Okonta Emeka okelum
Reputed as the ultimate strategist, Atiku Abubakar developed the “consensus candidate” idea to get his Northern opponents out of the way. The next man in the firing line: President Goodluck Jonathan. Imam Imam profiles the consummate politician who can be described as a cat with nine lives
From political wilderness to the Northern candidate. That sums up the most recent political journey of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar who was yesterday named the consensus candidate of the Northern Political Leaders who are battling to wrest the presidency from President Goodluck Jonathan.
Atiku’s emergence as the preferred choice of the Adamu Ciroma-led committee underlined his shrewd mastery of the political game, considering the fact that not many gave him a chance to go this far when he left the Action Congress (AC) to return to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in April this year.
The Turaki Adamawa has over the years proven to be a survivalist, and his never-say-die attitude has defined his politicking. For one, he has had to battle for his political life since he publicly fell out with his former boss and president, Olusegun Obasanjo, when the two were still in power in 2005. Atiku’s differences with Obasanjo were practically transformed into a battle for the PDP, then led by Dr. Ahmadu Ali.
In 2007, after numerous legal challenges, he abandoned the PDP, a party he helped to establish, to contest the presidential election under the AC. He lost at the polls to eventual winner, the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua of the PDP.
His effort to return to the PDP was earlier frustrated but he manoeuvred his way back and secured a waiver to contest the presidential primaries.
Many have attributed the idea of having a consensus candidate from the North to Atiku. He went further to have the members of the committee populated by his political allies who at one time or the other faced similar fate with him in their struggles within the PDP.
Atiku has based his campaign on five key areas: employment generation and wealth creations, power generation and infrastructural development; security, good governance and war against corruption; education, health and social services; and the Niger Delta.
Born on November 25, 1946, Atiku was the vice-president of Nigeria from 1999 to 2007. He was an influential member of the PDP.
He attended Jada Primary School between 1954 and 1960. He was at the Adamawa Provicial School, Yola between 1961 and 1965 before he went for the Advance Level studies in Economics, British Economic History, Government and Hausa Language.
He was also at the School of Hygiene, Kano between 1966 and 1967 and graduated with Royal Society of Health Diplo-ma, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, 1967 and subsequently bagged a Diploma in Law in 1969.
Atiku joined the Customs and Excise Department in 1969. He served in Seme, Kano, Maiduguri, Kaduna, Ibadan and Lagos. He rose to the rank of Deputy Director of Customs. He attended courses in Leadership Management, Drug Enforce-ment and Control in Finland, Egypt and United States of America. He later went into private business after his retirement, with interests in oil services, agriculture, food and beverages, print media, insurance, pharmaceuticals, and education.
He first and most senior wife, Hajia Titi Abubakar, is an Ilesa-born Roman Catholic. They have four children and five grandchildren. Atiku has three other wives – Rukayat, the daughter of the late Lamido of Adamawa, an influential monarch whom Atiku served as a ranking nobleman of his kingdom; Fatima, a lawyer based in Lagos but from Kanuri in Borno State and the third, Jamila, formerly Jennifer Iwenjiora, an Igbo from Onitsha.
She was a television newscaster and attained her doctoral degree in the United States. In all, Atiku has 27 children. The Turakin Adamawa was, as vice-president, a power broker in the PDP and the North in general.
In the first term of the Obasanjo presidency, nobody got anything in the North without having to go through Atiku, with the exception of Mallam Adamu Ciroma and Lt.Gen T.Y Danjuma who were appointed ministers solely by Obasanjo.
However, his disagreement with his principal and his defection to AC eroded his influence in the PDP which he is now trying to rebuild.
Despite his emergence as the consensus candidate, the general opinion is that most of the power brokers in PDP, especially the governors, are not well known to him.
This is where he will face a great challenge as he prepares to face President Jonathan in the battle for the PDP presidential ticket.
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