Bode George’s daylight hallucination And Atiku’s rising political influence
By Umar Bello Jada.
The rising political influence of former vice president of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar is not in doubt because his pedigree as a a stout defender of our nascent democracy is neither in doubt nor can be challenged even by his worst adversaries.
Enemies of democracy from all shades and hues are finding it difficult to stomach Atiku’s grandeur poise, exceptional leadership, courage and the deportment to remain on the side of democracy at a time when such posture is dangerous. Since they could not deter him from achieving his altruistic goals of ensuring an egalitarian system, they were left with the only option of serving the populace with the poisoned chalice of blackmail thinking that is the only way to kill his gangling spirit and soaring popularity.
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In our contemporary democratic annals, Atiku’s credentials stand out amongst peers. Since his sojourn into politics, Atiku has fiercely defended democracy even at the risk of losing his life. In his resolve to ensure the entrenchment of rule of law, Atiku has valiantly fought savage and vicious wars which serve as his defining political antecedents till today. The fact that he remained till this day a dogged fighter and champion of democracy makes his enemies even more prolific and determined in their pull him down syndrome.
Recently, he has became one of the most trenchant defenders of the rule of law by waging a phenomenal war against the misgovernance that the APC under the leadership of president Bola Ahmed Tinubu represent. He has without doubt become an indomitable face of democracy, the enviable force of opposition and the most potent redoubt of democracy in Nigeria especially in view of the crass failure of the national assembly which glaringly became an appendage of the executive arm of government to checkmate the excesses of the Tinubu led federal government.
It is expected that such valiant stance will fetch him enemies from expected and unexpected quarters. It is in this context that the recent blackmail by Bode George should be situated.
In his avowed determination to cast a slur on the gangling personality of the former vice president, Bode George resorted to the puerile denouement of using age as a blackmail tool in order to soil Atiku’s phenomenal popularity. Ordinarily such rabid tantrums should have been ignored especially considering the personality making them.
In his outbursts, Bode George made some unintelligible allusions which defied logic and only seem to sprout from the depth of his hallucinating realm. Such include asking Atiku to shelve his presidential ambition on the alter of his age, citing Joe Biden as a case study; making a case for a southern presidency and asking Atiku to wait till (sic) 2031….. bla, bla bla.
George who should be ashamed of his past, has lost all moral grounds to be the leading light to counsel the former vice president on ethics, principles and moral precepts.
He should remember that once upon a time he came under the kleigh light of public scrutiny as the helmsman of NPA and his hands were deeply caught in the cookie jar, his books when he served as a military governor were not also clean. For his surfeit financial atrocities, he was reprimanded and jailed.
Equally his clamour for a youthful presidential candidate lies flat on its face because if young age is the major precursor for good conduct, George will not have been indicted in sleaze because he served as a military governor and NPA at a relatively young age.
People like Betta Edu and her predecessor Sadiya wouldn’t have been in a financial mess if Bode George’s theory was not another product from the beer parlour.
On the other hand, Atiku Abubakar was the most investigated public servant in Nigeria’s history yet he was not found with an ounce of financial liability.
Similarly, Bode George’s argument on Joe Biden was another cooked up lie to prevent Atiku from taking another shot at the presidency. All discerning and well informed followers of events at global stage were aware of how Biden stoutly refused to bow out after his crassly poor outing during his debate with Donald Trump. It took the intervention of notable party stalwarts including former president Barrack Obama who openly rejected the candidature of Joe Biden for him to jettison his ambition. So in a nutshell Biden was forced out of the race unlike what our George wants us to believe.
The call of Bode George on PDP to field a southerner as a matter of principle also rings hollow. PDP as a party that wants to win election cannot be in anyway bounded by the principle of rotation but by the euphoria of producing a candidate who has the acceptability, mental and educational profundity to rule the country to the promised land. Atiku more than anyone possesses these attributes.
In fact, going by the constitution of the PDP, George should be a personal non-grata for supporting the presidential candidate of Labour party. A man who ditched the party at its hour of need should not have the guts to whimsically dictate how it should be run.
I believe Bode George is being propelled by enmity, envy and hatred against Atiku Abubakar to make him loss at all cost. Another reason for George’s attitude may be out of filial loyalty and support for his kinsman.
It is really intriguing that Bode George who was hitherto the sworn enemy of Tinubu has surreptitiously became his most prolific bootlicker after winning elections. George who promised to leave the country if Tinubu wins election has ostensibly became his lap dog and his ardent supporter by clandestinely proposing Tinubu’s second tenure. It does not take rocket science for one to see through the maze of distortions and half truths George is dishing to promote Tinubu’s second term of office despite his woeful outing thinking that Nigerians are fools.
It is heart wrenching and profoundly preposterous for George to call on Atiku not to contest on the basis of his age, and then in another breadth suggested that even if Atiku will contest he should wait till 2031 by the time Tinubu has served his second term.
Speaking from both sides of the mouth is not a sign of statesmanship which George elected himself as one. It is rather a sign that George has not repented from his old ways. There is no harm in George becoming an unrepentant loyalist of Tinubu because in politics interest supercedes any other consideration but in doing so, he should not abuse our sensibilities.
Jada writes from Abuja.
