BY Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo
Amongst all those running for president in Nigeria’s 2023 election, only Atiku Abubakar is running to retrieve some things he forgot in Aso Rock since he left the seat of government in 2007. For those who had not come of age then, Atiku was Olusegun Obasanjo’s vice president from 1999 to 2007. During this period, Atiku accomplished a lot. He was so powerful that in 2003, Atiku made President Olusegun Obasanjo kneel and beg just to be allowed to run for a second term. Atiku and his group had wanted to “Ambode” Obasanjo before Bola Tinubu even dreamed of it. But after the Ogun-state-born retired general knelt and begged, Atiku relented and allowed Obasanjo to go for a second time. At the end of Obasanjo’s second term, just after Obasanjo’s third term effort failed, Obasanjo called Atiku a thief and swore that he would never be alive and see Atiku as the president of Nigeria.
That was how Obasanjo sidelined Atiku and handpicked Umaru Musa Yar’Adua to succeed him in 2007. Since then, Atiku has been trying to get back to Aso Rock. Election 2023 will be the 6th time he is putting himself out there to run for president. Not even Abraham Lincoln tried this much. All efforts to convince Atiku that there are other ways to serve Nigeria besides being president have failed.
In the past, I had told Atiku of how in 1936, Edsel Ford, the son of Henry Ford, the founder of Ford Motor Company, started the Ford Foundation with an initial gift of $25,000. The Ford family ran the foundation until the 1940s when they decided to expand it into international philanthropy. They did it by following the recommendation of the Gaither Study Committee, which wanted the foundation to dedicate itself to “the advancement of human welfare through reducing poverty and promoting democratic values, peace and educational opportunity”. Today, the foundation has a $16 billion endowment and gives out $500 million every year in grants. It has left a legacy that will endure longer than the legacy of a majority of the men that have become US presidents.
In a 2003 National Population Commission’s demographic and health survey of Nigeria handed over to the then Vice President Atiku, it stated that primary school attendance in Atiku’s north-east was 49.5% for males and 39.1% for females. In the south-south, it was 83.2 % for males and 81.1% for females. At the secondary school level, north-east showed 22.9% attendance for males and 14.9% attendance for females. In the south-south, it was 51.6% for males and 51.5% for females. According to the National Population Commission, as of 2010, 31% of Nigerians between the ages of 6 to 16 have never attended primary school. 72% of children in Borno state have never attended school compared to 27% in Kwara state. In Imo state, it’s zero. In the north-east, 56.8% of females aged 5-24 never attended school. For males, it was 48.5%. With all that has happened in the last ten years, the situation now is certainly worse.
If Atiku had dedicated the last fifteen years since he left Aso Rock to solving the educational gap in his north-east alone, if he had brought together his fellow rich men and women, he would have made an impact that would be more than he would ever make as president.
I have used the lives of Ford, Gates, and others who have transformed the world through philanthropy to urge Atiku to spend the rest of his life doing good for humanity. But of course, the Waziri of Adamawa rebuffed me. It soon became apparent that Atiku forgot some critical documents or missions in Aso Rock.
Finally, I have realized the top ten things Atiku forgot in Aso Rock, for which he is determined to try for the sixth time to be president.
Okonkwo teaches post-colonial African history at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. He is also the host of Dr Damages Show. His books include “This American Life Sef”, “Children of a Retired God,” among others.
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