By Ike Abonyi
Paying more heed to the lessons of the past might teach us to be a little more cautious about some of the political decisions taken today”-Michael Morpurgo.
Your Excellency, I earnestly pray that this letter finds you in good health of mind and body.
As a politically exposed Journalist of over three decades of practice, my road and yours have crossed several times. I have been privileged to have interviewed Your Excellency multiple times in the three newspapers that I have worked for, as Group Political Editor and Deputy Managing Director, respectively (Champion, THISDAY and New Telegraph).
Outside the newsroom, I have also had several contacts with you as I served two previous National Chairmen of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as their Media Adviser. I was also the head of the media team coordinated by the former National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Chief Olisa Metu, that actually resurrected the then-dying party after the defeat of 2015.
As the defeat threw the party faithful into confusion, it was this media team I headed that gave life to the party. In fact, not a few believe that Olisa Metu’s political conviction that led him to jail wrongly was a result of the courageous battle he waged using my media team against the ruling APC. Metu was not forgiven for successfully frustrating Muhammedu Buhari’s plans of appointing her cousin Hajia Amina Zakari, from Jigawa state, as the substantive Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, using the media team.
In 2019, as media Adviser to the then National Chairman, Prince Uche, Secondus, I went around all 36 states and FCT campaigning with you in that election. Many Nigerians and observers believed you won it. All the press releases from that campaign came from my media desk.
I have to give you the above background, Your Excellency, to draw a premise for what this letter is intended. And to show that I come with an open heart as an ‘Articulate’. I was such an ATIKULATE that I even wrote a tribute on your 68th birthday, published in this column (back page column) in the New Telegraph of November 25 2015, titled “Atiku, the Man who can still be President”
I am not a politician, but by my antecedents, you will agree with me that from many years in the newsroom as a political reporter to the political party leadership, I have been politically exposed enough to make consequential input into the ongoing conversation as it concerns your Presidential ambition.
My diary as a political reporter tells me that your journey and aspirations to be Nigeria’s President started about 35 years ago from the defunct Social Democratic Party, SDP, and the late Musa Yar’Adua group of the stillborn Third Republic. My records also show that you were a utility figure in the success of the Yar Adua group. At that time, you were in your late 40s and early 50s with sharp minds and swift decisions. By the time the military was going in 1999, you were already identified in the political space as one of the egg heads the national politics will rest on. That explained why after the first National Convention of the PDP in 1998 in Jos, Plateau state where General Olusegun Obasanjo emerged as the Presidential flag bearer, the military hierarchy then and Obasanjo ignored the pressure of the other top Northern politicians like Abubakar Rimi while searching for a running mate and settled for you who was already a Governor-elect of your state of Adamawa.
Obasanjo’s trust in you was evident both in politics and governance, and this significantly enhanced your political ego. As a result, by 2003, you were more popular than Obasanjo as his Vice and being in charge of politics, it was easy for you to attempt to torpedo your master, falling under the pressure of Governors. Obasanjo used the wit of an Army General and the cultural flexibility of a Yoruba to survive your plot.
Cocking a gun pointed at a General without shooting has huge consequences, and that became the beginning of the disruption of democracy in this republic. Obasanjo may have forgiven you, but he has refused to forget. If you had successfully managed Obasanjo’s shortcomings and ignored the pressure of overzealous Governors, we would have had a smooth transition in 2007, and Nigeria’s various democratic summersaults would have been averted.
After that error in judgment, you still had a similar mistake again influenced by some Governors who you followed in 2014 to dump the party you were a foundation member of to APC. In APC, they dumped you for Muhammadu Buhari, and in 2018, you journeyed back to the PDP, which not only accepted you but graciously gave its Presidential ticket to you in 2019. We all know that you won that election, but the APC rigging machinery was at play.
After that election, you disappeared to the United Arab Emirates UAE and surfaced for the election for another ticket. You did very little in organising and nurturing the party in opposition. It was your conspicuous absence from the scene that gave birth to a Nyesom WIKE who has today become the nemesis of the party and yourself, politically speaking. Even when the party was in crisis over Wike’s move to remove the then National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, from office, you were in a position to avert it, but instead, you played along with WIKE as you put your ambition above every other consideration?
