Alkasim Shehu
Indeed the race to the 2023 general election, especially that of who will succeed President Muhammadu Buhari is getting interesting day by day. With aspirants from All Progressives Congress (APC) that include former Lagos state governor Bola Ahmed Tinibu, serving vice President Yemi Osinbajo , Senate President Ahmed Lawal, former Rivers state governor Ameachi and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Atiku Abubakar among others all vying to succeed Buhari in the upcoming 2023 elections.
It is vividly clear that an average right thinking Nigerian citizen can easily identify the difference between all contenders. It is also clear that the whole issue is between reality and elusion. People have witnessed almost the eight years of APC’s rule and they are in a better position to make an assessment of living under the APC led governance.
Unlike Atiku Abubakar who served from 1999 to 2007 as a vice president to Obasanjo, many of the aspirants of the APC are either serving or have just concluded serving in the nation’s current administration. The questions everyone is asking is that what have they done wrong that they now wanted to correct? What have they done right that they wanted to continue doing?
I guess the answer lies in the mind of every well-meaning Nigeria who will decide to choose between reality and illusion.
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It is real that Atiku Abubakar has been behind a lot of various national development policies that Nigerians were still benefiting from, it is also real that Atiku’s commitment to inclusive governance to take Nigeria to the promised land. Indeed it is real that the good people of Nigeria irrespective of either religious or ethnic affiliation have confidence in his capabilities and abilities to lead in accordance with the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria.
However, it is apparent that the APC led government has failed to meet the needs and aspirations as well as expectations of Nigerian citizens, thus the hope for development and progress has been dashed woefully, to the extent that it makes people to hope for the return of yester years .
Nigerians wouldn’t want a regional champion who couldn’t see politics from a national stand point, that era has passed. Nigerians are more politically conscious than ever .
Nigeria and Nigerians of today need someone who has developed a workable solution to its problems, an individual with the needed experience, someone who has never left his people with or without politics, a man whose commitment to national development knew no boundary, a man like Atiku Abubakar.
Contenders like Professor Osinbajo, Rotimi Amaechi, Ahmed Lawal and others have been on the mantle of leadership when Nigeria and Nigerians were plunged into a live of misery, a life of fear of the unexpected and a life of unjustifiable killings. They could have done something to either stop the trend or avert it completely and yet they haven’t done that, only for them to venture into the race, this is an illusion.
Nigerians are wiser than ever, they stand not to be deceived again as they now believe in reality and lost hope in the empty façade of failed promises. Who do you think will go for someone who openly stated that he will continue from where President Muhammadu Buhari had stopped?
In conclusion, Nigerians have located a genuine progressive leader and well respected statesman, a bundle of gentleman in the person of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar : a well known detribalized national icon, articulate, open -minded and focused politician who believes in the civilized political freedom for all as against the so-called progressive who woefully failed the political process of Nigerian.
No doubt 2023 is going to be a battle between reality and illusion, a battle between those who have done it before and those who claimed to have done it.
Alkasim Shehu Liti wrote from Kano
alkasimshehu2@gmail.com
