Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi Recently, the former vice president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, serial president aspirant, and candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the last election, Atiku Abubakar, proposed a merger party at a meeting he held with the committee of opposition parties in the country.
Even though he has not come out to inform the public about the claim, it was alleged that the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 election, Mr. Peter Obi, has agreed to join a coalition with Atiku Abubakar, all to wrestle power from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2027.
In this article, we will look at the proficiency of the coalition, the politics of individualism, geopolitical interest, and a couple of factors that will reshape the coalition and may deny it from seeing the light that was usually quoted to be at the end of every tunnel.
Atiku’s Presidential Ambition
Only an unserious person will see Atiku Abubakar sacrificing his decades-long presidential ambition for any form of coalition since Nigerian politics stand today. Atiku Abubakar started to contest for the presidential seat of Nigeria in 1992 and has featured in almost every election except in 1999 when the presidential ticket was strictly determined to compensate for the life of late Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola, and 2003 when he was vice president to ex-president Olusegun Aremu Okikiola Obasanjo.
Atiku Abubakar contested for the presidential seat of Nigeria in 2007 under the platform of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), a political party spearheaded by Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Chief Adebisi Akande; this was after he fought his boss, Olusegun Obasanjo in his defunct political party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) where he was Vice President for eight years. Atiku Abubakar defected back to PDP ahead of 2011 after observing that ex-president Musa Yar’Adua’s ill health could not enable him to run for his second term in office to complete the Northern’s turn of two terms, a political culture that was enshrined in Nigerian democracy to promote inclusiveness.
After failing in his pursuit to grab the PDP tick in 2011 which was won by Acting President Goodluck Jonathan, Atiku Abubakar dumped PDP and moved to All Progressives Congress (APC), a mega political party formed by the merging of Bola Tinubu’s CAN, Muhammadu Buhari’s Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), and factions of other political parties. Atiku contested and lost the presidential ticket of APC to former President Muhammadu Buhari.
Sighting that his presidential ambition had been halted in the APC, Atiku rushed back to PDP ahead of the 2019 presidential election where he won the party’s presidential ticket to lock horns with Muhammadu Buhari during the 2019 presidential election which was won by Buhari.
Just because he would not sacrifice his presidential election, Atiku Abubakar deployed every piece of political machinery available to him to jettison the respect for “Power Rotation” within PDP during the 2023 election. He strategically hijacked the party, drove out the likes of Mr. Peter Obi and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso; cut off some of the PDP southern Governors who could be his obstacle, hijacked some of the PDP northern governors who were not previously in line with his presidential ambition, and later won the presidential ticket of PDP for the second time but only to lose out to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the APC at the general election.
Going by the record of Atiku’s Presidential ambition, by 2027 it will be 35 years that he has been contesting for the presidential seat of Nigeria, and if humanity continues, Atiku Abubakar should not be considered as an individual who will sacrifice his presidential ambition for any form of coalition, not even if he agrees to join APC, today. Atiku’s presidential ambition is worth no political interest. This may lead us to the politics of individualism.
Politics of Individualism
You look at the kind of politics being played by each of the major political actors coming together to form a coalition when projecting the proficiency and productivity of the coalition, in this course, we have mainly political actors who share antagonizing personal ego and are only playing one another to attempt if an individual’s political goal-state could be reached. Expect nothing from such deceptive movement other than a fractionalization of the fractures that are being attempted to be reformed.
Take a look at Peter Obi, who abandoned and orphaned his defunct political party, All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to join forces with Goodluck Jonathan, a few months after he left office as Governor of Anambra State all because he wanted to belong to the party at the center.
The same Peter Obi who allowed Nigeria to go through the hell of being destroyed by attempting all forms of crises-prone strategies, including religion, age group, and ethnicity, to influence his political strength during the 2023 presidential election. Someone who did not care his failed presidential election brought Nigeria back to 1967 would not be taken seriously in any talks for political coalition.
The same Peter Obi who took his presidential campaign to the churches across Nigeria and instigated religious politics calling on the Christians to wake and take back their country as if Nigeria is Israel where Christianity is fighting for ownership.
One would wonder how Peter Obi of Christianalized Nigeria and Atiku Abubakar who believes only the North should continue to rule Nigeria will come together and form a common front with the deceptive diverging beliefs.
Igbo Agenda vs Atiku’s 35 Years at the Gate of Aso Rock
If there is anything that highly influenced the result of the last presidential election, noticeably, ethnopolitics could not be ruled out, and this was convincingly played by the Igbo people, irrespective of their state of residence across the nation. You see, till today, the Labour Party seems more like an Igbo party than a national party mainly because of the immense support it earned from the Igbo people during the 2023 general election.
Look at the Labour Party coming a runner up in Benue State, wonderful performance in Plateau, winning Lagos and Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja during the presidential election; merging this in the projected coalition to the reality that Atiku Abubakar will surely beat 1000 Peter Obis at any presidential primary, is this how the Igbo presidential agenda will be subdued to Atiku’s 35 years of eyeing the Presidential seat of Nigeria? Accept this or not, the coalition may be in a mere principle of working separately but towards a goal of relinquishing power from Bola Tinubu’s APC; don’t see the Igbo population giving the same energy they dispensed on Peter Obi’s presidential race to anyone who is not of Igbo race.
Atiku or Wike’s PDP
Another pinpoint in this coalition talks is which faction of PDP is going into coalition with the Labour Party; Atiku Abubakar’s or Nyesom Wike’s PDP?
If there is no clearcut response to this, someone must either be joking, playing with himself, or in the long run everybody who presently condemns Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso’s decision to stay away from the coalition will live to tender an unreserved apology to him in agreement with his decision.
In the next few months, the leadership crises in the PDP will resurface and by then, everyone will know who owns PDP between Atiku and Wike. Although the crisis may span till 2027, the coalition will surely be the scapegoat of the impending leadership crisis that awaits PDP.
Strongest Political Alignment
Political realignment is always a necessity at every election cycle but this may not be in favor of the PDP, looking at the 2027 presidential election.
If Peter Obi agrees to join hands with Atiku Abubakar, the coalition will not last beyond the presidential primary of PDP or the new mega party that may be formed or endorsed by the parties in the coalition. The difference in the leadership architectures of Atiku’s PDP and Peter Obi’s Labour Party may be the foundation of this political mission. Atiku is the one-man Authoritarian-General of his faction of PDP with the final say on the ways to go; Peter Obi receives order from the movement he spearheads with no opportunity to contribute to the ways forth.
With this, Peter Obi faces the toughest hurdle with an option to stay put with the movement that backs him or the movement abandon him for another Igbo man or the likes of Omoyele Sowore.
However, strong political alignment ahead of the 2027 election still favours the Bola Tinubu’s APC considering his political sagacity and the resources that are currently available within his reach. The 2027 Presidential contest may forcefully push some politicians from the political retirement they suffered in 2023 to a total political extinction.
Category: World-News
Tag: Peter Obi Atiku Abubakar coalition
Written by Omooba Alekuwodo (omoobaalekuwodo)
Published 11/17/2023 11:43:27 AM