Coalition presidential ticket: Open letter to Atiku Abubakar

Dear Waziri,

Last week, I ended on a hopeful note. That, it is possible to dispatch Caesar for Rome to remain a real Republic. I added that the conspirators would only need to bring on board, a Brutus to strengthen the conspiracy beyond collapse. I promised also to do you a personal letter to explain better. I am therefore writing today to inform you that you are the Brutus that must come on board to give oxygen to the conspiracy to take out the Emperor on the ides of 2027. 

You may not strictly fit into the Shakespearean characterisation of Noble Brutus. But I do not also think that this desperate team is looking for nobles or good players for the competition ahead.

The one to take out does not play nice. He believes in rough tackles and does not worry too much about how a goal or victory comes. Whichever way it comes, sits very well with him. What matters is scoring to win. And so, to prevail, the challenging team must assemble a threshold of rough tacklers. This is not to dent your democratic credentials. You have been a fine democratic who believes in the will of the majority. Since 1993, the majority has been saying no to your quest to become a democratically elected President of Nigeria. It is the voice of the people which some philosophers say translate to the voice of God. It is a way of saying God has held back His endorsement of your quest.

I wouldn’t know, in any case, why God is refusing to be convinced about you. He, alone, knows the end from the beginning. At least, you know how it went with Muhammadu Buhari. In the end, his return as a democratically elected president diminished more than it enhanced him. If it didn’t happen, Buhari would have blamed God unto death for denying him a well deserved privilege. This is why the Bible teaches us to always accept the divine verdict and give God thanks in all situations. The Quran is even more explicit in saying that power belongs to Allah who gives it to whomever He pleases. It all calls for a stoic forbearance in the current circumstances.

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But sincerely, I cannot understand why God would say no to Waziri and say yes to the Asiwaju. It is the way of God. He works in mysterious ways. Asiwaju asked only once and he was given in 2023. But, you, who had been asking since 1993, was not given in 2023. Mohammadu Buhari asked three times and was given on the fourth request. A certain Abraham Lincoln who lived in America about 200 years ago, had failed in every electoral bidding until 1860 when he was voted as the first Republican President of the United States of America. 

These stories of spectacular come-back have a way of rekindling hope in players. I must add however that it is not every player that enjoys the grace of Buhari who weighed so much without content. Or like a Goodluck Jonathan, who did not ask for anything, as such, but got everything in full measure. Some say it was the primary reason that Jonathan did not know what to do with what he had in his hands until everything slipped away. That is a matter for another day.

Maybe, I should just go straight to the point sir. I am particularly interested in the role you intend to assign for yourself in the evolving ADC coalition. Beginning from 2007 when you renewed your quest for the presidency with added vigour, you have maintained a tempo. You have not kept people guessing as to where you are headed. You want to be President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria at all costs.  Being Vice President for eight years, between 1999 and 2007, with almost coordinate powers with the President in the first four years, has not assuaged that thirst for power in you.

 Every step you have taken after your time in Aso Rock Villa has been towards answering the name, President, without the limiting prefix – vice. You are among the founding fathers of the PDP. But this inordinate quest for the big title has caused you to be leaving and returning to the PDP like the accursed child called _abiku_ in Yoruba and _ogbanje_ in Ibo. So far, you have left and returned to the PDP for about four times. You have just left again for the ADC. This is not good for your image. It shows you are not governed by principles or ideology but a vaulting ambition to be president of Nigeria.

Late Dr. Alex Ekwueme had also wanted to be president. In fact, by some rating, he was the best presidential candidate that the PDP never had. He was a democrat and a committed party man. He did not go about forum-shopping for a ticket and soft landing anytime he failed the PDP presidential primaries. He died as a PDP leader. He did not tear his PDP membership card in a feat of anger as Obasanjo did in Otta, Ogun State. Ekwueme had also been Vice President between 1979 and 1983, and long before you became a factor on the political landscape.  I am saying you can learn to become Ekwueme even at 79.

Ambition is the currency of partisan politics. It is legitimate to be ambitious. But when ambition is driven by greed, haste and impatience, it takes uncommon grace to avoid mistakes. Sir, as a committed democrat, if you had exercised little discretion and managed the expansive ego of your boss, Baba OBJ, this your endless quest for the big title, would have been done and dusted long before now.

 More importantly, the nation’s political history would have followed a completely different trajectory. A couple of things would have turned out differently. Most likely, the national harvest would have been spared the locust years of between 2015 and 2023. You also did not have the temparement to take out a snake and spare your troubled house in 2015. Instead, you created a conspiracy with strange fellows and enemies to burn down the house you had built with your sweat just to kill the snake.

