A few days ago, a certain attention seeker tweeted this: "the only reason why this government hasn't arranged for many of us to be killed is because it will be too obvious. They hate criticism." I won't bother myself about the folly of the tweet and the replies that followed.
Some people have tried their best to label the incumbent President of the Republic as a bloodthirsty, bloodletting tyrant who is totally intolerant of people from a particular ethnicity or religion. They have sometimes misinterpreted his words deliberately or otherwise as material against him. They have also credited statements made by other individuals to him.
Political gladiators in the land are not strangers to the use or manipulation of the media both traditional and new age to swing the people either in their favor or against their opponents. There really is nothing wrong in this but when certain 'oscillating' individuals get themselves in the news; caution becomes a necessity.
One of these individuals is Femi Fani-Kayode. FFK on one occasion wrote against the Igbo and practically asked them vacate Yoruba territory. On another occasion he wrote claiming to have had intimate relationships with three Igbo women which included Bianca, the widow of the late Odumegwu Ojukwu. These days however, he has become the toast of Biafra agitators and sympathizers because he has said or written one or two things in support of their struggle. Do people actually forget this easily?
Most of these individuals who now kiss FFK's shoes are strongly opposed to Mr President and daily accuse him of crimes against humanity. I usually get no concrete responses when I ask "what crimes exactly? " or when the alleged crimes occurred. I ask them if it had to do with the Civil war or his 20 months as military commander. The best I get is "he jailed Ekwueme but put Shagari under house arrest" bla bla bla. I actually expect to hear or read about how soldiers on orders from Major General Muhammadu Buhari lined up men and women of tribes and religions he didn't like and pumped hot lead into their bodies. Nothing of this nature happened. Events of over 30 or 40 years in some cases remain fresh in the minds of these individuals but the four year record kept by the media on the purulent material written by FFK has been forgiven and forgotten because he is currently in the same Buhari-bashing camp. Who's fooling who?
FFK left the People's Democratic Party (PDP) and joined forces with the then newly formed All Progressives Congress (APC). He lunched missle after missle at President Jonathan calling him a failure and berated him for the billions of dollars Emir Sanusi said were unaccounted for. He also spoke glowingly about the correlation of President Obasanjo's open letter with the inevitable demise of Jonathan's reelection bid.
FFK soon got a seat at the emperor's table and began leading the charge for the reelection of the emperor and his dame. He was like a rottweiler and didn't hold back in his attacks against the APC and its flag bearer. At times, he was a conspiracy theorists and at other times he spoke as if he was the mouthpiece of Nigerian Christians. As far as he was concerned, Jonathan was the antidote to whatever religious agenda he thought Buhari represented.
He told Kaidara that Boko Haram was the militant wing of the APC and I wondered if he got that information during his short stint with the amalgamation that eventually unseated the one who held his leash. Why didn't the President he worked for use him as a witness to prosecute the creators of Boko Haram if his Intel was legit? I guess we will never know. FFK still remains the toast of the Hero worshippers till this day because he's fearless and says it as it is even if it is uncertain what particles inspire his thoughts.
Another charming man who is currently trending in cyberspace is the 71years old former Vice President Atiku Abubakar. He appears to be the primer of the 'Restructuring' soap opera which appears to have captivated Nigerians more than telemondo can. He is active on facebook and twitter and many who are tipping him for the 2019 presidency are definitely not considering his age, ethnicity or religion. He is saying the right things in their opinion and according to the amorphous FFK, he understands our problems.
Atiku like a serial crime perpetrator appears in my opinion to have a modus operandi in this political arena. He is always the victim it seems, the downtrodden one who gets exploited and dumped. It is mentioned that he was one of the founding fathers of the PDP and was upgraded from governor-elect to Vice presidential candidate. With the passage of time, Obasanjo began to clip his wings before finally immersing him in hot water. He didn't get the PDP machinery to run for President and was 'forced' out of the party he helped to establish and a government he helped to become economical competent. Preventing him from using one of the presidential planes at will didn't stop him from joining forces with Tinubu's Action Congress but this alliance was trounced at the polls in 2007 by Umaru Yar'ardua in an election the Supreme court ought to have cancelled. Atiku contested the results at the courts though.
Atiku's union with the Action Congress can be likened to a one night stand and he was soon back in bed with the PDP albeit one where Obasanjo's mojo was waning. When the time for jostling approached, he tried to manoeuvre the PDP machinery yet again to overcome Jonathan's bid to run for the 2011 polls. Despite seeming to have the once powerful Badamosi Babaginda in his camp and reminding Jonathan of the agreement the latter made with certain principalities within the PDP network not to disturb a second term slot for 'Northern Nigeria;' he was trounced at the primaries. This led to his 're-exit' from the PDP claiming sidelining and other associated lexicon.
