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from Asiwaju
“I want to say that those of us from Northern Nigeria honour agreements. We do not violate unwritten political agreements and I will be the last person to lead in violating that agreement”. –NasirEl-Rufai,February2023.
For Atiku Abubakar, the serial presidential candidate of the PeoplesDemocraticParty(PDP), the 2023 election is definitely his last ditchefforttoachievehisambitiontobe thePresidentoftheFederalRepublicof Nigeria, which most political analysts believe he lost in 2003, due to his unbridled ambition. Just weeks into the first term of the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, Atiku Abubakar attemptedforcingObasanjotoadoptthe Nelson Mandela option, which would havemeantObasanjospendingonlyone term.
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That desperate move, rather than advanceAtiku'spoliticalcareer,seemed to have doomed it, considering the vicious campaign that Obasanjo has againsthim.
Since 2001, Obasanjo, had taken effective steps to ensure thatAtiku will neverachieve hispresidentialambition, whichdatesbacktotheGeneralIbrahim Babangida 1993 unwinding transition. WheneventuallytheelectionthatChief M. K. O. Abiola is widely believed to have won held, it was annulled by the militaryjunta.
TheNorth,mostunfortunately,borethe brunt of Babangida's self serving annulment of the election. The fear is real, that if per chance Atiku wins the election, after eight years of Muhammadu Buhari, that the formidable South-west would ensure that the country enjoys no peace. The graveimplicationisthattheSouth-west might join the South-east agitations for independence.TheSouth-eastisalready ungovernable.
Because it's his last attempt, Atiku is throwingeverythingintotherace,which wasexpected.Theproblemishisrefusal to take into account the long term consequences of his actions on the fragileunityofthecountry
To say the least, his “Na ka, na ka” campaign, which simply means, the Northretainingpoweratwhatevercost, is irresponsible and dangerous And many well meaning northerners are
