Opinion: Let us ask Atiku why was zoning necessary in 2011, 2015 and not 2023

The Nigerian politician never ceases to amuse me, somehow like that part of scripture in Lamentations 3:23, like the mercies of the Great Architect, there are new amusements by Nigerian politicians on a per-second basis, little wonder why the Nigerian nation despite its numerous challenges seems to have Nigerians smiling amidst the suffering, perhaps it is one of the very many reasons that we were sometimes adjudged to be the happiest of people on planet earth.

The Nigerian politician I had written sometime earlier had mastered the art of saying two things at the same time or saying one thing today and another different thing entirely at the very next opportunity availed him. He has mastered the art of appropriating the very words ‘Is’ and ‘Was’ to suit his political posturing, and so today a Fani Kayode can dismiss Buhari as worse than Kim IL-Sung, Kim Jong-Il and Kim Jong-Un and tomorrow address him as Africa’s most respected president with the same mouth. The Nigerian politician also has a toxic attribute and that is he or she must believe that Nigerians have or suffer from some kind of amnesia or dementia, they must believe again like that scripture in the Holy Book, the Bible, that “Old Comments, Posturing and convictions are passed away”  he stands by the new convictions, every other conviction is old news, his new or latest stance is the gospel for now!

Therefore to say that I am amused by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s latest stance on zoning is to state the obvious. This is a man who has seen and done it all in Nigeria’s politics, with his emergence in politics dating back to the early 90’s where as a protégé of Umaru Shehu Yar-Adua Atiku began his political journey eventually contesting for the highest office in the land for a record  five times.

Now, amidst the buzz, cacophony and drama that has been witnessed owing to the clamor that President Muhammadu Buhari’s successor must come from Southern Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar is surprisingly living in denial and has embarked on revisionism of his earlier stance. Hear Atiku:

“Where the president comes from has never been the problem of Nigeria neither will it be the solution. There is no such thing as the president from Southern Nigeria or president from Northern Nigeria. There is only one president from Nigeria, by Nigeria and for Nigeria.”

While I agree that Atiku despite his numerous encumbrances is entitled to seek any office in the land as a citizen of Nigeria, I must state that his desperation to be president is nauseating and takes away whatever lustre his political career once possessed.

Atiku had consistently at that period, insisted that following the demise of President Umaru Yar Adua in office, it was the turn of the North to produce the nation’s president for the next four years, how he now attempts to  reconcile both diverse stances of the past and the present smacks of hypocrisy or what the Yoruba’s call Agabagebe!

To Atiku’s chagrin, why should the PDP zone its ticket to the South, when his almighty ambition to be President is still alive. Readers must however note that while Atiku was quite vociferous in his 2011 bluster on zoning, he has this time rather hemmed and hawed.

Let us ask Atiku, why was zoning necessary in 2011 and even 2015, to the extent that he even moved to the All Progressives Congress, APC to seek his luck there but not necessary now in 2023? Why is Atiku Abubakar seeking to circumvent the same zoning arrangement he had championed even after having eight years of President Muhammadu Buhari even though Buhari is from the APC?

Given the circumstances that continue to stare Nigerians and her future in the face, particularly the challenges that have arisen and continue to threaten the nation’s stability and security is it out of place for the likes of Atiku to respect the pluralist nature of Nigeria and respect the zoning arrangement?

Is the same situation ascribed by Atiku as a reason for zoning the Presidency in 1999 to the SouthWest not the same situation playing out in Nigeria today? Is Atiku’s presidential ambition bigger than the unity of this great country? Now if Atiku as a patriot that he claims to saw reason to support a president of SouthWest extraction what stops him now from etching his name as a statesman and supporting a candidate from the SouthEast, a zone that has never produced a president and could surely use such to heal the wounds of the past and stop the appeal of separatism that is growing in the region.

For Justice and fairness and to enhance a sense of belonging in this frail nation, Atiku should stop this Agabagebe dance and allow for zoning, it is in the interest of this country