By Douglass Anele
Atiku scathingly criticised the “Third term” agenda of Obasanjo,
and gloated about how he tried all he could to scuttle it, which strained the relationship between him and the erstwhile President.

The former VP was also highly critical of the PDP. He alleged that the party had been highjacked by outsiders who contributed nothing to its formation.

However, instead of sticking around as one of the “founding fathers” of the party to help restore its lofty ideals, Atiku decided to join the Action Congress (now known as Action Congress of Nigeria). AC promptly offered him its presidential ticket for the 2007 elections – and he lost.

Now, Atiku has gone back to his vomit, so to speak: he has indicated interest in running again for president under the umbrella of the PDP. It appears that Atiku is desperate to become president, judging by his willingness to stomach embarrassment from the PDP chapter of his home state, Adamawa.

On the basis of manifesto, Atiku Abubakar has made essentially the same promises other aspirants made, and topped it with the dubious claim that he is “the best” presidential candidate among the rest. The biggest headache he has is on the question of track record of performance and morality.

Many Nigerians simply cannot believe that Atiku, as a highly placed Customs officer who worked at the very lucrative Murtala Mohammed International Airport, built his financial empire solely on his salary.

Although it is true that, given the subordinate role of a VP to the President, as provided for in the 1999 Constitution, Atiku didn’t have much room to influence directly Obasanjo’s haphazard war against corruption, the former VP is not regarded as a strong champion of zero tolerance for corruption in government.

Bisi Akande, chairman of the ACN, in a recent interview, described Atiku as an unsteady character, someone who does not really know what he wants and how to go about actualizing his political ambition.

He went further to allege that these character flaws of Atiku would negatively affect his performance if he is elected President.

There is no doubt in Akande’s mind that Atiku Abubakar is not a good presidential material. What can we make of Bisi Akande’s assessment of Atiku? It is easy to dismiss it as evidence of bad feeling on his part because Atiku dumped ACN and returned to PDP.

After all, Akande was one of the chieftains of ACN who eulogised Atiku to high heavens for having the guts to decamp to the party from PDP. Now that things have fallen apart between the former VP and ACN, Akande is telling Nigerians that Atiku is unfit to rule the country.

Now, if indeed Atiku is that bad, why did he emerge as the presidential candidate of AC (or ACN) under Akande’s watch? We can detect a whiff of bad faith in all this, which goes to show that politicians cannot be trusted in their assessment of other politicians, since their views are based on the shifting currents of political alignments and realignments.

But it would be unwise to dismiss totally the views of Akande on Atiku Abubakar. As we observed earlier, the latter’s return to PDP after his well publicized disagreement with the party is indicative of lack of discipline and desperation to be President even if it means going back as a political prodigal son to a party one had earlier rejected

He seems to be a Machiavellian that operates on the principle of “the end justifies the means,” as long as “the end” refers to his own interests. At all events, Atiku Abubakar does not have a solid reputation that can win him the presidential diadem next year.

The best he can achieve is enlistment into “the also rans,” which is not an improvement on his previous record. Atiku appears healthy enough to withstand the rigours of the office he is aspiring to, although, as we observed before, physical fitness for the job is different from moral and spiritual fitness.

We have, in the preceding paragraphs examined four presidential aspirants on the basis of four criteria, namely, content of manifesto, track record of performance, moral quality and physical fitness.

None of the four aspirants, in our judgment, is the ideal President Nigeria needs at the moment, but on the basis of objective interpretation of our four criteria Buhari and Jonathan are front runners, whereas Babangida is the least marketable presidential aspirant.

It must be remarked that the overemphasis by Atiku and Babangida on the zoning arrangement of the PDP is disingenuous: it implies that both men are not sure of convincing the party that they are suitable for the job without relying on quota system. The zoning formula is expedient, given our chequered political history.

However, proponents of zoning should not forget that zoning is a means to an end, not an end in itself. Old, tested and distrusted politicians should quit the political scene and allow the youths who are sound intellectually, morally and spiritually (not religious, please!) to lead Nigeria.

It is a shame that some respected Northerners like Adamu Ciroma are making unguarded hysterical proclamations on zoning, instead of looking for a suitable and marketable young northerner as a consensus presidential candidate. Similarly, Edwin Clark and other fire-spitting Ijaw leaders are not helping Jonathan’s case by their fiery irredentist rhetoric.

No part of the country can produce the President without the cooperation of others. Therefore, in the next elections, let the aspirants see themselves as compatriots, not as competitors. This will help reduce the acrimony and violence that characterise elections in Nigeria since independence. Concluded.