The Defection Of Abba Atiku To The APC -By Hajia Hadiza Mohammed

The news of the defection of Abba Abubakar, the son of His Excellency Atiku Abubakar, the Nigerian former vice-president (1999-2007), from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling All Progressives Congress is currently trending. And as expected, different interpretations have been given to the move by Nigerians. To the APC, it is a political gain and to the opposition, it is no big deal.

And to Abba Abubakar who chose the National Assembly to make what some see as a historic and symbolic decision in the presence of the Deputy Senate President Senator Barau Jibril and some political heavy weights from the Northeast, the decision to move to the APC was personal and it based on the ideology of the party. Abba could not say it was because of the performances of the APC that inspired his defection and that is probably a subtle acknowledgement of the fact the ruling APC has failed Nigerians. But, to me the reference to ideology as a reason for the decamping sounds very funny. What is ideological in APC, a political amalgam of strange bird fellows and political buccaneers whose only interest is to grab power and hold on to it at all costs. If what I understand to be ideology is what it is, the APC has nothing in its modus operandi to connote what political ideology is. A political party which policy is economic strangulation of the people as an instrument of control cannot be said to have ideology. That is area-boy ideology!

However, the purpose of this essay is not to analyze the suitability of the claim of the so-called APC and Tinubu that he claimed motivated his move but my interest is in the principles and conduct of Atiku, the Wazirin, the father of the defecting Abba, who has rightly stated that his son’s decision was an expression of democratic freedom rather family loyalty. And I think that this is symbolic for Aiku has clearly used this singular event to demonstrate the democrat in him. In the past when I point out to my colleagues that His Excellency Atiku Abubakar, GCON is the most liberal democrat that we have in our country today, some thought I was doing eye-service. But Atiku’s conduct and utterances have continued to demonstrate that. Atiku has shown that he lives a life of principles. He has demonstrated political maturity. Charity begins at home, they say. If Atiku can allow democratic freedom in his homestead, he will do that at the national level. Nigeria urgently needs a liberal democrat, a genuine statesman and a patriot in the mold of the Wazirin Adamawa to revive our democracy and steer the ship of the nation that is sinking under the weight of the Tinubu’s incompetence. Atiku is telling Nigerians; I am a true democrat. If you desire genuine democracy vote for me, I will give it to you.

Atiku, antecedents have always exhibited his preference for principles and democracy over personal interests. For instance, in the build up to the 1993 Presidential, he stepped down for M.K.O Abiola against his wish for the interest of Democracy. But despite being betrayed by the same Abiola who reneged on the agreement to pick him as a running, he still fought on the side of Abiola during the June 12 political impasse. Again in principle, Atiku stood against the Obasanjo’s Third Term Agenda, something he would have benefitted from being Obasanjo’s running mate. Today, Atiku is championing the crusade to restructure the country to devolve more power to the regions in order to give every part of the country a sense of belonging to strengthen national unity and cohesion, something his Northern political bloc is opposed to.

Clearly, family members holding different political views or belonging to different political affiliations is neither strange nor an aberration. It is common is advanced democracies but for a country like Nigeria pretending to be practicing democracy, it might sound very strange. And that is why the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) seems to exalting over the defection of one person to its fold.

Indeed, anyone who sees the defection of Atiku’s son to the ruling party as an aberration is either not informed about Atiku’s democratic credentials and political philosophy or not in tune with what is obtainable in other political climes. In many advanced democracies there are many of instances of people in the same family belonging to different and opposing political camps. In America for the instance, one of the world’s most popular political family, the Kennedys had Robert Kennedy Jr. in a political alignment opposed to the family. The same for Donald Trump and Mary Trump his niece. And in India, the most popular political family, the Gandhis had Maneka Gandhi broke away from the main Nehru-Gandhi political family to join the BJP, placing her in direct opposition to Rajiv Gandhi in the Indian National Congress party.

And In Nigeria, this isn’t the first time such a thing has happened. A similar thing happened in 1957 when Sam Goomsu Ikoku of the then Action Group contested election against his father Dr. Alvan Azinna Ikoku, the Nigeria foremost educationist whose face is emblazoned on the Nigeria ten Naira note, of the United National Independent Party in a regional House of Assembly election and won. In 2019, Akeem Adeyemi of the APC contested against Bayo Adeyemi of the PDP, both Alafin of Oyo sons, for the House of Reps seat in Osun State. Also, the popular Adeleke family of Osun State had in the past had many of their family members in opposing political platforms. And the former Senate President, David Mark of the PDP and now ADC has had her daughter Blessing Onuh contest and won House of Representatives election under the APC.

Hajia Hadiza Mohammed 

hajiahadizamohammed@gmail.com

An actress, social activist, politician

London, UK