The former Vice President, who lost to the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, said he would never stop fighting for democracy – win or lose.
“I went out, voted, went home and waited for my loss, as expected.
“I knew that while I was going to lose a battle, I had won the war – a war to preserve the sanctity of our democratic process,” Atiku said in a statement by his Media Adviser, Garba Shehu.
Atiku explained that after struggling for decades with other patriots to enthrone democracy and wrest power from the military, the choice to defend Nigeria’s democracy was non-negotiable for him.
He said he was faced with a choice of remaining in office as vice president for much longer or defending democracy and the Constitution.
Atiku said: “The tough, correct choice – our constitution – was the path I chose. And in doing so, I shunned an offer that could have kept me in high office for a potentially long period of time.”
The former vice president said he believed Nigerians would see his position as a battle to save the soul of the country and, therefore, judge him fairly.
But he got what he did not bargain for, he said.
Atiku added: “What I did not see coming was one of the best executed smear campaigns aimed at tarnishing everything I had legitimately worked to achieve in our struggle for democracy.
“The aggrieved power mongers threw every contrived accusation they could at me, from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) to the National Council of Privatisation (NCP) committee.
“Despite constant and total vindication at every turn by our courts, in the end, battles are won and lost in the court of public opinion. And despite zero evidence or guilt, these opponents of democracy remain unyielding in their attempts to smear my hard-earned reputation.
“It never mattered that I had a history of business successes prior to entering politics. It never mattered that from the moment I bought my mother a home as a 14-year-old boy, I was running various businesses to provide for my family.
“It never mattered that as a Customs official, I maintained one of the best ever records of returns to government and always beat my revenue targets. You do not do that by ‘taking’.
“Further, during the so-called “53 suitcases” saga in the 1980s, it was my record of service that saved my job. In the face of intimidation by a ruthless military government, I did my job without fear or favour.
“After leaving the Customs, I used my knowledge and drive to build a very successful string of business ventures.
“It never mattered that my asset declaration forms, which were filed prior to entering office, showed my successful business record of creating jobs and opportunities in Nigeria.
“What mattered was that I was wealthy. And after the smear campaign and various frivolous charges levelled at me by the aggrieved power-mongers, public opinion ruled against me.” Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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Alhaji, if truth must be told, you did yourself in by your rabid haste and unbridled ambition to become the CinC. Not a few people believe that you should have been running this country now, but you played your hand too tactlessly without regard to constituted authority, i.e. a sitting president. Perhaps you were naive. The same so-called anti-democratic force(s) sought you out from among many eligible candidates and made you one of the most powerful vice presidents in the world until you started an ill-advised adventure to not only unseat but also disgrace a former military man out of power/office, it was the most unwise political calculation and very suicidal too. The socio-political and most importantly the colossal economic costs of your political hara-kiri to our nation are still reverberating. You must be regretting your actions now, and hopefully you will one day open up and confess like you just did with this election defeat. Make no mistakes Alhaji, democracy has its variance, and the most effective system is one which guarantees a smooth succession arrangement devoid of chaos and acrimony. It is true that you fought against tenure elongation but it was clearly not for altruistic reasons. If it were, you won't be laboring here to explain so much, people would easily have seen and perhaps reward you accordingly. Many believe that you did it for survival. For the record, you are not the first to be so maligned in the Nigeria’s political space neither will you be the last, it is part of a political process to expose the would-be leader to the citizenry and let them decide one way or another based on the available information and it is also a form of character test; to subject the would-be leader to emotional, psychological, cultural, moral and spiritual scrutiny. In fact there are people whose integrity has been randomly impugn due to power-play but who later got people's endorsement because of their consistencies. Things are a little tough for you now politically but it’s no impossible to stage a come-back if you avoid some shiftiness. As un-ideological as Nigeria’s political atmosphere seems to look, people will still reward politicians who maintain their positions without wavering, as long as they are not religious or ethnic bigots. Fortunately no one can accuse you of any of those two.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I am concerned, Atiku still has one of the cleanest records, and he also has the educational,industrial,finicial,economical and pycological inteligence to rule this nation, and if he becomes the president, his name will be writen in the sands of time due to his performance. Peter ekwu
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