastructure: roads, bridges and airports.
Both appeared impossible in the Nigeria that Atiku and Obasanjo bossed, for the first eight years from 1999; and what their successors, mainly President Goodluck Jonathan, did in the succeeding eight years.
Why, a video just went viral, in which Doyin Okupe, who just declared he was Gen. Ibrahim Babangida’s projected messiah for the 2023 presidency, lectured that modern rail was an absolute impossibility, in Africa’s biggest economy — even with much more earnings! Yet, leaner times are here but better rail is debuting! See?
Atiku can posture and bluster as he wishes — his democratic right! But how to walk his flowery talk? We’ll see! (Thenationonlineng)