It would be easier to say that Atiku is now repentant, a born again, an unlikely hero, thrust into the fray of presidential campaign to salvage Nigeria, but that will be a lie from the pit of 2015, when a man with known antecedents was polished and presented to us as gold, when in fact he is only at best, burnished bronze.
Atiku has yearned for this position for some time and we know it, and we are wont to ask, what is he looking for, a ready answer to that is, he is looking to better himself, his conscience, by contributing his quota to the development of the nation, he is qualified, experienced and eligible, perhaps one of the most important aspect of it all is eligibility.
What makes Atiku eligible? A Nigerian, educated to a standard, law abiding, with no criminal records. So why is Atiku saddled with a lot of baggage? Why are people campaigning against him? Why all the rumors, even if from records, he has never been indicted? Atiku is not presumed innocent until proven guilty, no! he has actually gone through the process of out judiciary to exonerate himself, not just against Nigeria, because that is how our laws are modeled, it is either against the inspector general of police, or by extension, the country.
When Atiku went through the Nigerian rigorous legal system to clear his name, he was at logger heads, with his boss and commander in chief, who constituted a kangaroo panel of inquiry to indict him, with a clause that the outcome of the panel will serve as an instrument to disqualify him from future political engagements, this was alien to our constitution, but like the third term bid of his boss, the issue of contention that landed him in trouble in the first place, he had to go to court to clear himself.
It is on records today that there is no single indictment against Atiku, except from sponsored media propaganda, taking the issue of the bureau for public enterprise (BPE) he heads as vice president, his name has never been mentioned as corruptly enriching himself or coveting and converting properties to personal use, none has called his service years as a custom officer in question.
In a country where people who blatantly made remarks that “if they didn’t cede the lands of the federal territory to their families, who are they expected to cede it to” are currently in government, without people raising an uproar, it therefore means that, someone is stoking the fire of Atiku being corrupt.
But the enemies come in seven ways, or even more, so we are expecting more, the latest one is, he is a member of the Mytte Allah cattle rearers, he is sponsoring herdmen to massacre people, these are cheap propaganda, the electorate should disregard, for the information of those who easily forget, someone, the current president, told us his desire to propagate sharia all through the land and the present Kaduna governor, told us that a Fulani killed by the army or whoever, is a debt payable, someday and today is the day.
Even as we mourn with the people of Benue, Taraba and other places have witnessed the onslaught of the dastardly herdsmen attack, we urge the electorate to look beyond propaganda and know where the issues lie, young candidiates that are being proposed are inadequate in a system like Nigeria, where experience and bridge building are necessary. The Lagos social life does not represent experience and without a manifesto, there cannot be a direction to governance.
The one cardinal point of Atiku’s presidency is restructuring, fiscal and political restructuring is the answer to the plethora of problems we face as a nation today, and having a man pledge his manifesto on that is something worth cheering about, that means that our problems are half solved, what we need to do is vote and make sure that the man who has a will to do it is voted into power.
Propaganda or godfathers will not fix out nation, we are still reeling in the effect of propaganda and godfatherism, it is imperative that we register and have our PVCs ready to exchange this backwardness for something truly progressive.
*Stanley Izebhokhae*
*Director of Media and Publicity ATIKUNATION ICG, Edo State.*
Comments
Post a Comment