ATIKU ABUBAKAR : REALLY?

By Joseph Edgar…

You know when you read the papers and sincerely hope it is fake news. As you read, you turn to see the medium and check that it is a serious national daily and your heart sinks because this cannot but be factual news and you begin to wonder once again just what kind of country you have found yourself.

I saw the front page news in one national daily depicting our very own Abubakar Atiku offering to support his quest for candidacy one more time with his medical certificate. This according to the report was to give the party big wigs the assurance that he was of sound mind and body and that his Presidency, if he wins, would not suffer the kind of fate this particular one is suffering as a result of the il-health of the incumbent. Such political arrogance.

This to me smirks of arrogance, unabashed ambition and an infectious continuous disdain for Nigerians. This is not personal against the highly respected former Vice President but if you ask me, which I am sure nobody will, his ambition is a regular slap on the face of millions of Nigeria who have been limited in choice by the regular involvement of these same set of people in the presidential question.

Read also: Goodluck Jonathan And The Ostrich Game

What we have been having since the advent of this democracy is a recycling of the same kind of people as candidates thereby throwing up a President who is really not our choice but a President we have had to choose out of the very narrow field, thereby making us continue to run around in circles.

This music is stuffy and dreary. There is no excitement and we witness a dearth in sound ideas since it is the same old files that we would pull out of the drawers, dust them up and begin to attempt the same tired policies.

Pray what does Atiku have to offer with the fresh challenges of nationhood that we face. How will he tackle the issues of the ethnicization of the polity, the gradual decline of oil in global politics, the mounting national debt, the recession, amongst others.
What we need is not an Atiku candidacy, talk less of an Atiiku Presidency. I really do not understand this stubbornness, we have clear and present issues facing us not to be distracted with another OBJ/Atiku feud on the national stage or does he or anybody imagine an OBJ support for this inordinate ambition.

We need a candidate from another demographic. A candidate who understands the continued changing face of world economics. We need a candidate from any region of the federation that would build a service-oriented economy, that would marginalize ethnic politics and bring about socio economic resurgence, harnessing the power of technology and also the power of the deep and wide markets that we have in these country. We do not need a candidate that would test our continuous unity, that would further stretch it to the breaking point. We do not need a controversial candidacy that would once again deepen the fault lines before he even opens his mouth. We do not need an Atiku candidacy it is just too late and too divisive for a nation that is suffering very seriously from the pangs of a raped economy and a desolate youthful population seeking for redemption in true leadership. No Atiku, no.

 

RipplesNigeria ….without borders, without fears

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now