Northern Presidency: What Defensive Lie Will Atiku And His Co-Travelers Tell Nigerians This Time Around?

It is sad to recall in this piece that Nigeria’s former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, early this year, specifically in the month of May, unarguably threatened of losing votes in Sokoto, deleted the tweet he made condemning the lynching of a Christian Student, Deborah Samuel in Sokoto.

As virally reported in the media, Deborah Samuel had been burnt to death by her colleagues for allegedly insulting Prophet Muhammad, thus provoking Atiku to condemn her lynching in a post on his Twitter handle where he condemned the lynching of Deborah, who was a Christian student of Shehu Shagari College of Education Sokoto by her colleagues.

Atiku, who is a presidential hopeful under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), amid the outrage trailing the student’s murder called for the prosecution of her killers. He wrote on Twitter, “There cannot be a justification for such gruesome murder. Deborah Yakubu was murdered and all those behind her death must be brought to justice. My condolences to her family and friends.”

However, some Muslims in his comment section threatened not to vote for him while some said they were awaiting his coming to Sokoto for his presidential campaign. Succumbing to the threat, the former Vice-President deleted the tweet.

On Facebook, the former Vice President in a message on his verified Hausa page distanced himself from the message. He also stated that any message on social media that did not come with the initials “A. A.” was not his. “This evening I received information that a post was made that doesn’t agree with my orders. I use this to announce that any post without A. A. is not from me. May God protect us,” he wrote in Hausa language.

However, Nigerians on social media condemned Atiku's hypocrisy stating that he is more interested in the votes than the safety of those he is calling upon to vote for him.

Atiku, who was ostensibly taken aback by the deluge of backlash that trailed the deletion of his tweet, boasted, “‘I Am Not Afraid” as he literarily struggled to buttress the reason why his tweet on Deborah’s killing was deleted and explained why he ordered that the controversial tweet on the killing of Deborah be taken down.

He revealed that the tweet was deleted because he did not approve that it should be posted in the first instance. The former vice president gave the explanation when he visited Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State at the Government House in Benin City, the state capital.

He said, “Every tweet has to get my approval,” said the presidential aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). “Unfortunately, this tweet, because I was traveling all over the country, did not have my approval. So, I said it should be taken down and that every tweet must have my express approval.”

While not a few Nigerians were still pondering over how the former vice president literarily wriggled himself out from the controversy which he was mired in as a result of his tweet, Phrank Shaibu, his Special Assistant, Public Communications, sometime in the month of May, described his principal as pan-Nigerian when in his characteristic manner he was mired in another round of controversial statement he made.

He said: “Atiku is a pan-Nigerian candidate. He is not a tribal jingoist. He is not an ethnic jingoist. He is not a religious bigot and he’s a believer.

“I remember when he was hiring me in 2018, he said ‘Phrank, you know what I represent, in your conduct, in your actions, in your statements, make sure that it represents what I represent. And that is particularly pan-Nigerianism and does not tend toward one section of the country.

“And that is why I believe very strongly, that Nigerians know that this particular crisis is not just about Atiku coming out to say ‘look, Ayu, please get off’. No. it is about the rule of law. It is about the concession. It is about understanding. It is about maturity in every sense of it. It’s about looking at the big picture; looking at Nigeria and looking at the sufferings of the masses, and looking at even the PDP.

“Talking about choices, the choice is not that of Atiku to make. Atiku does not even have the power to remove… It is not within his powers to say he wants to remove the national chairman of a party. That will be a gross violation of the rules and ethics of the political party.

“We are not a pressure Group. We’re a political party. Whatever he wants to do will only be in an advisory capacity. He can only say ‘Come gentlemen, let’s do this. I think we should do this and all that.”

Given the foregoing, “the strange but true response” from one of the vice president’s co-travelers was taken with a pinch of salt.

Unfortunately, like the proverbial Tortoise that is always in the news for the wrong reason, Atiku has stirred up the hornet’s nest again. This time around he seems to have stuck his foot in his mouth on Saturday, 15 October 2022, when he declared in Kaduna that the North should shun southern candidates in next year’s presidential election.

He made the divisive comment at an interactive session with a group of northern political leaders under the Arewa Joint Committee at Arewa House, Kaduna. The group held the session with the major presidential candidates, with Atiku the first to take his turn.

Asked by the spokesperson of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, why Northerners should vote for him, the PDP presidential candidate replied at the event, “What the average Northerner needs is somebody who’s from the north and also understands that part of the country and has been able to build bridges across the country.

“This is what the Northerner needs, it doesn’t need a Yoruba or Igbo candidate, and I stand before you as a pan-Nigerian of northern origin.”

At this juncture, it is expedient to ask that “Given the divisive weight of the controversial comment made by Atiku, what defensive lie will he and his co-travelers tell Nigerians this time around?