It is common knowledge that, through our national history, some elements of the military disrupted and undermined Nigeria’s march to democracy and national progress and, even today, the Generals have continued dominate the political scene and suppress true civilian politicians.
Recall the incursion of the military into politics through the coup of Col Nzeagwu in 1966 by which our founding fathers and true nation builders like Ahmadu Bello and Tafawa Balewa were murdered on the false accusation of corruption, and how that led us into civil war and divided the nation along regional and religious lines, the ugly effect of which we still suffer today.
After that experience, Obasanjo handed over government in 1979 but, unknown to us, some military officers, have tasted power and political authority as Heads of State, Governors and Ministers, were not ready to let go. This resulted in General Muhammadu Buhari’s coup of 1983 in which he sacked the government of Shehu Shagari.
Through propaganda in which the military intelligence men are better trained and like the coupists of 1966, Buhari also smeared all the civilian politicians with accusations of corruption and, denying them true legal defence according to the rule of law, he tyrannically banged them all in jail to allow him a free reign. His rule, despite his braggadocio, was terribly awful and the country went down economically, to the extent that we were queueing up in government offices to buy bread, milk, oil etc etc.
Babangida used same accusation of corruption to oust Buhari and then started us on a fruitless journey to democracy and among the leading political figures fighting him them to conclude the democratic transition and hand over power was Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. Knowing the influence of the military, he sensibly joined up with Shehu Yaradua as Vice Chairman of the leading political movement called Peoples Front to fight for return of civilian rule.
Besides banning and unbanning the politicians as old and new breeds and disallowing free association for the formation of political parties, Babangida did not allow free political association for the formation of political parties, so the People’s Front was not registered. He decreed two political parties, the SDP and the NRC into which all politicians must go in.
Atiku’s Peoples Front formed the nexus of the SDP under which Abiola contested the 1993 election. At the preceding primaries in Jos, MKO Abiola tied with Atiku and Babagana Kingibe. To break the tie in the second round with a view to ensuring that the primaries did not end in such a confusion that would provide excuses for Babangida’s military regime to cancel the process, Atiku stepped down for MKO Abiola to pick the presidential ticket of the SDP against Kingibe. There was however an understanding that MKO will make Atiku his running mate.
Atiku suffered the first betrayal when MKO opted to pick Kingibe against the understanding by which he stepped down for him at the primaries. MKO’s action so angered Shehu Yaradua, leader of the People’s Front, that he decided to withdraw his support from MKO for the election proper but Atiku, as as a party faithful, pleaded against that.
Knowing the relationship between Obasanjo as former Head of State and Yaradua as his Chief of Staff, Atiku forgave MKO’s betrayal and drove to Otta to solicit Obasanjo to prevail on Yaradua not to withdraw the support of the Peoples Front from MKO. Yaradua agreed and that was how Abiola won the election.
Eventually, IBB annulled the election and stepped aside for General Abacha to take over. Interestingly, Kingibe would surrender his joint mandate with MKO to take the position of minister of foreign Affairs under Abacha, something Atiku would never have done.
Abacha’s regime was heavily criticised nationally and internationally for usurping the democratic process. While the NADECO group led by General Akinrinade and Bola Tinubu, seeing the relentless killings by Abacha, ran out of the country to fight the cause of June 12, Yaradua, Obasanjo and Atiku mounted heavy pressure on Abacha to hand over. To counterbalance them and elicit the endorsement of a top ranking military figure to stabilise his government, Abacha brought in Buhari to head the lucrative Petroleum Trust Fund, a lure that Buhari accepted and went on to give support to Abacha’s move against the democratic transition.
When the pressure became unbearable for Abacha, he framed up OBJ and Yaradua for a phantom coup. First, he arrested Yaradua. When Atiku got wind of the plan to arrest Obasanjo, he drove to Otta to alert him. He was still in Otta when the security people arrived to pick up Obasanjo and it is recorded that he had a serious brush with them, trying to prevent the arrest of OBJ.
