Between Atiku and Buhari: Just the facts Ma’am, just the facts

When I consider the amount of negative energy the Presidency is putting towards discrediting Atiku Abubakar over his resignation from the All Progressive Congress, I wonder sometimes if they think Atiku has committed an unpardonable sin.

Permitting it’s surrogates like Governor El-Rufai and official spokespersons to insult Atiku is just an overkill given that all he has done is leave the APC.

As my Yoruba brothers would say, ki ni big deal?

A party is a vehicle that takes you from point A to point B. If you are in a vehicle that breaks down along the way, you naturally will not stay stuck at that same place. You either fix the vehicle or you get into another vehicle. The vehicle is important, but it is the destination that is the whole point.

Both Winston Churchill, the greatest U.K. Prime Minister and Ronald Reagan, perhaps the greatest US President, were known for changing parties in their journey and struggle to achieve the best for their nations.

Winston Churchill left the Conservatives (Tories) for the Liberals in 1904, only to rejoin the Conservatives in 1925.

Ronald Reagan switched from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party in 1962.

Even Hillary Clinton who ran on the Democratic Party ticket in the most recent US elections was once a registered Republican who worked for and on the campaigns of Republican Presidential candidates and was even elected president of the Wellesley Young Republicans in her Freshman year.

A top insider and member of the kitchen cabinet of the All Progressive Congress, Professor Itse Sagay, recently revealed that the APC is not the Party it once was and is no longer capable of supporting good governance and instead roots for “evil”. Those are his very own words, not mine. Why would any true democrat continue to remain a member of such an evil party?

Atiku never left the PDP at anytime in the past. Rather, he has always been pushed out of the party. After fighting the unconstitutional Third Term Agenda, Atiku was pushed out in 2006 after the re registration exercise which stripped his supporters of their membership of the party.

After the PDP became factionalized on August 31, 2013, he was again pushed out of the party because of his insistence that the constitution of the party be obeyed.

If switching parties is a crime, then everyone in the APC is guilty of that crime, from President Buhari, who has been in and out of three parties himself to ALL the members of the NEC of the APC.

In Nigeria, other than the PDP, other parties are not real political parties in the true sense of the word. They are instead vehicles cobbled together for the purpose of seizing political power.

President Buhari, who was disloyal to his democratically elected Commander-in-Chief, President Shagari, who he overthrew and who himself had jumped from APP, to ANPP to CPC to APC and whose government restored and promoted the fugitive, Abdulrasheed Maina, after awarding $25 billion NNPC contracts without due process, has no moral authority to point fingers at Atiku Abubakar at all!

In fact, senescence is the only reason I can attribute for this attempt by the gerontocratic administration of President Muhammadu Buhari to blame Atiku Abubakar for a political strategy perfected by President Buhari himself.

The President shed crocodile tears in 2011 and said he would not contest again, yet he contested in 2015. As revealed by Aisha Hassan, he said he would not seek re-election in 2019, yet he is gearing up for re-election. He promised he would stop officials from going on health tourism at public expense only to become Africa’s biggest health tourist after he was elected.

Should such a me and such a government point fingers at Atiku Abubakar, the only man who was bold enough to challenge the APC to fulfill its promise to restructure?

And the APC who made promises to the Nigerian people during the elections, only to deny them after being elected, has no moral right to accuse Atiku Abubakar of abandoning the party. You see, by denying its own promises, such as the promise to restructure Nigeria, even the APC has abandoned the APC!

So when someone asks me what my response is to the statement by Malam Nasir, El-Rufai to State House correspondents that:

As long as President Muhammadu Buhari is in politics I do not see any Nigerian from the northern part of the country that will be able to match him in popularity. The people of the 19 northern states and Nigeria have decided because of the president’s past history of Integrity and good governance they are committed to him. Anyone standing up to challenge him is wasting his time. God has decreed that this is Buhari’s time and we are waiting for the PDP to give Atiku Abubakar the ticket and we will face him on the field. But I have no doubt that I will not lose any sleep about it.

I just laugh because this is the type of inconsistency that the APC and its member are known for.

Let me conclude by quoting what this same Malam El-Rufai said of President Muhammad Buhari on October 4, 2010

“Mallam El-Rufai wishes to remind General Buhari that he has remained perpetually unelectable because his record as military head of state, and afterwards, is a warning that many Nigerians have wisely heeded. His insensitivity to Nigeria’s diversity and his parochial focus are already well-known.”

President Buhari and his mini-me and their rapidly sinking and shrinking party know that Atiku Abubakar has already defeated President Buhari should he decide to contest the 2019 Presidential election that is why they are jittery.

Consider the following.

On the same day that Atiku Abubakar resigned from the APC, President Buhari sets up a committee to increase the national minimum wage. This is a classic knee jerk reaction and an indication that the President is jittery over his impending 2019 defeat and wants to bribe Nigerians with a salary increase.

But be that as it may, the bottomline is that President Buhari has contested the Presidency 4 times and each time under a different party meanwhile Atiku has only contested the Presidency once (in 2007). So before the APC attack Atiku, they should buy a mirror and give it to President Buhari.

Omokri is the bestselling author of ‘Facts Versus Fiction: The True Story of the Jonathan Years: Chibok, 2015 and Other Conspiracies’