EXPRESSO>> By Steve Osuji
The traipsing horde of marabouts represent a mortal paradox. They are his beginning and they are about to be his end. They are like the stubborn flies that are lowered along with the casket.
If Khalifa Atiku Abubakar’s life has run like a fairytale, the political aspect of the last four decades or so, has been an Arabian serenade.
The boy from rustic Jada, around the Adamawa-Cameroon borders, providence must have made him for the sole purpose of leading his people. Imbued with innate qualities from the onset, he has continued to direct the affairs of his people at every level of his life.
Leadership therefore comes to him as a divine entitlement and not a ceremonial bequeath. Not an endorsement he must crave. Not a turban he must wear.
His gait, his mannerisms and all the appurtenances of a deity, he wears them like babanriga.
ENTER THE MARABOUTS
Of course, royalty is sauce for marabouts. The one cannot do without the other
For many years, the fable has cemented about the Khalifa’s horde of marabouts. They are said to be a permanent part of his existence. They visit from some of the most exotic monasteries.They serenade him ceaselessly, offering prayers and supplications to Allah on his behalf so he doesn’t have to take the trouble to do so, or be troubled at all. They make angelic appearances and ululations to keep his very presence holy and consecrated. Every malevolent adversary to the Khalifa is intercepted at the supernatural levels.
They also whisper to him how he would ultimately lead Nigeria. For about 30 years, this message has been reinforced so much that it has virtually become part of their worship songs.
ATIKU probably listens to no other song or any contrary message.
As long as Allah lives, Khalifa will rule Nigeria. Unless of course he declines the diadem.
There are also the urban marabouts like Dele Momodu (and lately, Kenneth Okonkwo.) Momodu is best described as a GBAJUE strategist who operates from five-star hotels. He’s those kinds of rogue consultants who would borrow their clients wristwatch to tell them time and send them a fat invoice.
Therefore, it’s only for a pernicious motive such as described above that a rational and supposedly educated adult like Momodu would insist an Atiku is the best candidate to lead over 200 million Nigerians in this age. To think that Momodu once contested for the same seat he now vows only an octogenarian is deserving of today.
A man visibly incapacitated by age and ailments. Not many serious minded people support this Atiku bid.
Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, Chairman of ACF recently weighed in thus: “As for my senior brother Alhaji Atiku Abubakar…. I respected his persistence and his decades of experiences running for president. But for 2027, it’s a firm NO from me.
“At his old age, he should have taken a bow after 2023, transitioned into an elder Statesman role, and thrown his weight behind a younger, very competent candidate with a fresh anti-corruption mindset.
“Instead, we see the same recycled playbook, the same alliances of convenience, and the same transactional politics tagged around him.”
HOW ATIKU DERAILED THE ADC GRAND Prix TRAJECTORY
If you believe Allah has already made you president even before the ballot is cast, nothing would make you step down for any opponent, even if the life of the coalition depended on it.
This explains why Atiku dug in when ADC emerged.
It soon became obvious to all that the ticket wasn’t negotiable. It was in his back pocket from day one!
No logic of geography, equity, competence, capacity, age, ail, hailstones and hellfire would permeate Atiku’s head. This was the time long foretold by the shrouded fairies.
ENTER PETER OBI AND THE EASTERN BLOC
Instead of backing down, the wily, old, political fox dug in. He rallied the old guard of Oriental politics. He co-opted them into convincing their star boy, Peter Obi to run with him.
He convinced them that half bread was always better than none. He asked them the last time an Igbo man was in Aso Rock? Never!
Not since Aso Rock was built!
Is there any other route to the Villa than the North? No.
Is there anyone living today who could hitch them a ride to the promised place if not the Khalifa? None.
His gambit worked. On the eve of this year Obi and Igbo grandees made a historic entry into the new coalition.
Momentum welled instantly and ADC suddenly became the cause celebre.
OBIDIENTS kicked – Obi or nothing – and the movement shook to its seams. Khalifa maintained his trademark ice cool!
HOW APC BUBBLE BURST
With Obi seemingly delivered and tucked in the bag, Atiku and his inner Marabouts must have held an elaborate thanksgiving! They had never been wrong, they must have sang through the night. The numbers have added up at last.
But they neglected to cross the T’s and dot the I’s. They got arrogant already.
They foreclosed negotiation; they gave no inches – not to Obi, not to Ndigbo, not to obidients. They foisted an Atiku Show as they began to play down the Obi Mo!
Atiku couldn’t be held down to give an inch or make concrete commitments at least on paper. For the Igbo elders he cajoled to ‘rein in’ Obi, he couldn’t guarantee them an affidavit sealing a one-term of four years. They bought time, they delayed to make the time lapse so that decamping would become impossible.
Atiku began to live in Aso Rock in his head, already, instead of taking Obi to his inner sanctum swear before him as Obasanjo did to him the other day…
THE ASO ROCK IN ATIKU’S HEAD
Atiku’s Arise TV interview last April broke ADC’s camel’s back. His body language was already presidential. He reduced Obi and his movement to merely eastern votes. And Rabiu Kwankwaso as a mere Kano champion. He of course presented as master of the north and the last pan-Nigerian!
That interview gave Atiku away for what he really is: an obdurate and insufferable autocrat. He thought he had captured the ADC and all the men were backed to the wall as all party doors and windows were closing. He was already baring his fangs…
HANDWRITING ON THE WALL
Of course Obi, Kwankwaso and their followers saw through Atiku’s bait, for that’s what it is. Atiku would become a barracuda if he became president. He would run a one-man show. He would stake for two terms and he would frustrate all the coalescing elements out of ADC in less than less than two years to carry through his plan.
ATIKU’S LAST GAMBIT: NOT TOO LATE TO MAKE HISTORY
If Atiku could chase away all his marabouts today, both the spiritual and urban. If he swallows his pride yet, forgoes his ambition and leads his supporters to forge one formidable opposition going into the 2027 presidential election he may still have waged one foot in the door of history.
The grandswell movement would signpost a turning point not only for Nigeria, but represent a glorious finale for Atiku.
His epitaph shall then read: HERE LIES ATIKU ABUBAKAR, THE FATHER OF NEW NIGERIA!
LASTLINE: ANOTHER OFFICER DOWN, WHEN WILL THE NIGERIAN ARMY ACT?
It seems Nigerian army officers are particularly being targeted and cut down with utmost ignominy.
After the rather humiliating incident of the abduction of Maj. Gen Rabe Musa and his wife in Borno last June, one would have thought the Nigerian military would read the riot act.
But a few days ago bandits struck again killing another officer, Col. Abdulsalam Udeh in an ambush as he arrived at his home from work.He resisted abduction and died in the process. His wife and driver were also injured.
Hoodlums used to be in awe of the military. Today, the fight is being carried home to the military officers.
Let the military do a deep soul search. Let them determine and set a deadline to end and indeed, stamp out terror in Nigeria.
The war against terror has lasted for embarrassingly too long. And in all the conversations, there’s no word about resolution or closure. In fact we can’t see any presidential strategy on the table to end the war.
Perhaps the Nigerian military needs to go to Ghana and study why terror is not as prevalent there as in Nigeria.
