By ethelbert okere
As the saying goes, everybody has a price. In Nigeria, there are so many things that happen that leave the uninitiated confounded in sheer disbelief. But for those who understand the game, it is simple to understand. Name the correct price and you can recruit the most pious man in Nigeria for anything. After I did a peace in this column on the Rivers state crisis, a fellow wrote back to tell me that I ain’t seen nothing yet. He stated that I should watch out for what Governor Amaechi was going to do. When I enquired further, he replied that the governor has a very deep pocket and that he is generous.
He even said that if he were me, he would look for ways of working on the Amaechi side instead of “wasting” my time on the “Abuja people”. I can now see what that fellow meant. Governor Amaechi has shown that he has what it takes to recruit the ‘best brains’ in Nigeria into his own side of the game. Imagine him being able to get a Nobel Laureate to work for him, something a president could not achieve. Next, Amaechi went for five of his colleagues in the North and caused them to abandon their duty posts to embark on a recruitment drive on his behalf.
It is not clear what other considerations were in place outside the allegation, by the governors, that President Jonathan wants the governors to do his bidding. The little that filtered in from the grape wine was that Governor Amaechi at least provided the transport “logistics” (yes logistics) for the recruitment tours that took the five (Northern) governors to Mina, Abeokuta, Abuja and a few other places. That must have offered some consolations to the citizens of those five (Northern) states, after realizing that their governors are not the ones footing the bills on behalf of Amaechi, who presides over one of the richest states.
But a few weeks after the recruitment exercise began, there appeared to be a lull. In fact, some people in the president’s camp were almost beginning to rejoice in the thinking that the recruitment drive yielded no fruits. But came Saturday August 31, 2013 and they recoiled in shock at what they saw. The occasion was the mini national convention of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The venue was the Eagles Square, Abuja. In the net of Amaechi was former vice president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar. By all standards, that is a big catch. Since Atiku Abubakar fell for Amaechi, things have not been the same for the president’s camp in particular and the PDP in general. Just in one outing, Atiku, as he is just simply known, got for Amaechi what five governors could not get for him. He led a walk-out from the convention to the surprise of all.
I was in attendance at a post convention evening get-together last Saturday in Abuja and not unexpectedly, the staged walk-out by the pro-Amaechi group, led by Atiku, came up. Of course, the main issue was the Atiku involvement, the latest and freshest angle to the Amaechi Jonathan/PDP imbroglio. And this was how a fellow dismissed the former vice president of Nigeria: “That one, he is looking for oil block”! I expected someone to counter that Atiku is believed to be so wealthy that Jonathan’s oil blocks mean nothing to him. But nobody did. Nobody challenged the idea or submission that he was leading the rebellion against his party for “settlement”. Right or wrong, that is a sad commentary on him.
After leading the walk-out, Atiku took his principal, Governor Amaechi and the other pro Amaechi governors to the Shehu Yara ‘Adua centre where he presided over a parallel convention that threw up a factional leadership for the PDP. From the reactions of party stalwarts, the leadership of the party must have been taken completely unawares. A highly dependable source even disclosed that just a few days before the convention, the national chairman of the PDP, Dr. Bamanga Tukur, had led a delegation of some top politicians from the North-East geo-political zone to Atiku to solicit for his co-operation and to support President Jonathan’s re-election. The source went further to say that it was agreed at the meeting that Tukur will later lead the North-East political leaders, including Atiku, to the president to work out an understanding that may include making way for Atiku to take over from Jonathan in 2019. Atiku Abubakar, according to the source, was said to have agreed.
Thus, when Tukur and, may be, the president saw the former vice president at the venue of the convention, they must have looked at each other and smiled. But little did they know that Atiku had come as a green snake in a green grass. He even posed for photographs with other leaders, including some of President Jonathan’s staunch supporters. Which means that Atiku Abubakar was trusted by his fellow politicians up to the very last minute before he executed his ‘coup’?
The reason Atiku and co. gave for staging the walk-out was that they did not like how the party was being run. And my first reaction was: Did they mean how the convention was organized or how the party is being run? If their grouse was how the party is being run, why did they surface at the convention in the first place? Perhaps this question needs not even arise since Atiku, said to be very deft at political maneuverings, must have chosen that occasion for maximum effect. And he achieved it. He hit the party where it hurts most.
But beyond the euphoria with which every political development in Nigeria is greeted, where does that leave Atiku Abubakur as a person.? I mean outside his current status as the arrowhead of the anti Jonathan camp, at least as epitomized by Amaechi who has an ambition of becoming Nigeria’s vice president in 2015 but which he cannot realize if Jonathan continues beyond 2015. Where it leaves Abubakar Atiku, in my mind, is that he has divested himself of all pretences that he would like to be referred to as a “statesman”. What he has done is an act of perfidy to the entire nation. Tukur might not be running the PDP well but Atiku’s approach to the matter is unbecoming of a fellow who had once had the privilege of holding the office of vice president of the country. PDP being the ruling party and against the back drop of the current political, economic and security situation in the country, an aggravation of a crisis within it would surely have a destabilizing effect on the entire polity. It is not what a former vice president should add to, the way Atiku is doing.
So, let editors and the several categories of public commentators take note. The former vice president has now proved that the practice of listing anybody who held a public office in Nigeria as a “statesman” is very, very wrong. In Atiku Abubakar, the world has now seen that you can be a former vice president of your country and still carry on as a student’s union activist.
