Editor’s note: This essay is available in our print issue,
The Road to 2023. Buy the issue
here.
One of the most viewed and highest rated documentaries during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown was The Last Dance, which focused on Michael Jordan and the victorious Chicago Bulls Basketball team of the early 1990s. Released in 2020, The Last Dance covered the rise, fall and subsequent redemption of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, which culminated in their third consecutive title, a ‘three-peat’, an achievement Jordan made for the second time in his career. The return to the pinnacle of the sport has helped cement Jordan’s legacy, keeping him and that Chicago Bulls team in the conversation for the best of all time.
Atiku Abubakar and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) are in a similar position to Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. Having played a part in PDP’s earlier victories in 1999 and 2003, Atiku (as he’s commonly known) journeyed to different parties and returned, at different times, to PDP, a party he helped form. Atiku’s quest for the presidency, which began in 1993, is not yet over but his chances of achieving this are nearly up. It is fairly certain that the 2023 elections will be his last opportunity to become Nigeria’s president.
Likewise, PDP and its appeal as a major party, are also in question. PDP’s 16 years in control of government, which famously came to an end in 2015, seem like a distant memory following its last eight years in opposition. Infighting, from its initial schism after the 2015 defeat and, currently, questions over its zoning of roles to reflect equity in the party continue to dog PDP’s movement. Finally, even with a ruling party that has proven to be unpopular, PDP has failed to capture the support of Nigerians. It has equally failed to seize the wave of ‘change’ that the All-Progressives Congress (APC) held during APC’s successful 2015 campaign.
Hence, the journeys of PDP and Atiku, its two-time presidential flagbearer, are as interwoven as they are similar. And, in this likely last dance together, one wonders if Atiku and PDP are a match made in heaven, or a pairing doomed to fail.
THE YOUNG PRODIGY
An appropriate starting point in Atiku Abubakar’s political story is his time as a customs service officer. This is because most narratives about Atiku either show a hard-working civil servant who rose through the ranks to become a deputy director, or an unscrupulous fellow who abused his position to attain wealth. From customs, Atiku ventured into politics and became a key coordinator of Bamanga Tukur’s successful bid for governor of then Gongola State in 1983. A chance meeting with Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, who was the number two in Olusegun Obasanjo’s military regime (1976-79), saw Atiku elected as one of his deputies in the Peoples Front of Nigeria (PFN).
Yar’Adua was able to bring together many prominent politicians under this party, including Rabiu Kwankwaso and Bola Tinubu—currently two of Atiku’s main rivals for the presidency. The PFN was eventually incorporated into the more established Social Democratic Party (SDP), which was one of two parties set up and recognized by the military regime. Within this party, the PFN morphed into the People’s Democratic Movement (PDM), which put forward Atiku as its presidential candidate when Yar’Adua was banned from seeking political office by the Babangida regime.
Atiku placed among the top three at the March 1993 SDP convention but was told to withdraw in favour of M. K. O. Abiola by his mentor, Shehu Musa Yar’Adua. Yar’Adua believed he had struck a deal for Atiku to join the ticket as running mate. Despite Abiola reneging on the deal and nominating runner-up Babagana Kingibe instead, Atiku’s loyalty cemented Atiku’s status as heir to Yar’Adua’s PDM. Atiku would also follow in his mentor’s footsteps by becoming Obasanjo’s deputy when Obasanjo was elected president in 1999 on the platform of PDP. Yet, as the 2023 election draws closer, and despite the young prodigy having morphed into a shrewd veteran, Atiku’s dream of becoming president still remains unrealized...
Comments
Sign in to comment.