It is generally suspected that Yaradua was poisoned to death in prison and Atiku believed that OBJ could also be similarly poisoned. To avert this, Atiku used his contact to solicit the transfer of OBJ from Kirikiri Prisons to Yola Prisons. While Abacha felt that distance would make the prison experience difficult for OBJ, it actually provided Atiku the opportunity to use his home people to safeguard OBJ. When Abacha realised Atiku’s trick, he went after Atiku and he also had to run to the United States to avoid being a victim of the serial murders. As providence would have it, Abacha died.
General Abdulsalami brought back the transition to democratic rule when he took over in 1998, allowing the free formation of political parties. The Peoples Front provided one of the major pillars on which the PDP was formed and with the murder of Yaradua, the leadership fell on Atiku being the then Vice Chairman.
It was through this platform and the mobilization by Atiku, his colleagues in the Peoples Front and other founding groups that OBJ contested and won the 1999 elections even when he was not voted by his home South West states.
It is noteworthy that while Atiku provided the strongest political platform for OBJ who had just come out of detention then, he also agreed with the mood of the nation at that point for the presidential slot to be reserved for the South Westerners, to make up for IBB’s annulment of MKO’s mandate and Abacha’s usurpation of the presidency which were seen in the South as a regional denial.
With Atiku’s control of the major political group of the PDP, the PF and the PDM, he was the popular choice and could have won the 1999 PDP primaries, but he chose to surrender his ambition and opportunity for the cause of the national healing.
It was perhaps for that reason that OBJ picked him as running mate and to also coordinate the politics of the government after Atiku had won the Governorship election of Adamawa State.
Ahead of the subsequent 2003 elections, the civilian politicians in the PDP had opted for Atiku, to get away from the military guys, but OBJ wanted a second term for which Atiku again showed understanding.
Curiously, towards the conclusion of his second term, OBJ wanted a third term and made moves to amend the constitution to achieve that, but even as his subordinate, Atiku rose up strongly against him to defend the constitution and our democracy by mobilizing and giving support to the National Assembly to vote out the amendment that would have provided OBJ the room for a third term which would have forever jaundiced the democracy which we celebrate today.
That has been Atiku’s major crime for which OBJ deployed all the propaganda tactics from his military intelligence to smear him with a view to ensuring that Atiku remains discredited as corrupt and unable to achieve the prospect of becoming president after him. Till date, while the public perception persists, there is no subsisting legal substance that convicts Atiku anywhere, neither at the EFCC nor at the ICPC, not at the Code of Conduct Bureau nor at any court of competent jurisdiction anywhere in the land.
While the OBJ government framed up false corruption charges against him ahead of the 2007 elections, Atiku dutifully approached the courts and discharged all of them even when OBJ being in power tried so much to twist the arms of the judiciary to secure conviction against him.
With his control of the leadership, OBJ frustrated him out of the party just as he deregistered other members who did not support his 3rd term agenda. Atiku went to the ACN while the likes of Orji Uzor Kalu went to form the PPA. Others like House of Reps Speakers Bello Masari, Ghali Na’Abba, Senate President Nnamani etc also left the party.
Even while contesting under the ACN, OBJ so manipulated the 2007 process, using the EFCC and INEC, to ensure that Atiku’s name was not on the allot paper, until the Supreme Court ruled against INEC which to order the inclusion of his name a couple of days to the election.
In the 2011 election, OBJ also came out ferociously against Atiku in preference of Jonathan to ensure that he did not attain leadership position and to safeguard himself. We have also seen how OBJ ended up with Jonathan.
The point to note is that Atiku has fought fiercely, sacrificed hugely, greatly suffered false malignity and character assassination in the process of defending and upholding our democracy against the military tyrants and betrayers who today still want to control our politics.
It has come to a point where all true civilian politicians should rally round him as a frontline figure in the cause of achieving true democratic governance, untainted by the influence of power mongering Generals.
It is common, undeniable knowledge that with OBJ and PMB who have dominated our politics, it has been all about power without sincere commitment to true nation building. This we must urgently unite to get away from.
