NZE JAMES CHINONYEREM
Atiku Abubakar, the former Vice President and perennial presidential candidate/contender is currently in pains. He is a sad man who has seen his political world collapsed like a pack of cards. A fall, James Hadley Chase, the ace writer would imagine, *how the cookie crumbles*. Powerful Atiku probably overrated himself or his luck He had his plans well thought out. He pretended to love the South East, his comfort political zone. He quibbled on supporting the zone to produce the presidential candidate of his party, PDP with a caveat, if his party would zone the ticket to the South East. Many knew he was not honest. He was being clever by half.
Atiku is known to desire the presidency of the country seriously. He had readily done anything and everything to get it. In his desperate and inordinate ambition, friendship and loyalty mattered less to him. He was ready to betray anyone and had no respect for shared agreements. He took on his boss, the former President, Olusegun Obasanjo. It was reported that he peppered the man while they were in their first term, scheming to replace him. He was said to have made the mighty Obasanjo keel down in supplication for his (Atiku’s) permission to allow him a second term. Atiku’s consent to the old fox’s request became his Achilles heels.
He has contested for the presidency over time but failed, leaving for Dubai (each time) and returning to the PDP and winning the presidential ticket at every return in spite of everyone. A man of bottomless pocket, Atiku is creative with his wealth, a dexterity of Messi and Ronaldo combined in the art of footballing. Seeing the mighty man on the streets of Abuja protesting like Nigerian workers over unpaid salaries and allowances really struck a cord on me. The rich and mighty also cry, the vanity of life and the absurdity of the human essence. This his last outing couldn’t have pained him more, not just because of the whopping N400 billion Dino Melaye, his campaign spokesman said they spent but more painful is the reality that stares him. He seems to have come to his wit’s end. Age is no longer friendly with him and the possibility of his going for another presidential primaries with the likes of Wike and the G wagon 5 kneeling down on his neck will be a nightmare too scary for him to contemplate.
Atiku is a man in pains but the pains are somewhat self inflicted. He is a victim of his greed, his passion and vaulting ambition. He is a desperate man, cunning but his arrow rebounds. He can’t eat his cake and still expect it in his hands. He is in a blame dance for his loss. He had blamed Peter Obi for snatching votes from him in his swing states in the South East and South – South. He said Peter Obi shouldn’t have contested, he should have waited for him to finish his terms because he was the best pathway to an Igbo man becoming the President. What a strange logic. A great pretender, he talks about equity, justice, fair play and Nigeria for all but he saw everything wrong in the national clamour for the return of power to the South after eight years in the North. Atiku, a Fulani, saw nothing wrong taking over his Fulani brother, Buhari. This tells you the man’s mind and his *grab it all* psychology.
Poor Atiku, he didn’t reckon with the hurricane Peter Obi became. He failed to accept the powerful winds the Jagaban commands. Atiku’s blame dance is amusing. His protest against the outcome of the presidential election was not a national duty nor was it an act of patriotism. It was what it means, a self serving act of a man in mad desire of an empire.
Atiku’s failure is a lesson in ingratitude. He was ungrateful for all the years of support the South East gave his PDP. Instead of him supporting the zone, he switched the ticket from them but the ticket got brunt and turned into ashes in his pocket.
Now is his crying time!