As 2015 approached, Atiku warmed up again to anti-PDP forces and positioned himself to stun the defiant Muhammad Buhari. He lost another nomination and we don't know exactly the financial implications of that failed bid. There was no way Atiku would have defeated Jonathan at the polls and I think the delegates knew that.
Aisha Alhassan the Taraba lawyer was recently in the news paying homage to her benefactor and she openly pledged her support for his forthcoming moves to run again. A lot has be said about the morality and appropriateness of the things that she said with a few expecting Mr President to drop the axe to separate her atlas from her axis. Those opposed to Mr President see this as a sign of a presidency in turmoil but I see it differently.
Her loyalty hasn't been bought and she's not forgotten the source of her nectar. It means there's nothing 'juicy' about being close to power that will be a source of blackmail in the near future. Whatever feeling or substance she got from Atiku's support in the past still lingers. They say Buhari is intolerant yet his minister and even his wife freely granted interviews to air their views without Buhari reprising Idi Amin.
If she openly pledged her unequivocal support for a Buhari second term bid, she'd have been labeled a pathetic sycophant obsessed with being close to power. The only issue I have with her and which I think warrants her resignation is the timing. It is not yet officially time for open politicking but if she feels it's time, then she is free to proceed to man Atiku's battle station towards 2019. I'm not sure it's that easy to forget the number of groups which joined resources to form the APC. They all must have demanded seats after a successful run and it would have been injustice to deny the key players. I actually laugh when people try to discredit the 'unholy' people who formed the APC, should the members have come imported from China? I wrote once about the nations which joined forces to defeat Hitler, they were indeed strange bed fellows with a common agenda. It doesn't matter how much open attacks Donald Trump gets, if the United States comes under enemy attack or the threat of one, I'm certain Congress will be unanimous in their support of him to respond.
Atiku claimed he spent money to ensure Buhari won in 2015 and I am still trying to figure out the exact amount of the Atiku largesse that trickled to me. He sounds as if he was the chief financier of that campaign, like my ₦3000 didn't count for anything. He must have spent so much that all he could afford to give to the welfare of the Benue flood victims was ₦5 million. Recession is indeed fatherless.
Let's examine his sphere of influence. He is practically like a godfather in Adamawa state and based on recent revelation, his parenting extends to Taraba but we know who the main man there is. Did Buhari benefit from Atiku's support in 2015?
President Buhari won in all Northwest states in 2011, lost the North Central collectively by 1,612,995 votes to Jonathan's 3,123,126 votes but won in all Northeast states save Adamawa and Taraba which he lost by 344,526 to 508,314 and 257,986 to 451,354 votes respectively. In 2015 however, PMB won the North Central region, maintained his complete dominance over the Northwest and won in all the Northeast states except Taraba. It was a 374,701 to 251,664 votes win in Adamawa and a 261,326 to 301,800 loss in Taraba for Buhari. I am still trying to figure out what Atiku's money actually paid for, was it the Southwest support or the just over 3 million additional votes from what PMB was credited in 2011?
He also said he has not been consulted on matters relating to the government and has therefore simply kept to himself. Alhassan's presence in the cabinet paints for me a different picture. I'm not sure if this counts for much, the news media reported in June 2016 that he was happy at his appointment to be an ambassador to the Nigeria House business summit group during the Rio Olympics. He was also kind of in the frame when Jacob Zuma came calling. I'm not quite certain that his claim of being sidelined is justified. He should perhaps have just asked for the president's powers as just reward for his investments and influence. Was he the one Aisha Buhari spoke about? Was he one of those who she said worked to ensure Buhari's victory but later jettisoned for those who didn't burn the midnight candle? Is it an Adamawa thing? Who knows.
If Atiku runs in 2019, he'd be just shy of 73 years of age but he's somehow the future and 74years old Buhari is called in some quarters analog and outdated. Atiku had 8 years as Vice President and like many who have tasted government and who own luxury hotels, universities, Oil based companies, technologically advanced farms, private jets and numerous real estate; he has his own fair share of 'take home packs.' He is the one who has suddenly figured out all Nigeria's problems and the magic silver bullet to destroy all the vampires sucking us dry. I wonder when that eureka moment was for him. Will he jump ship yet again? I don't think that is his plan. He needs a vessel and must have realized that the APC ship although vandalized is the most realistic one to hijack. He appears to have the backing of those who will rather settle for the compromise restructuring rhetoric instead of the extreme agitation for secession while the residue of the PDP are hopeful of anointing him as their champion. Has he played his card too early? Who knows? Like Hilary, this must be his last realistic chance to contest and a loss would definitely end his ambition like Joshua knocked out Wladamir.