Every issue about WIKE by you was another miscalculation on your side because you went dining with the devil with a short spoon. If you had stood to stop the removal of Secondus or retained your 2019 running mate Peter Obi in 2023, your story would have been different, but in the two scenarios, you misjudged it, going for the money bags. WIKE had money, which defending Secondus may deny you; Okowa had more money, which is going for Obi as your running mate in 2023, may deny you. At the end of the day, you lost all with Okowa, now regretting running with you and a WIKE celebrating not supporting you.
Today, you are the most active political personality in the PDP, but you have been unable to put the party in order, and you are even considering moving again to another party for your Presidential ambition to be realised. Not a few believe that it’s your ambition that is holding the PDP down now.
It’s not in dispute that you have been playing inclusive politics,, and your Presidency would not have been FULANIZED like your brother Buhari did in eight years or YORUBANIZED like your friend Tinubu is currently doing.
It is this perception of you that informed your most electoral victories in the past, coming outside your ethnic and geopolitical areas. In all your previous presidential contests, the Southeast and the South-South were your main catchment areas. These two regions, in their loyalty to the PDP, rejected even their sons in other parties for their party flag bearers. It was only in 2023 that the region realised too late, perhaps, that the PDP basket they were storing all their eggs inside for 23 years really never wanted them, and Your Excellency, unfortunately, helped to perpetuate this injustice.
Ahead of 2027, when you will be 81 years old, you are still not disposed to anointing someone from the people who have supported you all through. You are obstinately doing this even though the tide is against you, the zoning is not in your favour and Nigeria after witnessing Buhari and TINUBU in and out of the hospital because of age-related ailments cannot jump at an 81-year-old man at a time that the national problems are myriad and needed a younger and agile person for a reset.
This letter is actually to plead with Your Excellency to consider quitting the stage now and anointing a Southerner like Peter Obi, whom you already found fit in 2019 when you ran your most successful Presidential race.
If you do that, you will be redefining your statesmanship and thoroughly organising the opposition for a return to power. PDP lost power when you rebelled against it to the APC, and even after their victory, you didn’t find the APC a home. If you organise PDP and return it to power, all the exodus into APC for rigging benefits will immediately do a decoy and your place in history as an astute politician will endure in our hearts.
You may not have heard this type of view from those around you, and even when you see some views like this on social media, they will tell you it is coming from those afraid of you. They will also argue that it’s your right to run, true!
I am not a politician but a journalist who has been part of your political trajectory. I know as a fact that your political generosity has benefited a lot of people, and they see your Presidential ambition every four years as a gold mine, a stream that should not be allowed to dry up, no matter the climate change. By this, my suggestion, I may be trying to dry their stream, and they will do everything to make you not think outside the box. But the great French General and statesman Charles de Gaulle advised that “politics is too serious to be left for politicians” Moreover, in decision-making, we need to realise that it’s the teacher, not the classroom, that makes the difference.
By stepping aside and supporting and mentoring Peter Obi, who can carry the torch for your political ideology and legacy, your ideas and values for justice will continue to shape Nigeria’s future.
The presidency of this country is a demanding role that requires immense physical and mental energy. At 81, you might face health challenges that could impact your ability to serve effectively, as seen in the last two underwhelming old men. Prioritising your well-being and legacy might be more important because you deserve time for reflection and rest rather than seeking another high-stress role. Moreover, the perception that your presidency in 2027 is running against the tide is empirically correct. I see no justice in you or the North, not finding an Igbo man worthy of the job even when the Tide favours them.
Your Excellency, this advice comes from a place of respect for your dedication to Nigeria and your legacy and from someone who admires your liberal democratic disposition. I would like to close this letter, leaving you with this saying from the founder of the Chinese revolution, Mao Zedong: “ Not to have a correct political point of view is like having no soul” God bless.
Sunrisereporters.
