The 2007 presidential race has begun with the clamour by some pressure and political groups with the claim of the voice of their various geopolitical zones to occupy Aso Rock, come 2007.However characters like Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (Rtd), Mohammadu Buhari (Rtd) and General Ibrahim Babangida (Rtd) have sounded the beagle for the support of all and sundry as their political machine clatters its way to Aso Rock in 2007. The present scenarios indicate the seriousness on the part of these early starters. But Nigerians should also take into cognisance the 2007 Presidential ambition of vice president Atiku Abubakar.
Nigerians in the coming months will be made to either choose between using their past to judge the present and chart their future or banishing their history into oblivion. The choice of who occupies the number one seat in 2007 among these men has become a subject of concern, given their antecedents. For many Nigerians, it is a bad omen for the likes of Buhari and Babangida as former retired Generals and Former Heads of State to be contemplating coming back into power.
As the retired Generals oil their machines for 2007, the questions that political analysts are asking, are that; will Nigerians vote in these past leaders who rode rough shod over them? Will Nigerians vote in Marwa just because of his antecedent as governor and military administrator of Borno and Lagos states? Perhaps Nigerians may prefer him because of his impact when as governor of Borno state he provided 100 communities with portable water, completed 2000km of road rehabilitation all in one year? Or perhaps he deserves a chance because of his achievements of operation 250 roads and his war against crime when he was the 11th governor of Lagos State? It is noteworthy that Marwa distinguished himself at these posts but how far can he replicate these achievements across the federation?
January 1984 to August 1985 saw the abuse of human rights. Will they vote for a man whose 20 months rule jailed over 500 politicians, officials, and businessmen as part of a campaign against waste and corruption? If not Buhari, will Nigerians vote for General Ibrahim Babangida? Will they allow themselves to be afflicted by collective amnesia and vote in IBB ‘the maradona” who ruined the economy and impoverished the people? Nigerians should remember how he institutionalized corruption in the polity and encouraged it in all its manifestations. They should also remember how his eight years-run (1983 - 1993) destroyed the civil service, created the “settlement” syndrome, politicised the armed forces through the creation of the “boys” syndrome and the annulment of the June 12 elections considered as the freest and fairest in the Nigerian history. Of course, we should not forget the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) that impoverished the citizenry and led to many crises. For many Nigerians, the return of Babangida will be the ultimate triumph of evil over good, the final nail on the June 12, 1993 elections and a death knell for any hope of reaping the harvests of the ongoing reforms of the Obasanjo Atiku administration.
For the avoidance of doubt the assessment of these men as contestants for the position of president in 2007 will form the critical aspect of choice. And if Nigerians uphold their political responsibility by being objective with the realisation that the return of these men to power will not only derail the lofty reforms of the Obasanjo Atiku administration but will rather return the polity to another round of pestilence, then Nigerians had better look for a better choice in Vice president Atiku Abubakar. Yes Atiku! Apart for his sterling qualities that stood him miles apart from the rest, there is the need for continuity if Nigerians are to reap the fruits of the ongoing reforms of this administration.
For Atiku Abubakar the road to 2007 began when he became the vice president of choice for president Obasanjo in 1999. Unlike Buhari, Babangida and Marwa, by 2007 Atiku would have garnered experience as a democratically elected vice president for eight consecutive years in office, and thus very suitable to continue with the administration’s reform programme which is hinged on the four cardinal areas of accelerated privatisation, liberalisation and private sector development; anti corruption, transparency and accountability; public sector reform as well as governance and institutional reforms.
Atiku has been in charge of all major national institutions responsible for economic policy formulation, imple-mentation and coordination under president Obasanjo, through the chairmanship of the National Economic Council, National Council on Privatization (NCP), national economic revitalisation committee and the National Planning Commission.
As the chairman National Economic Council, Atiku paved way for liberalization, created competition under an atmosphere of free enterprise thereby making it possible for investors to come to Nigeria and invest in any sector of the economy. This has been able to inject more foreign capital into key sectors of the economy.
Already, the privatisation programme under the leadership of Atiku Abubakar has earned the country a significant level of international confidence and acceptance of its efforts at reforms. Atiku’s role as the chairman National Economic Revitalization Council (NERC) saw to the establishment of the bilateral mechanism with countries who share the same views and aspirations with Nigeria. The establishment of these mechanisms, which is no doubt a great achievement, will ensure mobility of resources between member-countries that will in turn spread resource allocation in critical sectors of the economy.
With these bilateral mechanisms, Atiku has managed to put in motion, the US/Nigerian Joint Economic Partnership Committee, the Nigerian South African Binational Commission and the Nigeria/UK Forum with the focus of developing new economic policy framework and direction all which have provided an efficient vehicle for liberalizing the Nigerian economy.
Analysts have thus posited that Nigerians need to have a rethink choice. We should reject fraudsters, charlatans, and fraudulent credibility. Nigerians are witnesses to what happened to all the reforms of president Obasanjo after he handed over power as military Head of state in 1979. By 1999 all his reforms were in shambles because successive administrations thereafter did nothing to appreciate or advance the implementation of his set reforms. The economy was in ruins while government institutions like the refineries and the Nigeria airways went comatose.
Given the resilience of the Obasanjo administration in the pursuance of the implementation of the reforms, it is apparent that in no time Nigerians would soon begin to reap the fruits of these reforms and it will therefore be suicidal for someone who is not committed to these reforms and who is responsible for the misfortunes of the Nigerian economy, whether in part or directly, to succeed Obasanjo in 2007.
On his own part, history will judge Atiku if he allows the reforms of an administration of which he was an integral part to fail. It is only right that Atiku takes over in 2007 to enable the continuity of the ongoing economic agenda of this government, so that the new Nigerian Dream that the Obasanjo/Atiku administration propagates becomes a reality.
Mr. Adebayo writes from Garki, Abuja.
