Atiku Abubakar is serious about running again in 2027. When he first announced that he would do so a month ago, many hoped that he was joking. Or that he would be talked out of it by members of his fallen political empire who actually care about him, not the free Dubai vacations and the huge sums of money his failed presidential bids placed in their pockets.
But none of that appears to be the case. The self-described unifier, who failed at the task of unifying his party behind him in the last election, looks set to give the presidency another shot. His seventh shot. And this time he wants to start early. Perhaps to nullify the usual charge that after every defeat, he abandons the party and the role of the opposition for a cruise in Dubai, only to return to claim its ticket at the eve of another election.
Displaying the familiar opportunism of opposition actors, he added to the ‘cacophony of postulations’ on the management of Nigeria’s economy, specifically the foreign exchange system, a few days back. He dangled his rejected ideas before Nigerians again, urging the administration to abandon its ‘hubris’ and implement his recommended ‘managed float’ system to halt the slide in the value of the naira against the dollar.
To his credit, Atiku’s statement expanded the discussion on the fiscal and monetary policies of the administration. But his motive, which simply is to prepare the ground for another run in 2027, severely undermined his postulation. As pointed out by one of the presidential media aides who rebutted Atiku’s criticism, his claim that the last week meeting between the president and the governors was called to address the foreign exchange crisis was false. The president had already made it clear that as far as the CBN goes, he will respect the agency’s independence and allow its appointed head to do his job.
Surely, Atiku knew this but understood that directing his recommendations to the CBN governor directly responsible for the management of the forex system wouldn’t yield any political benefit. So he went straight for the president, invariably calling for the return of the aberrant period when the CBN governor went to the Villa every week for policy instruction.
In a campaign, facts don’t matter much. And Atiku Abubakar is campaigning, intent on making his emergence as the candidate for the umpteenth time a fait accompli. But it is premature. Even unpatriotic, as he is betting against the country and adjusting criticism for populist appeal. The former Vice President may think he shares a destiny with Abraham Lincoln whose rise to the American presidency featured eight election defeats. But for every Lincoln, there is an Alan Keyes, who ran and ran but never won.
