ATIKU\OBI CANDIDATURE: WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?

Since our colonial masters left the shores of Nigeria, after they had entrenched the egregious political culture of imposition of political leaders on the people(s) of Nigeria, as exemplified by their helping Alhaji Tafawa Balewa to become our Prime Minister in 1960, Nigeria has been bedevilled by leadership crisis. And since our country’s attainment of political sovereignty in 1960, and until 1999, rapacious, profligate, corrupt, and rudderless democratic governance interspersed with autocratic military regimes were our collective lot, then.

Even our uninterrupted practice of representative government since 1999, and until now, has not brought much gains and development to us and Nigeria owing to our political leaders’ religious bigotry, ethnic chauvinism, rapacity, lack of leadership qualities and corruption. Little wonder, for all humongous natural and human resources, equable weather conditions, and arable large landmass, Nigeria is still trapped in the morass of underdevelopment.

So, Muhammadu Buhari coasted to victory in the 2015 Presidential election on the coat tails of his ascetic nature, perceived zero tolerance for corruption, patriotism, and zeal for political leadership. But it seems that he has been overwhelmed by the enormity of Nigeria’s multifarious and hydra-headed national problems. But, was he prepared for national leadership before a coalition of political parties helped to ensconce him in the loft of power? The answer to the question is a categorical no.

Since he became the President of Nigeria, he has not been able to make our economy grow at a quick pace or tackle successfully insurgency in the northeast of Nigeria. And he has failed, abysmally, to fix the infrastructural rot in the country. His fight against corruption, which is the leukemia asphyxiating Nigeria, is lopsided to persecute members of PDP, the chief opposition political party in Nigeria. Worst still, as the Buhari government has failed to revitalise and expand our economy to create job opportunities for people, Nigeria, now, has an army of jobless people, who are angry and hungry. So, are we not sitting on a keg of gun powder, now?

That’s why the emergence of Atiku Abubakar as the Presidential candidate of PDP has caused joy and happiness to well up in the hearts of millions of Nigerians. Many Nigerians want a better alternative to the ruling APC which has failed to fulfill its promises to us. Its campaign mantra of change resonated with us during the 2015 Presidential election campaign as countless Nigerians were disenchanted with Dr Goodluck Jonathan’s political administration, then. Yet, until now, change has remained elusive in our country. Today, millions of Nigerians, who are trampled underfoot, are groaning under severe economic hardship occasioned by visionless, rudderless, insensitive, and inept political government of the APC. So, Atiku’s winning of the PDP’s Presidential ticket has revived hope in the hearts of millions of Nigerians and made them become ecstatic.

Atiku Abubakar, who makes no pretensions to being a saint and our political messiah, is a hard-nosed and pragmatic politician. Before serving Nigeria for eight years as the vice-president in a PDP –led government, he worked at the top echelons of Customs. So, he is familiar with our seemingly intractable national problems. And he has been proffering solutions to our myriads of national ills via his interactions with journalists. His articulation and formulation of policies, including his treatise on the restructuring of Nigeria, are workable road maps for the re-making of our battered country.

Again, Atiku possesses cosmopolitan disposition and proclivities, which will make his political candidacy acceptable to the generality of Nigerians from diverse ethnic origins. If he wins the Presidential election, his victory will bridge the ethnic chasm in Nigeria instead of deepening our ethnic and religious fissures. And, he will look beyond the north when forming his executive cabinet and appointing personnel into our federal establishments as he is not held hostage to ethnic, religious, and primordial sentiments.

More so, his choice of Mr. Peter Obi, as his running mate, is spot-on. It is a political master-stroke that will galvanise goodwill and support for Atiku Abubakar in the Presidential race. His choice of Mr. Obi as his Presidential running mate will placate millions of indignant Igbo people, who feel that they are being left out in Nigeria’s political scheme of things. And it will dampen their enthusiasm for the creation of the sovereign state of Biafra. We are not unconscious of the stark fact that President Buhari’s high-handedness in treating the Biafra incubus has further polarised the country, and alienated him from the people of the Southeast.

And, the Igbo people’s hope of producing Nigeria’s President of Igbo extraction can be achieved sooner via Atiku/Obi political candidature. If Atiku wins the 2019 Presidential election, which he is poised to win, and serves out his terms of office, Peter Obi will become the next PDP’s Presidential candidate based on political calculus and permutations. An Igbo man’s ascendance to the highest political office in Nigeria will disabuse the minds of the Igbo people of the notion that they are second-class citizens in Nigeria. Chiedu Uche Okoye, Uruowulu-Obosi, Anambra State