Atiku did and came close to winning the primaries of a major party. But he failed to learn the right lessons from this early success in politics. These were lessons that could have prepared him adequately for the highest office. High on the list was the element of strategic patience or delayed gratification which is what places Tinubu ahead of him as a politician.
Nigerians know it was President Bola Ahmed Tinubu who famously said he had nursed a lifelong ambition to be the president of Nigeria. It was Tinubu who lent voice to his ambition and for some Nigerians that statement displayed all the signs of hubris, a sense of entitlement that they find insufferable.
The statement is of a kind with another the President made in Abeokuta in the run-up to the 2023 presidential election when everything suggested that leaders of the All Progressives Congress, led by President Muhammadu Buhari, were not looking for Buhari’s successor in the direction of Bola Tinubu’s residence. Tinubu took stock of all he had done for both the party and key individuals that had led the APC and pitched his claim to the leadership of both the APC and the presidency of the country with a rant in Yoruba that terminated with his chest-thumping assertion- Emilokan- It’s my turn.
It was Tinubu, I said, who spoke of his ambition but it is Atiku Abubakar that should have spoken for his ambition runs deeper. As far as records go, Atiku’s ambition went farther into the past than Tinubu’s. And now in the twilight of his political career, that ambition has become an obsession. Perhaps, that’s all it had ever been for Atiku didn’t allow himself to learn the rudiments of crawling in politics before he chose to run. He was in too much of a hurry to be everything he could be as a politician. He was in the Nigeria Customs Service, a paramilitary organisation, for 20 years. That was between 1969 and 1989. He rose to the rank of a Deputy Director and had hardly discarded his Customs uniform before joining partisan politics.
Before that time, he was only a background player who supported the ambition of his political leaders like Bamanga Tukur who wanted to be governor of his state. As the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority, Tukur could not have been unknown to Atiku. But in 1989 he left the Customs and immediately went into politics as a member of the Peoples Front, led by Shehu Yar’Adua. That same year he became a member of a sham Constituent Assembly convened by the military to midwife a new constitution for Nigeria and prepare the country for democratic rule on terms to be apparently dictated by Ibrahim Babangida, then military dictator.
By 1990, Atiku had his first shot at elective office by contesting to be the governor of Gongola State from where Adamawa State was carved. Atiku at this time had been moving in the political orbit of Shehu Musa Yar’ Adua, a former Chief of Staff Supreme Headquarters, next in rank to Olusegun Obasanjo, head of the junta that succeeded the regime of Murtala Muhamed. Yar’Adua was also the older brother of Umaru Yar’Adua who would succeed Obasanjo in office as an elected president in 2007. But Atiku, it should be noted, had been contesting for high-level political office well before Umaru Yar’Adu entertained thoughts of going into partisan politics not to mention becoming president. It was a year after he left the Customs and became a politician that he contested to be governor.
By 1993, only three years after he retired from the Customs and went full time into politics, he was already contesting to be president. This happened when he went head-to-head with MKO Abiola in the Social Democratic Party, one of the two political parties set up by the military. The other was the National Republican Convention. It was in the SDP primaries that would produce Abiola as the SDP candidate for the ill-fated 1993 presidential election that Atiku locked horns with Abiola and Babagana Kingibe who came second and Atiku third. Abiola, with Babagana Kingibe as his running mate, would win the election that the military eventually annulled.
It has to be acknowledged that Atiku gave Abiola and Kingibe a run for their money and was to have become his running mate before the SDP governors who had had their own election insisted on Kingibe being Abiola’s running mate. While new-age Nigerian politicians don’t waste time in staking their claims for high office, it is not always the best move for everyone and Atiku would appear to be one of such persons. It takes quite a leap, both of faith and ambition, for an ex-Customs man who had never held an elective office to want to be president in a matter of four years after becoming a politician. Such moves are only possible in places like Nigeria.
Atiku did and came close to winning the primaries of a major party. But he failed to learn the right lessons from this early success in politics. These were lessons that could have prepared him adequately for the highest office. High on the list was the element of strategic patience or delayed gratification which is what places Tinubu ahead of him as a politician. After leaving office as governor, he waited all of 16 years (planning and setting up strategic alliance) before making his pitch for president and he won at the first try. Atike failed to adequately learn these lessons after he emerged to join the Peoples Democratic Party in 1998 following the June 12 crisis. He contested and won the election to be governor of Adamawa.
With the active support of the military-controlled transition, Obasanjo was drafted into the presidency and he made Atiku his running mate before he could be sworn-in as governor. Both men went on to win the election. It would be expected that at this point nothing could stop Atiku from becoming president- after OBJ. But this was where the consequences of his fast-track route to achieving his ambition finally caught up with him. He was more entrenched in politics than Obasanjo and he used that factor to his own advantage to the utter bitterness of an unforgiving OBJ. Atiku failed to manage his relationship with OBJ in the right way after the latter lost his bid for tenure elongation. He totally turned the structures of the PDP against him.
Obasanjo ate the humble pie until they won re-election in 2003 and from them on the falcon could no longer hear the falconer. Things fell irretrievably apart between these men. By 2006 Atiku had left the PDP even as a sitting VP. OBJ ensured he didn’t win the 2007 election. Atiku lost his best chance to be president after he failed to do so as VP in a governing party. Since falling out with Obasanjo, Atiku has contested for the presidency for at least five times and failed. He has become a political journey man and perpetual presidential candidate but his best chance to be president was yesterday.
