<\/p>\n
By Constance Okechukwu
\nLast Wednesday, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, openly declared his
\ninterest in seeking the All Progressives Congress ticket for the 2015
\npresidential elections. In the next few days, precisely on October 8,
\nGeneral Muhammadu Buhari will make a similar pronouncement about his 2015
\nambitions. That both Northern leadersveterans of the presidential
\ncontest — will lock horns for the APC ticket was long speculated; what is
\ninteresting is what they bring into the campaign this time around.<\/p>\n
Like Buhari, Atiku has tried on three past occasions to lead Nigeria, but
\nhis aspiration has always faltered on the public perception that he is
\ncorrupt. In 1992, he had lost the presidential primary of the defunct
\nSocial Democratic Party (SDP) to the late M.K.O. Abiola. As candidate of
\nthe ACN in 2007, he lost to the late president Umaru Yaradua while in
\n2011, even as the North consensus candidate, he lost the PDP
\npresidential primaries to Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. He is making a fourth
\ntry on the platform of opposition APC to which he defected.<\/p>\n
Apart from the perception of corruption, the other question that rings out
\nabout Atiku is his increasing desperation for the presidency and his
\nreadiness to compromise in pursuit of such personal political interests.
\nAtiku appeared to have read the questions from the faces at the Yaradua
\nCentre where he addressed the press last Wednesday; his speech dwelled so
\nprominently on that perception that has dogged his quest for the
\npresidency over the years. He had promised Nigerians that he would lead a
\ngovernment where there would be zero tolerance for corruption. He was
\nhardly convincing.<\/p>\n
Though the Turaki Adamawa may have mastered the art of tactically
\nwriggling out of the noose each time it dangles above him; there is no
\ndoubt that in the perception of Nigerians, he carries a heavy corruption
\ntag. For the most part of his tenure as vice president from 1999 to 2007
\nand after, his attitude and financial dealings have seriously come into
\nquestion and his name continues to be mentioned in many high profile graft
\ncases within the country and abroad. The Petroleum Technology Development
\nFund (PTDF) scandal which blew open early in 2007, as well as his reported
\nindictment by the US Congress and the United States Department of Justice
\n(USDOJ) over allegation of fraud and money laundering, are just but a few.<\/p>\n
Atiku is also perceived as a man who is desperate, selfish, politically
\nunstable and a politician with questionable democratic credentials. Behind
\nthe fade of his struggles to enthrone democracy lies a belligerent
\npolitician obsessed with his personal ambition. All these personality
\nshortfalls have underpinned his decisions tojump from the PDP into the
\nAction Congress in 2007 in search of a platform to challenge the
\npresidency, and back into the PDP after his efforts ended up in futility,
\nonly to jump into the APC when a Jonathan re-election stared him in the
\nface.<\/p>\n
If Atiku is perceived as corrupt and desperate, Buhari decision to
\nstand elections once again for the presidency of Nigeria after three
\nfailed attempts in 2003, 2007 and 2011, has continued to raise similar
\nquestions. Not only is it a volte face from his earlier promise to give
\nway to the younger generation, his ambition legitimate as it is is
\ndisturbing by what is increasingly becoming undue zealotry.<\/p>\n
A man who,
\nunder successive military dispensations, held virtually all important
\npolitical
\npositions in the land state governor, minister and Head of State– Buhari
\nprojects his persona as a man of integrity who has not been tainted by
\ncorruption. But that posturing is just
\non the surface. Behind that fade lies
\na deep-seated craving for power which has been obvious since his
\nmuch-criticized
\noverthrow of the Shagari presidency in 1983 on the flimsiest of excuses.
\nNot only did his sacking of that civilian
\nadministration set the country backwards by several decades, the way he went
\nabout exercising his power gave the first revelation of his character as a
\nman
\nwhose decision can be biased by extraneous considerations, chief among which
\nare religion and ethnicity.<\/p>\n
Buhari
\npast will always haunt him politically. His
\nactions as military Head of State between December, 1983 and August, 1985,
\nthe
\ndocumented cases of ethnic bias against him, his tainted democratic
\ncredentials, his flawed judgment on public policy and his warped worldview,
\nhave been the reasons for his failure in successive presidential contests.
\nIt is doubtful if 2015 will be different.<\/p>\n
In spite of
\nall these baggage, Buhari continues to harbor the erroneous belief that his
\npersonal charisma among a few northerners and his usual appeal to undue
\nfundamentalism were enough to drive his presidential aspiration. How
\nwrong! At 72 and with age no longer on his side,
\nBuhari has refused to leave the stage with whatever is left of his
\nreputation.The
\ncharge of ethnic bias has trailed Buhari throughout his public life and many
\nare right, therefore, in concluding that he is driving his presidential
\nambition too far and in a manner that can rightly be interpreted as
\nfanatical.<\/p>\n
Of the two,
\nAPC is left to choose between six and half a dozen. The party that has
\nvowed to give the PDP a
\ngood chase faces the dilemma of picking from two men who have travelled the
\nroad of defeat so often that their credentials reek of electoral failures.<\/p>\n
* Constance Okechukwu contributed this piece from Ikeja, Lagos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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