By Tunde Olusunle
Presidential flagbearer of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, is deeply pained by the double-barrelled fuel and currency crunch, being experienced by the generality of Nigerians. The twin-scourge which has affected every department of our national life, has consigned our people to keep vigil at fuel stations and automated teller machines, (ATMs), for days and nights on end, at great risk to their health and safety. Atiku is sincerely distraught at the subsisting development at this stage of our national evolution.
For Atiku, the seemingly intractable petroleum products crisis is inconsistent with Nigeria’s profile as one of Africa’s largest crude oil producers. Nigeria has potential to build sustainable product availability, he says, even as he prays for speedy resolution of the crisis. He vowed to tackle headlong the monster of petroleum crisis, if elected president.
Implausible allusions have indeed been made about imaginary partnerships or liaisons between Atiku and key officials and friends of the incumbent administration, to aggravate the pains of Nigerians. Media spins have been woven around Atiku concerning complicity in the subsisting fuel crisis and the ongoing currency change, both of which have impacted and exacerbated avoidable hardships on innocent Nigerians.
Atiku and the PDP have been laughably accused of instigating the fuel crisis, and of collusion with the leadership of the Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN), to inflict pain and hardship on our people. Nothing can be farther from the truth than these whimsical conjectures which are trademarks of the propagandist tactics of the All Progressives Congress, (APC).
As with every regular Nigerian, Atiku Abubakar himself has continually endured the pains and discomfort of our people, fully cognisant of the fact that governance can be better run to genuinely serve the interest of the people. Very important segments of his campaigns and electioneering have had to be suspended in solidarity with our people. The conviction that Nigerians deserve better value from governance, is what drives his quest for popular support to be in a position to offer authentic human-faced, people-oriented leadership and service to our compatriots.
For the avoidance of doubt, Atiku is not in any form of romance or alliance with the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, who he barely knows. Atiku occupies no pedestal in governmental hierarchies today, which makes his alleged influences and control over the CBN governor more amusing. Emefiele is an appointee of President Muhammadu Buhari and owes direct allegiance to him.
Insinuations that Atiku is in bed with influential “backstage” figures around the president who are working for his electoral success come Saturday February 25, 2023, are as funny. The truth of the matter is that Atiku has pursued a holistically issue-based campaign, devoid of insults and name-calling. The PDP presidential candidate is too suave and debonair to deride and impugn on the character and personality of others, which have become the trademark of the APC and its flagbearer.
Today, Bola Tinubu, flagbearer of the All Progressives Congress, (APC), wishes that Lasun Yusuf former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives “labours to death” for decamping from the APC to the Labour Party, (LP). Next day, he is labelling Udom Emmanuel, governor of Akwa Ibom State, as “that boy who lives in my boy’s quarters in Lagos.” At some other occasion, he calls his opponents *yeye people.* Atiku is far too cosmopolitan to be so uncouth and so pedestrian.
Nearly 16 years after he left office, as the first Vice President of the Fourth Republic, Atiku has continued to develop himself and to empower others with intellectual and material capital. He returned to school after the 2019 presidential elections, studied for and deservedly earned a masters’ degree in public administration, from the UK-based Anglia Ruskin University. He has been around the world, helping to deepen democracy and good governance, even from his capacity as a private citizen.
Ever focused, his eyes on the ball, it is not in his place to court opportunistic liaisons for self-gratification. It is further bewildering to imagine that he is sustaining any form of rapprochement with any individual or group, close to the heart of the incumbent administration, many of whom he has never met.
The APC and its presidential candidate will do well to concentrate on its campaign and market themselves to Nigerians. The goodwill which welcomed the APC in 2015, has long been dissipated by the underwhelming eight year regime of the party. Nigerians see PDP as the new light and illumination and have vowed never to return to the biblical “Land of Egypt,” the APC.
▪︎ Olusunle, PhD, is the Special Adviser, Media and Publicity to PDP Presidential Candidate, Atiku Abubakar, GCON
