Atiku’s Political Archilles Heel – by Frank Ofili

Whatever political capital Atiku intended to garnar by dropping the lie that he and PDP were in talks with #ObiDatti and Labour Party for a possible political merger/alliance has come unstuck.

I did mention ealier that Peter Obi no longer has choice, or even control, over his political future or political choices. He must now go the whole hug, having crossed the Rubicon and gone beyond the point of no return.

So whatever Atiku thought he was going to gain by flying that false kite, he had better forget it. It is not going to happen.

But then, a leopard can never shed its dark spots. As MC Oluomo did say recently, “a betayal is always a betayal” so also a liar will always be a liar. I have never known Atiku to tell the truth, or even be honest for once, in matters political, except where it advances his selfish interests. President Obasanjo, Atiku’s former boss, puts it trenchantly in his book “My Watch”.

But that lie at being in talks with Obi camp, if any thing, may be a sign of panick and desperation in the camp of PDP. If I am running for President of a critical country like Nigeria, I would be circumspect to say, in public, something that neither happened nor is happening unless of course it was mistakenly forced out by circumstance.

The Atiku team has a cause to worry. His running mate, Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa is presently seen as the political Akintola of the South having gone against the spirit and letter of Southern Governors Asaba Declaration. That Declaration made it clear that after Buhari, a northerner, it was the turn of the south to produce his successor. The Declaration urged southern governors to work for the eventuation of that proposition. Okowa hosted the meeting that hammered out that Declaration, yet he did not only make an about turn, but also did not think twice before tearing it apart and pitching his tent with Atiku – a northerner – something that contributed to Nyesom Wike’s current political umbrage against the PDP.

But if Okowa’s summersault is considered a betrayal, Atiku’s ambition to succeed Buhari is unacceptable. Atiku is a northerner and a Muslim. Ditto incumbent President Buhari. The prospect of a northern Muslim succeeding another northern Muslim runs counter to the spirit of power sharing agreement that has been unconsciously entered into in the country, and expressed in the Constitutions of almost all the various political parties in the land. There are two sides to the understanding – North/South and Muslim/Christian. Bola Tinubu of the APC also runs against this understanding at a lesser level, but that is matter for another day.

It is on the basis of the foregoing, then, that the current crisis rocking the PDP can be properly situated. Whether Atiku admits it or not, the position of the G-5 governors led by Wike is cause for concern, and it is why he is clawing at straws and insinuating lies like the one he made about a possible alliance with #ObiDatti.