Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 25, 2023, election, and Bola Tinubu, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), have been busy lately elaborately introducing themselves to Nigerians. What a wonderful job they have done.
It is not as if Nigerians do not already know the two individuals sufficiently. Somehow, however, prompted possibly by a karmic proclivity to cancel out each other, Atiku and Tinubu felt compelled, barely one month to the 2023 presidential election, to remind Nigerians of who they truly are, lest their spinmeisters succeed in confusing the people with glowing profiles different from the real thing.
As public statement on the character of a prime political office aspirant goes, what Tinubu and Atiku have presented of each other in the last fortnight could not have been more devastating. Sadly, the evidence is substantially factual. Nigerians have watched with consternation as the two candidates, whose parties jointly brought Nigeria to grief, embarked on a mutually destructive tango. Backed by their respective media aides, who have nothing of their own to lose, Atiku and Tinubu have succeeded within a period of about two weeks to neutralize themselves.
Left on their own, Atiku and Tinubu will most unlikely elect to de-robe themselves so completely before the public in the manner they have done recently. Without doubt, both are acutely aware of the huge integrity deficit they have been contending with over time. In the hands of their respective overzealous and often inane media attack dogs, who are determined to justify their handsome pay, Atiku and Tinubu have found themselves trashed beyond redemption. The two candidates have ended up as victims of a crossfire they would have given anything to avoid. Nigeria may be better for such consuming crossfire.
It is most unlikely now that any of the two politicians can, henceforth, effectively pursue a case of defamation of their character against any person. Which character now?
Instructively, neither Atiku nor Tinubu have actually felt scandalized enough by the charges of sleaze pelted on them to the point of issuing even empty threats to seek legal redress to clear their names. The strongest response that has been heard from each of the two sides to the barrage of charges of fraud and criminality against them is: what about you? You are also guilty. Mark it, none of them has ever said, I am innocent. Their defence is always, see what the other person did.
Of course, Nigerians do not need any introduction to Atiku or Tinubu. The former was Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The latter was governor of Lagos State. Both were actually elected governors of their respective states when democracy was restored in Nigeria in 1999. Atiku was elected for Adamawa, Tinubu for Lagos. The trajectory of Atiku’s political journey got altered when he was picked by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo as his running mate. They subsequently won the election.
The deeds of Atiku as VP and Tinubu as governor of Lagos State, and prior to their political ascendance are storied. The legend of their respective lives in the last decade and half has been sustained in equal measure, by disapproval by many and well-cultivated loyalty in others. They have evolved into carpetbaggers of no mean stature, wielding stifling grips over their chosen territories.
Sixteen years after both men left their last elected political offices, they have managed, with effective deployment of resources, to promote a romantic hue of their performances in office. Now they are further burnishing those posts as glittering cornerstones from whence they aim to leap to the height of political power in the country.
Integrity questions and sneering comments have always trailed every political move of Atiku and Tinubu, but they remain unfazed. In a society with scant inclination to interrogate issues bordering on integrity of persons in public positions or those seeking to be elected, Tinubu and Atiku have continued to loom large in the political firmament of the country, irrespective of cynical allusions to their past. The sources of their stupendous wealth have always been an issue. That very wealth has, however, continued to propel them across turbulent waters.
The story of how these two leviathans won the presidential primaries of their respective parties speaks of their firm grip on Nigerian politics. They may be held in disdain by many but they sure know how to have their way. They understand the game. Though Tinubu was too brash and crude to desperately declare that it was his turn to be President, Atiku, even without publicly saying so, obviously feels the same way too.
For both men, the last bus was about to leave the station in 2023 and they were determined to do whatever it took to be on board. And they did. The manner of their entry may have left many disgusted, but do they care? What mattered to them was to gain a vantage seat in the bus and they ensured by all means that they got there.
The two men understand the dynamics of Nigeria, which is not any different from the old molue transit system in Lagos. Even if it takes jumping into the molue through the window to get going, and it does take that, you do so. Once you find yourself inside the bus, you can smoothen your dress as the vehicle moves on. Atiku and Tinubu understand the Lagos molue system, quite well. One was a master of proceedings at the hustling Idiroko border on Nigeria’s western flank, as well as at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport. The other was not only a product of the seedy Lagos, he became the ultimate Capone of the territory. From the system whence both sprang, they have always known that Nigeria has little room for gentility. The bolekaja metaphor succinctly captures it for them. And for Nigerian politics, too.
One month before the presidential election, for reasons best known to them, Atiku Abubakar and Bola Tinubu have jointly presented a most graphic denouement of their character to Nigerians. It is more or less, a reminder to Nigerians,of what these two individuals represent.
For the past two weeks, as the APC and PDP presidential candidates tango on the campaign trail, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s ever relevant hit song provides a poignant background theme music; You be thief/I no be thief/You be robber/ I no be robber/You be armed robber/ I no be armed robber/You be rogue/I no be rogue……… And the beat goes on. And the two seek to be president.
If, at the end of the latest reminder to Nigerians by Bola Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar, of who they are, majority of the voters still elect either of them president, the blame cannot be theirs. The evidence of sleaze and integrity deficit advanced against the two candidates by themselves are too damning to be ignored. Interestingly, the body evidence is largely from the accused themselves. The caveat is clear; buyer beware! Don’t say you were not warned.