When generosity becomes a liability for Atiku Abubakar

 BY BELLO BALA SHAGARI

There are some certain people in life who are inherently generous and charitable. Nothing pleases them than the act of “giving”. They are natural born givers! A famous artist once said, “Because you love something, you want to do it all the time, even if no one is paying you for it. At least that’s how I felt about drawing”. Hence, givers cannot live without having anything to give. It is such an extraordinary virtue which is also enjoyed by the common people, especially the less privileged who take advantage of such benevolence. 

However, it is also often envied by many, especially rivals, because generosity endears a person to the people, and it is not something that anybody else without such inclination can wake up one day and start practicing. A sociologist researcher, Kyle Irwin from Baylor University in Texas revealed that “givers” can be quite unpopular at times, because they make certain people look bad. Or make them feel jealous or like they are not doing enough. Hence, they ensure that “givers” are punished at all cost!  

In politics especially, politicians usually appeal to people with some certain qualities or traits that they possess. Those qualities if popular with the people are a threat to political opponents. To counter such a threat, political opponents can at best try to match those qualities and at worst resort to calumnious propagandas hoping to strip their opponent of his/her popularity with the people using the same factor. 

However, rivalry in partisan politics is a norm, but in Nigeria, its almost like a war, whereby every soldier’s intention is to “eliminate the enemy”. The worst weapon that your opponents could use against you in this kind of ‘warfare’ is nothing less than “corruption”. It is like a nuclear bomb in Nigerian politics, which comes first before sectionalism which is another. Because if you are accused of corruption, everything else comes second. Political ideologies are hardly the issue.

Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Wazirin Adamawa, Nigeria’s former vice president, is the one most visible example of a “giver” who has become the victim of such vicious political propagandas. It is his own ‘punishment’ I assume. This is a person who has earned the reputation of being a philanthropist in Nigeria but today is accused by even some of his beneficiaries of ‘corruption’ on the pages of newspapers and public conversations. I see no problem with the kind of “giving” Atiku is involved with, because it is the sort that adds value to the society. It is not the kind that turns people into beggars. 

Whatever Atiku gives, is something that one can capitalise on to do something serious with his/her life, because he gives big! Scholarships, Jobs, donations etc! Perhaps, he is the only Nigerian politician who twitter users are fond of tagging whenever there’s need for help to sponsor a patient abroad or talent for scholarship. But why is he still a victim? Another factor is that Nigerians have developed the belief that every wealthy person who has been in public service must have acquired his/her wealth through illegal or unfair means. Hence, one cannot be wealthy in the political class except he/she is corrupt. Period!

Nigerians although have their own way of measuring ones wealth. Its typical of a common Nigerian to assume that the most charitable people are the richest, because they spend in the eyes of everyone. “Biggest spenders are the highest earners and highest earners are the biggest spenders.” Such a wrong assumption! How can it be so when we know for a fact that there are earners/savers who don’t spend and earners/spenders who don’t save because of their generosity. 

Most of these “savers” lock up everything they have in the banks and safes for their families alone and would dislike anyone who does otherwise. “He is spoiling them!”, they would say. No wonder even among the elites there are people who don’t like Atiku. Most of them are eager to save themselves from the liability of generosity in Nigeria. However, this is not to insinuate that everyone in high political position is rich enough to give as much as Atiku does or that “giving” is the only act of righteousness. Lack of it also isn’t a total flaw but having it is a divine blessing. Thus, punishing those who are generous with their wealth is absurd!

Could you now see why Atiku is singly pinpointed in a special way for being corrupt? Where are the rest of them? He has colleagues who at the time he is being accused of amassing such wealth for himself became wealthy too. They are among those pointing fingers at him and we join them! Recently, the former Vice President  has made efforts to debunk the propaganda against him on twitter, where he even challenged those who accuse him to prove their accusations. 

To my surprise, up till now, no one has come up with anything serious except the flimsy argument that he cannot travel to the United States! But you know what? Nobody even cares about proving a point because the propagandist narrative on Atiku being corrupt has got into the bone marrow of the Nigerian populace. Deaf and blind, they don’t want to hear, see or know! They have made their final judgment even without reasons.

Consequently, I decided to write this piece, because I have thought objectively and understood that we haven’t been fair to the former vice president Atiku Abubakar for a long time. Nothing is even more unfair than to judge him by his performance as the Vice President during the Obasanjo era. Because if Obasanjo has done well, then Atiku should take credit too, but if he has done otherwise, Atiku may not share the blame because he was not in charge. 

I’m not in the know whether Atiku has ever been involved in any corrupt practice or not, but so far, the facts on ground do not suggest that he was. So until then, it is that simple, “innocent until proven guilty”. Historically, the former vice president Atiku has been a successful businessman and big earner with huge investments right before his emergence as Vice President in 1999. A fact which he has made known to the public unlike many others whose investments we cannot even sight. 

He also has never been accused of not being nationalistic in his affairs. But his passion for politics and philanthropy, combined with his unmatched generosity has become problematic to his ambition. It is a common propagandist narrative that Atiku would sell off everything Nigeria has in asset and put it in his pocket! I wonder which kind big pocket be dat! Even if it is true, how is it possible? Such propagandas have been here for a long time, like the famous story of Umaru Dikko stealing the whole of Nigerian budget! 

Lastly, even if Atiku is bad in anyway you may want to describe, at least he gives back to the people in different means that I don’t need to mention here, because it is another topic on its own. But only if other politicians with big accounts could be as generous as the former vice president, the level of poverty in Nigeria would have reduced to a minimum rate.

I would like to end by quoting Prophet Muhammad PBUH who said  Everyday two angels descend and one of them says, `O Allah! Compensate (more) to the person who gives (in charity)’; while the other one says, `O Allah! Destroy the one who withholds (charity, etc). (Al-Bukhari)

Bello Shagari is a filmmaker and an advocate of youth and entrepreneurship.