*Pathetic, as Atiku, again, plays the defection card…*

By Johnson Momodu
  Politician and Adamawa-born power player, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, is again showing that despite his resilience in power games, he is nothing but a man who will do anything and everything for the power that has eluded him three times over.  Like Muhammadu Buhari, he is a veteran in seeking to be president of Nigeria and failing  at the venture.

The last time he left the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to co-form the Action Congress (AC), which later became Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), to achieve his political ambition, he missed the mark losing the party's presidential ticket to former President Olusegun Obasanjo's attack-dog-in-chief, who made his political life most miserable while he was Vice President, Malam Nuhu Ribadu.

 
Ribadu was the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Czar that piled up bales of documents to prove that Atiku had itchy fingers for Nigeria's delicious oily soup, as exemplified by his misadventure in the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) debacle.

 
At the end of all his probe of his Adamawa brother, nothing tangible went to any court of competent jurisdiction to nail Atiku.  But both Adamawa politicians made less than noble comments about each other, comments that haunted them and may still haunt them as campaigns draw near.

 
Though he thought of himself as the leader of the ACN, an equally shifty and wily politician and friend at that time, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, thought otherwise, and did not fail to tell the former Vice President when the time came. The Lagos-born orphan was said to have told the Adamawa-born orphan he had delivered the South-West with nothing by him (Atiku) to show for his leadership.  He was said to have unilaterally stripped the Turaki and declared himself the leader of the party. He has since remained so.

 
It has been speculated that Atiku's desperation may not be unconnected with a prediction by a prominent marabou that he was going to preside over the country, but as marabous go, they never tell you that the prediction is subject to the Highest One who decides who attains power. As long as you “service” the marabou, he is likely to continue to sit on his prediction and get cohorts to reiterate it to keep his supply line flowing.

 
In his statement defending his departure from the PDP a second time, the former vice president pathetically recalled that in 2006, as a result of his firm stand in defence of the constitution and democracy, he and his supporters were pushed out of the party they worked tirelessly to build as a vehicle to restore democracy. Very painful experience!

Painfully more so when they returned in 2009, and were again running off to their vomit in the opposition because the new leadership that promised “a new direction, a direction of inclusiveness, of internal democracy, of an end to impunity, adherence to the rule of law and respect for the dignity of members and Nigerians,” did not keep the promise.

According to him, the “PDP continues to be beset with many crises, mostly leadership-induced crises,” but he did not state that these crises were a function of the inordinate ambitions and bellicosity of elements within like him, who are now seeking better accommodation realizing that the Jonathan train is unstoppable.  Their action is not out of love for Nigeria, but to massage their bruised egos and ambitions. In local Nigeria parlance, it is called “bad belle,” a situation that nags you to spoil it if you cannot get it.

 
Atiku claims that many founding members of the PDP like himself continue to be marginalized and excluded from the affairs of the party, noting that as a former vice president, and by virtue of the PDP constitution, he ought to be, but is not invited to meetings of the party's Board of Trustees and National Executive Committee.

Honestly, do you expect to be invited to inner caucus meetings after your treachery? Come on, sir, are you that naïve in the power game you claim so much to understand?

 
Read Atiku once more: “In short the PDP has abandoned Nigerians, the very people who gave it life and many electoral victories.” This should read: in short the PDP has abandoned fat cats like us who want to use it to ride to power, the very people who thought we could use it to gain electoral victories.

 
The PDP has said it would miss the former vice president, but it is obvious they meant to say they would be happy to miss him, and ready to welcome him back when he gets whipped again by suave politicians who need his logistical back-up for the 2015 elections.

 
Perhaps, the funniest in Atiku's statement was when he wrote that “the process of building a nation, of securing and deepening democracy is indeed difficult. And it is not a lineal process. There would be alignment and realignment of political forces. There would be ups and downs and zig-zags, triumphs and challenges. Amidst all that, patriots must remain focused and do what has to be done to save and build the country and serve our people better.”

 
So, he knows that the APC will have turbulent times.  Who are these patriots?  The men who sat together and urged members of the Angry Peoples Congress (APC) in the National Assembly to sabotage the passage of the 2014 budget, knowing that for now, our economy is centred on government?

 
The same patriots who want the country's security architecture to fall by

not confirming service chiefs?   The same men and women who do not want

some states not represented in the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to have their slots of ministerial nominees if not screened by the Assembly? Are these the patriots?

 
Atiku Abubakar, please give us a break! Those men and women, including those who will join them, are not patriots; they are dangerous men who should be watched by Nigerians, because the best interest they have at heart is their getting to power. Period!

 
 
 
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*Momodu contributed this piece from Benin City.*