When serving governors elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), met in Ibadan, Oyo State capital, some days ago, and declared that the erstwhile behemoth would not join her immediate past presidential candidate, Atiku Abubabkar, on his journey to the wonderland, by way of merger or coalition with lesser parties, Atiku’s train allegory, in reply, caught my attention. I recalled with nostalgia, the story of my town’s man, one Uncle Felix, who used to wow our kinsmen, about his contribution to the running of train, in Enugu.
Atiku had written on his X (twitter), “Indeed, the coalition train has left the station and would have multiple stops to bring on board Nigerians of all shades.” The former vice president was reacting to the communique by the chairman of the PDP Governors Forum and governor of Bauchi State, Bala Mohammed, who said: “Noting the nationwide speculations about possible merger of political parties, groups and/or association, the forum resolved that the PDP will not join any coalition or merger.”
Not easily given to surrender, even when the stakes are stacked against him, Atiku bayed that his pet project is a Nigerian project and will go ahead with or without the governors. Like my kinsman Felix, driving the train on community work days, was always the reason he never participated in community service. In those days, maintaining the roads, drainages and bridges were done by direct labour, and every able bodied man living in the village, and the nearby Enugu town, must return for the manual labour.
My Amofia village men, usually hold their meeting on uka orie. At such meetings, the days for the community work will be agreed and every member that fall within the workgroup assigned to execute the project, would be expected to return on the Friday, preceding the Saturday, earmarked for the community service. The willy Felix, who was a mere fireman or stoker, would not return, and when the men meet subsequently at the village hall, he would say that he couldn’t return, because he was assigned to drive the train during that weekend.
A few, who knew that Felix was lying himself out of the hard work of community service would keep their peace while the ignorant majority elevated him to a bogeyman for lesser mortals. He was respected and feared, and while growing up, he became a sort of legend for the movement of trains. So, when Atiku threatened that his train had left the station with or without the governors of his party, I saw a Felix, lying himself out of the difficult task of building a coalition.
I asked myself, whether, like my relation Felix, Atiku had been overrated as a political titan? Looking back at his trajectory in political contestation, Atiku has never been the driver of any political movement that succeeded. During his years in PDM, Atiku was under the apron of late Shehu Yar’Adua, the driver. He was merely a fireman, whom circumstance nearly elevated to a driver, when Ibrahim Babangida banned the driver of the movement, Yar’Adua.
And even when Chief Moshood Abiola became the presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), in 1993, he was overlooked for Babagana Kingibe. Again, in the 1999 general elections, Atiku had contested and won the governorship of Adamawa State before Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, in honour of Yar’Adua, copulated him to the presidential ticket. Instead of rising to become the driver of the movement, he got himself entangled with Obasanjo, who literally threw him under the train.
Ever since the debacle of a tainted public servant as portrayed by Obasanjo in his book, Atiku, has failed in every presidential race he participated in. Under the banner of the Action Congress (AC), he was a fireman, while Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu was the driver. When he returned to the PDP, he couldn’t hold his own and was lured back to All Progressive Congress (APC), where he was given a bloody nose in the party primary by former President Muhammadu Buhari.
Seeing that the road was closed for him in APC, he returned to the PDP and despite gaining control of the steering, he could not drive the train to the destination in 2023, as some of his firemen refused to shovel in coal, to fire the engine. Five of the governors led by Nyesom Wike, then of Rivers State, were stoking the fire with wet wood. The smoky train didn’t get to the finishing line, until the incumbent President Tinubu, took the diadem.
Instead of going into a dignified retirement, Atiku is steering his community that he has learnt new tricks that would enable him win the next presidential race. But even before the contest is declared, those who should be his firemen are saying that he has no capacity to mount the wagon again. While he is talking about a coalition with other parties, to gain the strength to contend with Tinubu, the entire governors of his party – the PDP, 11 of them, have said that they will not surrender their train to a man with dimmed eyesight.
They must have asked themselves, if Atiku could not defeat Tinubu, when both of them contested as outsiders, how can he do so, when Tinubu has the benefits of incumbency? To further compound Atiku’s challenges, some of his important firemen have carried their coal to his opponent. While the governor of Akwa Ibom, Umo Eno, has publicly declared that he would support President Tinubu in the 2027 presidential election, the governor of Delta State, Sheriff Oborevwori, also of PDP, has decamped with all elected political office holders, all appointed and all elected party officials, to the APC.
Even more worrisome for Atiku and his sidekick, the former governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El Rufai, members of the SDP, which has been advertised as a backup wagon for Atiku, to ride to victory, should PDP train leave without him, have ominously warned that their coach is not available to be hijacked, by angry men for dastardly acts. According to the Forum of Social Democratic Party chairmen, those coming to their party must not seek to hijack the party or attempt to change its leadership. A political pundit has even claimed that Tinubu owns the new coach, Atiku wants to drive.
Clearly, the past few weeks have caused seismic tremor on the rail track of the coalition train which the loquacious El Rufai, has boasted would outrun President Tinubu’s train in the 2027 presidential election. This column doubts whether Atiku and Nasir El-Rufai have the skill to cobble a coalition with the discordant tunes emanating from their conclave. The way things are looking up, any contraption which Atiku puts on the track will likely derail. So far, President Tinubu’s political train is sturdier that that of Atiku.
Credit:The Nation