Atiku Abubakar’s Ambition Divides APC
The 2019 general election is still over sixteen months away, but the ambition of one man, Atiku Abubakar, has created so much frenzy in the polity and is threatening to tear the All Progressives Congress apart, Segun James reports
The die is cast” declared Julius Caesar as he led his legion across the Rubicon River toward Rome; as it was with Caesar then so it is now with former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar as he declares his ambition to become the next President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Intelligent, bold and audacious, rarely has a politician had more fans and enemies at the same time as the purpose driven and strong-willed All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain. This will be his fourth bid for the elusive presidency. Will he be fourth time lucky like President Muhammadu Buhari? Only time will tell. But if recent happening in the polity is anything to go by, he is making strong impression this time around than any other time to actualise his ambition.
Abubakar is the restless sort. For years he has focussed his eyes on being president of Nigeria. He has never wavered in his quest, even in the face of daunting opposition and opponents who consider his ambition as inordinate. He has always dared to be bold.
When out of power, most politicians go out of circulation. You hardly hear their voice. Not Atiku. He is always around and visible even as he tries as much as possible to avoid constituting himself a distraction to the government in power. That was the situation until now when he stirred the hornet’s nest.
Trouble started when the Minister for Women Affairs, Aisha Alhassan at a private visit to Atiku endorsed the former vice president for the 2019 presidential election.
The minister told him boldly: “Your Excellency, our father and our president by the grace of God, come 2019,” she said in Hausa language. Eventually, the video clip of the visit was leaked to the press. While the minister was saying this, Abubakar sat listening.
Popularly called Mama Taraba, Mrs. Alhassan was the APC governorship candidate in Taraba in 2015, an election she narrowly lost to the Peoples Democratic Party.
Her support for Abubakar was not surprising to political observers given the fact that the former vice president is believed to be her political godfather and responsible for her becoming the APC governorship candidate in the last election.
Alhassan also confirmed her loyalty to Atiku when she stated that she was not scared of being sacked by Buhari.
Following the outburst and the controversy it generated, the APC called on the minister to resign her appointment given the fact that she is not loyal to the president and the government she is serving.
But Abubakar has come out boldly not only to support the minister’s statement but also to accuse the party and the federal government of undermining his contributions to the emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari as president in 2015.
Atiku praised Alhassan for standing her ground and remaining loyal to him - He argued that since APC is a coalition of parties, members are free to remain loyal to whoever they want.
He tongue-lashed his party for lacking in internal democracy, noting that even though democracy had taken root in Nigeria, elements from the military still wield power in the country. He warnned that any party that stifles the freedom of its members cannot provide freedom for the country.
Abubakar also accused the party as undemocratic in the way its leaders carry out their activities, lamenting the alleged refusal of the party to organise statutory meetings for the organs of the party.
“The issue of internal democracy in our political parties has been with us for a long time, indeed since the restoration of civilian rule in 1999. In long-established democracies those statements would seem trite. But I recognise that our democracy is young, and our parties are also rather young.
“We had a very long period of authoritarian rule in Nigeria, ending in 1999. The legacy of that period is still with us as can be seen in our various governance institutions. Indeed even elements of that authoritarian past still wield power and influence in our country as we try to transition from that legacy.”
The battle line has been drawn between him and his party.
Before now he had been a thorn in the flesh of the party when he declared to the chagrin of APC that the country must embrace restructuring.
While APC leaders were avoiding the issue like a plague, Atiku not only embraced it, he also became one of the leading lights in the struggle for restructuring. His position irked many in his party. But he didn’t give a damn. fl
Atiku Abubakar, politician, businessman and a philanthropist was born on the 25 November of 1946.
He worked in the Nigeria Customs Service for twenty years, rising to become a deputy director, the second highest position in the service was then known. He retired in April 1989 and took up full-time business and politics. He ran for the office of governor in the Gongola State (now Adamawa and Taraba States) in 1991, and for the Presidency in 1993, placing third after MKO Abiola and Babagana Kingibe in the Social Democratic Party (SDP) flprimaries.
In 1998 he was elected governor of Adamawa State. While still governor-elect he was selected by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate Olusegun Obasanjo as his running mate. The duo went on to win the elections in 1999, and Abubakar was sworn-in as vice president on 29 May 1999.
