By Demoshood Abiola

The increasing effort of some failed opposition presidential candidates to distract the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu from the right trajectory of governance because of their desperation for power is counterintuitive. The worst offender in this regard has been the presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar.

During his recent press conference, the former VP was quoted questioning the authenticity of president Tinubu’s certificate from the Chicago State University, while threatening to approach the supreme court. The shabby press conference was full of preposterous statement from somebody who should know better!.

In making an evaluation of the political career of Atiku Abubakar, one is tempted to rhyme his desperation for power as obsessively compulsive. This assertion is devoid of bias or subjectivity as his history of desperation, with unprecedented defection over years in his inordinate quest for power and wealth are in public domain.

In as much as approaching the supreme court in Nigeria isn’t an electoral malfeasance, but a politician that jumps ship at the event of a whirlpool like Atiku is a political jobber and opportunist without a single positive ideology that guides his movements.

It is clear that Atiku is devoid of clear-cut leadership ideology. Even as a fortune-seeking leader who pretends to have what it takes to lead Nigeria, Atiku’s reputation is marred with the retrogressive ambition of “wealth extraction” from the state rather than “wealth creation” for the state.

With the love he claimed to have for Nigerians and Nigeria’s development, If Atiku had dedicated the last 17 years since he left Aso Rock to solving the educational gap in his north-east alone, if he had brought together his fellow rich men and women, he would have made an impact that would be more than he would ever make as president.

With due respect to the political warhorse and Former Vice president of Nigeria, who is like the river passing through the forest that will certainly and detrimentally pull down trees. Any politician that aligns with Atiku will be a victim of vicious exploitation and the reality of the true nature of man, in a state of nature as postulated by the great political thinker, Thomas Hobbes.

Atiku’s pedigree in Nigeria’s political sphere reeks of an ultimate desire to grab power at- all-costs, even if it means striking an alliance with a terrorist cell.
It is apparent, Atiku Abubakar want to retrieve some critical personalised privatisation documents he forgot in Aso Rock since he left. Perhaps his flaming greed to enter Aso Rock is to retrieve his acclaimed British Cameroon birth certificate that he hid inside a wall there?

For a man with scanty education, his envy and admiration of President Tinubu’s intelligence is why he wants to desperately retrieve his 1965 grade three West African School Certificate which disappeared in Aso Rock the day he showed it to former President Obasanjo. Unlike president Bola Tinubu, whose certificates are real and intact.

I won’t be surprised if Atiku deploys the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps to find his missing certificate in Aso Rock if given the opportunity.

While I admonish him to reserve his sweat and efforts for his unborn grandchildren, i also would want Atiku to explain the findings in the report of the United States Senate Permanent Sub-Committee on Investigations which detailed a pattern of wire transfers of more than USD 40 million from offshore companies like Siemens into bank accounts controlled by him and one of his wives.

“The report detailing the US Senate findings is online, as one of four case histories of foreign corruption in the USA. Atiku Abubakar should tell a better tale of why he visited the US as a baggage of the then Senate President Bukola Saraki which won him the name “Àdìmẹ́rù”.

“Someone as obsessed with Nigeria’s presidency as Atiku, should clear up matters of corruption against him conclusively while refraining from shamelessly distracting a democratically elected President Tinubu, from performing his Duties of breaking the shackles of poverty in our country.

Pa Atiku Abubakar should focus on training the PDP youths on how to become a Kakistocratic prostitute in the political realm, an art he’s destined for while he desists from pure envy of President Tinubu’s uncommon governance skills.

| Abiola is a political commentator