BY SHOLA OSHUNKEYE
With pomp and ceremony, and a tumultuous crowd ceaselessly chanting his praise, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, on Saturday, in Yola, the Adamawa State capital, formally threw his hat into the ring for the crucial 2019 Presidential vote.
Amidst shouts of “Atiku, Atiku!!” he told the mammoth crowd that he would seek the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, a party he co-founded but was edged out at some point. And if given the opportunity, and he goes ahead to win the election, Atiku says he would make life truly worth living for Nigerians.
This would be the fifth time the former Customs officer-turned- businessman-turned-politician would be seeking to fly the flag of a major national political party in a crucial election.
Atiku took his first shot at the Presidency in 1992 when he deployed the all-conquering machine of the PDM, to secure the presidential ticket of the Social Democratic Party, SDP. He later stepped down for Basorun M.K.O. Abiola, billionaire businessman and publisher of the highly influential Concord newspapers, at the Jos convention. Abiola won the ticket as well as the June 12, 1993 presidential vote. But the military quashed his victory and sent him to the gulag where he died.
By 2007, the relationship between Atiku and his boss, President Olusegun Obasanjo, had become so strained and the atmosphere within PDP so fouled that he had to look for another platform to realise his dream. He chose the then Action Congress, AC. He lost the election.
Back in PDP, he signified his intention to run for President in 2011. But President Goodluck Jonathan, who was finishing the tenure of his late boss, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, got the ticket and won the vote.
Despite the series of defeats, Atiku refused to be frustrated. He drew strength from his conviction that he was on a mission to save Nigeria. In 2014, he contested for the ticket of the All Progressives Congress, APC, but it was the then General Muhammadu Buhari that clinched it. Before Buhari got lucky the fourth time, he too had lost thrice-2003, 2007, and 2011. But he bounced back and won the 2015 vote in a grand style, defeating the incumbent President Jonathan by 2.57 million votes. It was unprecedented in Nigeria’s political history.
Like Buhari, Atiku believes he has enough experience, goodwill and huge following to win it this time around. Above all, he believes he has the magic wand to solve the myriad of problems besetting the country.
He paused momentarily before throwing this poser to the tumultuous crowd: “Today, we have the highest unemployment rate in the history of our country. More than 10 million of our youths are unemployed. Is that what you want?”
The crowd roared and responded with a resounding “NO”.
From then on, there was no stopping the former Vice President. He heaped the blame for Nigeria’s failing economy, soaring unemployment, shrinking opportunities for citizens, poverty, insecurity and sundry problems on the ruling APC.
“Today, I have returned to reclaim what rightly belongs to the PDP,” Atiku continued. “My fellow Nigerians, the government of APC has failed; it has failed to unite Nigeria.
“Today, we are more divided than any other time in the history of this country. The APC government has destroyed our economy. They took over an economic growth of seven per cent and brought it down to less than two per cent,” he claimed.
Atiku also condemned the unending killings in parts of the country, lamenting that Nigeria’s security situation had never been this terrible sine independence.
However, he told the crowd that all hope was not lost. He promised to reorganise and reinvigorate Nigeria’s security architecture, ensure the safety of lives and property, if elected President. He would also restore their dignity, kindle their hope in the Fatherland, fix the economy in such a way that every Nigerian would have enough space and presence of mind to achieve their aspirations, and make life generally abundant for all.
The former Vice President was obviously impressed by the huge turn-out at the mega rally which, The Crest learnt, was organised by the Adamawa Branch of PDP. “The heart-warming situation,” he said, was an indication that PDP was alive and well in Adamawa, and that all those who left the party had now returned “Home”.
Although the election is barely seven months away, Atiku was confident that PDP, despite its internal problems, would wrest power from the ruling APC, just like it happened in 2015.
On his part, Mr. Uche Secondus, PDP’s national chairman, expressed optimism that the days of APC were numbered. “The government has collapsed,” he said. “The economy has collapsed. We are on a rescue mission.”
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar addressing supporters and PDP members when he flagged off his Presidential campaign in Adamawa State on Saturday, July 21, 2018. Photo: Twitter – @OfficialPDPNig.
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