Sir, ‘’this is my own’’ and ‘’this is our own’’ are not the same thing. You had struggled unsuccessfully to proclaim your monumentality elsewhere. You never sounded too loud once outside the PDP House. For instance, in the APC where you had also sojourned, you got so minimized that even M.C Oluomo had commanded better electoral value than the Waziri.  It was only in the PDP that knees bowed at the mention of your name. It explained why you could return from sabbatical anytime in Dubai to pick the party’s presidential ticket just like that and against the time-honoured principle of power rotation of the party. And I dare to add that, it was this unusual readiness of the PDP establishment to reward a prodigal son all the time that propelled loyalist Nyesom Wike to strike at the soul of the party.

Today, the PDP is on life-support and we all know what happened that got the party into an ICU (Intensive Care Unit). It was your desire to micromanage a national party into a personal vessel in furtherance of your ambition to become the president of Nigeria. Now, the acronym PDP represents and sounds more like PAST DEMOCRATIC PARTY than it does of its original self – PEOPLES DEMOCRATIC PARTY. People are saying that you are 90 percent responsible for that ugly transition. It detracts so much from your decades of democratic evangelism. 

On the surface, you appear attractive. You had never been associated with gunboat tactics. At cross-roads, you had invoked the rule of law to create a leeway. You did exactly that as Vice President to contain an overbearing boss. You used to be Turaki Adamawa but now Waziri Adamawa. When enemies wanted to re-appropriate you into a foreigner in the Cameroons; just so that you be stopped from vying for the President of Nigeria, you fought back using the instrumentality of law.

 But people are also saying that, underneath, you have a way of instigating a cold war that is hotter than a shooting war. That was the case in 2019 and 2023. In 2019, you relatively enjoyed the sympathies but in 2023, you had entered as a bulldozer to tear apart the turn-by-turn arrangement in the PDP for the presidency to oscillate between the North and South. It was the turn of the South after Buhari’s eight years and you knew it. You had the martial advantages but not the sympathies and you felt people would be frightened to say amen to your wishes at the polls.

Put differently, you were selfish, Waziri. Leadership is actually more about being selfless, charitable and fair-minded. It is less about being ambitious and opportunistic. It is also about being courageous. You know more than I do that power is hardly given. It is taken; almost in the sense of ‘’grab it and run with it.” This idea of your reclining to the Middle East after a failed outing and only to storm again at the next bidding has not worked for you and your former party, the PDP. This is among the charges brought against you by Nyesom Wike in 2023. It was like you would scatter and scamper and then return at an appointed time to scatter again what had been re-gathered by other faithful workers. Waziri, sir, you would agree with me, that the Jagaban, with whom you share so much in epic political battles, has fared a lot better on these scores.

In 2027, you will be 81 years old. You are clearly in your twilight and should be taking stock and not high stakes. Motivational speakers would say it is never too late to dream. Agreed! But when octogenarians dream big dreams too often, they could easily end up in permanent sleep. In fact, stop listening to motivational speakers including roaming marabouts from the Sahel at this stage of your most eventful life. They talk too much and anyhow too. You do not have to be president of Nigeria to garner additional points. You are accomplished in every department of life, and in fact, far more accomplished than many former presidents of Nigeria.

Why am I telling you all these things? It is because you are catching and courting  the headlines again for the wrong reasons. You want to fly the ADC presidential flag in 2027 at 81 years old. This does not sound inspiring. I had thought you people were dead serious with the ADC coalition to make 2027 impossible for PBAT. What is this thing that you are planning to do? If no one has told you, I am telling you now that you are set for yet another misadventure. The sentiments lie with Peter Obi. Short and simple!

Let me quickly add that nothing is beyond BAT. It is possible that this whole thing that you people call ADC coalition is only an act in the larger political script of the Jagaban. That is, it is being staged to create an impression of serious contest in 2027. This is rather a wild reasoning. Take it or leave it, wild conspiracies will be woven as we move closer to 2027. It is part of the game. It is now left for you, sir, to act appropriately to stop all arising hypothesis and conspiracies from consolidating into workable theories. The best way to do so is to support a winning or at least a formidable formula for the ADC coalition. For now, that formula is Peter Obi. And nothing more!

Make no mistakes sir. Cumulatively, you have run a good race. God does not make errors. He understands that you have not earned adequate dividends for your investment. The Almighty is therefore offering you a redemptive window to be counted among the defenders of the common good. Don’t reject the offer. Use everything about you to rally the coalition behind Peter Obi in 2027. That way, you would be justified by deeds and faith and not necessarily by direct benefits. It is a most beautiful anchor point for all your democratic struggles.

 Thanks and God bless you sir.

Your admirer, Abraham.

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