NEWS ANALYSIS: Atiku Abubakar’s reckless interview on Arise TV — by Bamidele Johnson
Just finished watching the Atiku interview and anyone still seized by the idea that he will step down for any other ADC presidential aspirant might as well believe an orangutan can sit across a board and defeat a chess grandmaster. That is the level of fantasy we are dealing with.
The man was forthright, but also reckless in that absent-minded way of a politician who thinks bluntness is wisdom. In one breath, he dismissed Goodluck Jonathan as “inexperienced,” which is an interesting way to describe a man who was deputy governor, governor and vice president before becoming president. Perhaps he should have been Sultan of Sokoto, Ooni of Ife, a Chief Imam and General Overseer of a church in addition.
If Jonathan was inexperienced, then Peter Obi, Rotimi Amaechi are on SIWES. He did not stop there. He dismissed Rabiu Kwankwaso as a man whose influence begins and ends in Kano, where that influence is now held together with duct tape and nostalgia.
Then, for good measure, he crowned himself the midwife of the very idea that birthed the ADC, gently but firmly telling the public that he is the proprietor and elbowing aside the people he is supposed to be courting.
One more thing. You may think it is nothing, but it is worth noting that he sipped table water intermittently throughout the interview. Not pure water. Table water. I had assumed, from that famous campaign moment when he was photographed lustily sucking from sachet like he just discovered rehydration, that he had crossed over. Apparently not. Some habits are for the cameras. Others are for the table. Mai karya.