Why Atiku may never become president
NIGERIANS know it was President Bola Ahmed Tinubu who famously said he had nursed a lifelong ambition to be the president of Nigeria. It was Tinubu who lent voice to his ambition and for some Nigerians that statement displayed all the signs of hubris, a sense of entitlement that they find insufferable. The statement is of a kind with another the President made in Abeokuta in the run-up to the 2023 presidential election when everything suggested that leaders of the All Progressives Congress, led by President Muhammadu Buhari, were not looking for Buhari’s successor in the direction of Bola Tinubu’s residence. Tinubu took stock of all he had done for both the party and key individuals that had led the APC and pitched his claim to the leadership of both the APC and the presidency of the country with a rant in Yoruba that terminated with his chest-thumping assertion- Emilokan- It’s my turn.
It was Tinubu, I said, who spoke of his ambition but it is Atiku Abubakar that should have spoken for his ambition runs deeper. As far as records go, Atiku’s ambition went farther into the past than Tinubu’s. And now in the twilight of his political career, that ambition has become an obsession. Perhaps, that’s all it had ever been for Atiku didn’t allow himself to learn the rudiments of crawling in politics before he chose to run. He was in too much of a hurry to be everything he could be as a politician. He was in the Nigeria Customs Service, a paramilitary organisation, for 20 years. That was between 1969 and 1989. He rose to the rank of a Deputy Director and had hardly discarded his Customs uniform before joining partisan politics.
Before that time, he was only a background player who supported the ambition of his political leaders like Bamanga Tukur who wanted to be governor of his state. As the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority, Tukur could not have been unknown to Atiku. But in 1989 he left the Customs and immediately went into politics as a member of the Peoples Front, led by Shehu Yar’Adua. That same year he became a member of a sham Constituent Assembly convened by the military to midwife a new constitution for Nigeria and prepare the country for democratic rule on terms to be apparently dictated by Ibrahim Babangida, then military dictator.
By 1990, Atiku had his first shot at elective office by contesting to be the governor of Gongola State from where Adamawa State was carved. Atiku at this time had been moving in the political orbit of Shehu Musa Yar’ Adua, a former Chief of Staff Supreme Headquarters, next in rank to Olusegun Obasanjo, head of the junta that succeeded the regime of Murtala Muhamed. Yar’Adua was also the older brother of Umaru Yar’Adua who would succeed Obasanjo in office as an elected president in 2007. But Atiku, it should be noted, had been contesting for high-level political office well before Umaru Yar’Adu entertained thoughts of going into partisan politics not to mention becoming president. It was a year after he left the Customs and became a politician that he contested to be governor.
By 1993, only three years after he retired from the Customs and went full time into politics, he was already contesting to be president. This happened when he went head-to-head with MKO Abiola in the Social Democratic Party, one of the two political parties set up by the military. The other was the National Republican Convention. It was in the SDP primaries that would produce Abiola as the SDP candidate for the ill-fated 1993 presidential election that Atiku locked horns with Abiola and Babagana Kingibe who came second and Atiku third. Abiola, with Babagana Kingibe as his running mate, would win the election that the military eventually annulled.
It has to be acknowledged that Atiku gave Abiola and Kingibe a run for their money and was to have become his running mate before the SDP governors who had had their own election insisted on Kingibe being Abiola’s running mate. While new-age Nigerian politicians don’t waste time in staking their claims for high office, it is not always the best move for everyone and Atiku would appear to be one of such persons. It takes quite a leap, both of faith and ambition, for an ex-Customs man who had never held an elective office to want to be president in a matter of four years after becoming a politician. Such moves are only possible in places like Nigeria.
Atiku did and came close to winning the primaries of a major party. But he failed to learn the right lessons from this early success in politics. These were lessons that could have prepared him adequately for the highest office. High on the list was the element of strategic patience or delayed gratification which is what places Tinubu ahead of him as a politician. After leaving office as governor, he waited all of 16 years (planning and setting up strategic alliance) before making his pitch for president and he won at the first try. Atike failed to adequately learn these lessons after he emerged to join the Peoples Democratic Party in 1998 following the June 12 crisis. He contested and won the election to be governor of Adamawa.
With the active support of the military-controlled transition, Obasanjo was drafted into the presidency and he made Atiku his running mate before he could be sworn-in as governor. Both men went on to win the election. It would be expected that at this point nothing could stop Atiku from becoming president- after OBJ. But this was where the consequences of his fast-track route to achieving his ambition finally caught up with him. He was more entrenched in politics than Obasanjo and he used that factor to his own advantage to the utter bitterness of an unforgiving OBJ. Atiku failed to manage his relationship with OBJ in the right way after the latter lost his bid for tenure elongation. He totally turned the structures of the PDP against him.
Obasanjo ate the humble pie until they won re-election in 2003 and from them on the falcon could no longer hear the falconer. Things fell irretrievably apart between these men. By 2006 Atiku had left the PDP even as a sitting VP. OBJ ensured he didn’t win the 2007 election. Atiku lost his best chance to be president after he failed to do so as VP in a governing party. Since falling out with Obasanjo, Atiku has contested for the presidency for at least five times and failed. He has become a political journey man and perpetual presidential candidate but his best chance to be president was yesterday.