How ‘Atiku effect’ awakened Buhari

By Nwobodo Chidiebere

In 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari rode to power on populist appeal, using “change’’ as his slogan. For almost three years that it has been in power, the current administration has foot-dragged and reneged on its campaign promises at the detriment of the impoverished masses, whose hope of getting responsible and responsive governance was dashed again.

We have had a President Buhari who was highly expected to hit the ground running at the assumption of office, but the reverse was the case.

Rather, he became seemingly unaware of happenings in his government, lost momentum and was virtually sleeping on his job (apology to Oliseh Agbakoba, (SAN) ) until there was a “political-quake” in the polity. The “political-quake” caused what psychologists refer to as a shock-effect in the presidency. Shock-effect can be related to a scenario where someone in a deep sleep was awakened by throwing a bucket full of cold water on his body.

Permit me to paraphrase the shock-effect in this case as Atiku-effect. Ever since former Vice President Atiku Abubakar resigned from the APC and subsequently re-joined the PDP, Nigerians have witnessed a conspicuous change of attitude in the body language of President Buhari.

We have seen a president that was literally awakened from his slumber; a president that suddenly remembered that a general election is around the corner; a president that impulsively set up a committee on minimum wage; a commander-in-chief that impetuously realized that the barbaric activities of herdsmen should be brought to an end via consultations with first class traditional rulers and community leaders; a president that imprudently got to the understanding that Ahmed Bola Tinubu had to be given back his position as “National Leader” of the APC. All these makeup were in a bid to control the damage of the Atiku-effect.

The hitherto rejected stone—Ahmed Bola Tinubu – became the beautiful “bride” again. President Buhari started getting “useful piece of information” from the Jagaban, who was suddenly invited to accompany the president on his official trip to Ivory Coast; first ever since the inception of this government. The infamous cabal that was alleged to be putting a stumbling block on the way of South-West’s strongman became browbeaten and unexpectedly lost grip of President Buhari.

Alhaji Bola Tinubu regained his rightful place in the inner chambers of Mr President’s heart; to the extent that the much-publicized anti-graft war was sacrificed on the altar of politics, when Director-General of Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), Munir Gwarzo, was allegedly axed to save Oando from probe, just to redeem the lost confidence from the Tinubus—all thanks to the fear of the consequences of Atiku’s defection, which has been chronicled by this writer as “Atiku-effect”.

#EndSARS movement—a campaign meant to curtail excesses of SARS raged like wildfire on social media with its corresponding street protests, without commensurate response from the Federal Government until Atiku Abubakar made a passing comment on his Facebook and Twitter pages, urging the government to listen to the cries of Nigerians as regards the inhuman brutalisation of Nigerians by SARS officials. To the utter chagrin of Nigerians, in less than twenty four hours after Atiku’s statement, President Buhari via Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, ordered the reorganization of SARS. Why did the president wait for Atiku to add his voice to the #EndSARS campaign before acting on it? It is called Atiku-effect!

It is a verifiable fact that one of the cardinal campaign promises of President Buhari and APC was job creation. Ironically, in less than three years of this government, the Nigerian economy lost over three million jobs to economic naivety of the administration. No policy direction on job creation—except N-Power, which is another NYSC in disguise.

Few days after a vintage Atiku took the government to the cleaners on the job losses suffered by Nigerians under this government, the Federal Government began holding seminars on job creation. Subsequently, Civil Service Commission announced recruitment into some federal government MDAs. It is called Atiku-effect!

For weeks now, Nigerians have been groaning under the excruciating pain of acute fuel scarcity. When the queues started building up at filling stations across the country, Federal Government told Nigerians that the scarcity wouldn’t last more than forty eight hours. It is called Atiku-effect—the fear of a formidable opposition. As the frenzy of 2019 election gets stronger, the fear of Atiku is subtly becoming the new policy direction of Buhari’s government; kudos to Atiku-effect which has arguably awakened our president into action.

If you want anything done in this government, just get Atiku to make a statement on it—it will be done without hesitation.

Atiku Abubakar is yet to officially declare his intention to run for president come 2019, let alone getting the ticket of the reinvigorated PDP, but President Buhari’s handlers have beamed their searchlight on him, as if he is already a candidate.

Media hirelings working for this government have opened the floodgate of vituperations against a man they said is “unsellable” and “unelectable.” While he was perfecting plans to exit the APC, a company linked to him—Intels – came under the sledgehammer of the government.

Its contract with Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) was terminated and residency permits of its expatriate workers revoked, all in a bid to frighten Atiku out of the impending presidential contest. But he did not kowtow. When the Atiku-effect began taking its toll on the political hemisphere, the Federal Government made a U-turn and returned to status quo. The political chess game is getting interesting.

As the tenure of current service chiefs is getting to an end, there was a pro-presidency report discreetly leaked to the media that President Buhari’s next appointments for service chiefs would reflect the geographical spread of the six zones. The report connoted that the current composition of service chiefs is lopsided in favour of a certain region, at the disadvantage of South-east zone.

Why now? When did President Buhari suddenly realize that his appointments so far, do not reflect the heterogeneous nature of Nigeria? The shock-effect that resulted from Atiku’s defection gave him that “new” revelation.

In weeks to come, Nigerians will witness pro-Southern cum South-East appointments from Aso Rock Villa that are intended to cushion the Atiku-effect. But Nigerians are not fools. We can differentiate political gimmicks from nationalism.

Chidiebere writes from Abuja.

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