Abubakar’s second term as vice president was marked by a stormy relationship with Obasanjo. His bid to succeed Obasanjo did not receive the latter’s support, and it took a judgment of the Supreme Court to allow Abubakar contest after he was initially disqualified by the Independent National Electoral Commission on the grounds that he had been indicted for financial misconduct by an investigating panel set up at Obasanjo’s behest.
The Supreme Court ordered the electoral commission to restore Abubakar’s name on the ballot. Abubakar ran on the platform of the Action Congress, having quit the PDP on account of his issues with Obasanjo. Atiku lost the election, placing third after Umaru Yar’Adua and Muhammadu Buhari of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP).
He was born to an itinerant Fulani trader and farmer Garba Abubakar, and his second wife, Aisha Kande, in Jada village in what is today Adamawa State, formerly Gongola state. He was named for his paternal grandfather, Atiku Abdulkadir.
At the age of eight Atiku enrolled in the Jada Primary School where he performed well. In 1960, he was admitted to the prestigious Adamawa Provincial Secondary School in Yola where he did well in English Language and literature, struggled with physics and hemistry and mathematics. He graduated with a Grade Three WASC/GCE Certificate in 1965.
After completing his secondary school education, Atiku studied at the Nigeria Police College in Kaduna. He left the college when he was unable to present an ordinary level mathematics result. He worked briefly as a tax officer in the regional ministry of finance, from where he gained admission to the School of Hygiene in Kano in 1966.
He graduated with a Diploma in 1967, having served as Interim Student Union President at the School. In 1967 he enrolled for a Law Diploma at the Ahmadu Bello University Institute of Administration, on a scholarship from regional government. After graduation in 1969, during the Nigerian Civil War, he was employed by the Nigeria Customs Service.
Atiku’s first foray into politics was in the early 1980s, when he worked behind-the-scenes on the governorship campaign of Bamanga Tukur, who at that time was managing director of the Nigeria Ports Authority. He canvassed for votes on behalf of Tukur, and also donated to the campaign. Towards the end of his customs career, he met Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, who had been second-in-command of the military government that ruled Nigeria between 1976 and 1979. Atiku was drawn by Yar’Adua into the political meetings that were now happening regularly in Yar’Adua’s Lagos home.
On 1 September 1990, Atiku announced his Gongola State gubernatorial bid. A year later, before the elections could hold, Gongola State was broken up into two – Adamawa and Taraba States – by the Federal Government. Atiku fell into the new Adamawa State. After an acrimonious contest he won the SDP Primaries in November 1991, but was soon disqualified by government from contesting the elections.
In 1998 Atiku launched a bid for the governorship of Adamawa State on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party. He won the December 1998 elections,
In 2006, Atiku was involved in a bitter public battle with his boss, Obasanjo, ostensibly arising from the latter’s bid to amend certain provisions of the constitution to take another shot at the presidency (for the third consecutive time).
The debate and acrimony generated by the failed constitutional amendment momentarily caused a rift in the People’s Democratic Party. The National Assembly eventually voted against any amendments that would Obasanjo to run for another term. The Atiku-Obasanjo face-off damaged the personal relationship between both men.
Following the 2007 elections, Atiku returned to the People’s Democratic Party. In October 2010 he announced his intention to contest for the Presidency. On 22 November, a Committee of Northern Elders selected him as the Northern Consensus Candidate, over former Military President Ibrahim Babangida, former National Security Adviser Aliyu Gusau and Governor Bukola Saraki of Kwara State.
In January 2011, Atiku contested for the presidential ticket of his party alongside President Goodluck Jonathan and Sarah Jubril, and lost the primary, garnering 805 votes to President Jonathan’s 2736. On 2 February 2014, Atiku left the Peoples Democratic Party to the join All Progressives Congress.
He also lost the APC’s presidential ticket to Buhari in 2015 but went ahead to work for the success of the party during the 2015 general elections.
As the 2019 general election draws near, the questions remain: under which political party will Abubakar contest the election? Many are already speculating that he will move to the PDP. If he does, no one will be surprised. That will be typical Atiku.
Given the opposition that his ambition has generated lately, he has a lot of hurdles to scale.
As the 2019 general election draws near, the questions remain: under which political party will Abubakar contest the election? Many are already speculating that he will move to the PDP. If he does, no one will be surprised. That will be typical Atiku.