ATIKU ABUBAKAR : A naked dance in the village square

BY Joseph Edgar

Let me surprise my readers today. I will support the recent decamping of this political juggernaut, Atiku Abubakar, simply as an academic exercise. I always pride myself as being able to marshal out logical arguments on either side of an issue. This to me is usually done by myself to keep my sense of logic up to par and not because I believe in some of the positions.

In this case, I find myself really disgusted with this latest move as it continues to signpost the lack of an ideological framework in our politics. It is this lack of ideology that sees us sailing adrift without purpose remaining a huge laughing stock to serious minded international players. Atiku and his co travellers have in this latest fiasco only just reconfirmed that they are adept in political prostitution without any recourse to the long term benefit for the people they claim to want to lead. For them it is their narrow interest, it is their short term comfort and, especially in Obanikoro’s case, a run to seek refuge from alleged atrocities committed while in power.

But let us tarry awhile, let us step back and look once again at the other side of the stream in interpreting what in the face of it looks like a very selfish and opportunistic move. What would you really do if you were in Atiku’s shoes? You reserve the right as a freeborn Nigerian to aim for the highest post in the Land. You look at the playing field and you see your wings being clipped by your membership of a contraption you had helped form. You remember the commitments you were given when they sought your support. You remember the meetings held with the incumbent and come to the realisation that you will never achieve your goals within the limiting structures of the party you belong.

Read Also : ABUBAKAR ATIKU: A Revolutionary Or Reformer?

Finally you see that age is not on your side anymore. You had used up almost all of your youthful energies propping up other people and if you didn’t bell the cat at this point you would lose the very last opportunity in this lifetime.
So what do you do? Your options are not plenty. They are only two with no middle ground. Do you remain in that contraption with no real hope of upsetting an incumbent who although has not stated an intention to run again, his mouthpiece and the body language of the party apparatchik says he is running thereby foreclosing any chance of getting the contraptions ticket?

Furthermore, as you look deeper, the possibility of emerging is further waned with the ostrich game the so called party leader is playing with his own ambition. This leaves you with your second option, which is to jump.

The other platform is weakened. Weakened by its loss in the last elections and the continuous hounding of its people by the present administration. As such there is no real contender for the position in that structure. Furthermore, the position seems to have been zoned to your part of the country. So what do you do but jump.

For those of us blaming Atiku and shouting to high heavens, this only shows the lack of understanding of the Nigerian unique political climate and its players. Our political structures are built around very selfish personal ambitions and everybody gravitates towards the groupings that better represents the strongest possibility of achieving those mundane selfish goals.

Once we agree with this premise then, we would perfectly understand this shifting tables that Atiku has come to personify. The way he is going if the labour party which is the closest we have to a leftist ideology presents for him the strongest possibility of achieving his goals he will jump there.

So what we continue to witness is a macabre dance of the naked. A wicked dance of our politicians who expose their underbelly shamelessly like moths drawn to naked flame in their quest for selfish power and in this Atiku is not alone. He only represents the biggest fish to toe the line just yet and as such has drawn the opprobrium of the public.

As we draw close to 2019, I dare say we would see a lot more of this naked shameless dance. Watch the recent thawing of relations between the Tinubu camp and the Afenifere. Watch Obanikoro’s declaration for APC. It is all in a days job for these vultures.

 

 

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