By Tayo Mabeweje
In the landscape of Nigerian politics, few figures have courted controversy and mistrust as consistently as Atiku Abubakar. His name has become synonymous with raw ambition, political desperation, and a relentless quest for power that has often trampled over principle, loyalty, and national interest.
For decades, Atiku has positioned himself not as a servant of the people, but as a serial contestant whose only abiding ideology is self-promotion. With every political cycle, he resurfaces—not with new ideas or a transformative vision—but with the same tired promises, the same hollow rhetoric, and the same obsessive pursuit of the presidency as if it were a personal birthright.
Atiku’s political rise was not marked by merit or grassroots service but by backdoor deals, opportunistic alliances, and strategic betrayals. He is not remembered for lifting people or building institutions—but for manipulating them for personal gain. Behind every failed alliance is a trail of broken trust and bitter fallouts, as those who once stood with him came to realize that for Atiku, loyalty is a tool, not a value.
Whispers of financial inducements, questionable deals, and political bribery have followed his career like a shadow. Where transparency is needed, Atiku brings fog. Where conviction is required, he offers convenience. Where leadership demands patience, he brings restlessness and treachery.
But perhaps most damning is his willingness to destabilize systems and relationships when his ambition is denied. Atiku does not wait; he plots. He does not learn; he manipulates. He does not build; he buys. His brand of politics is not anchored in service but in transaction—a constant calculation of what must be traded, compromised, or corrupted to inch closer to his goal.
His many attempts at the presidency are not a reflection of perseverance, but of insatiable greed for power. Nigeria is not a mission for him—it is a mission field, one where public institutions are pawns, and democracy is just a game to be rigged. His campaigns are built not on legacy, but on the erasure of memory—hoping Nigerians forget the deals, the divisions, and the disappointments.
Those who have worked closely with Atiku know the truth: he cannot be trusted. His ambition is not backed by intellect or innovation, but by an old playbook of betrayal, influence-buying, and deceit. He surrounds himself not with nation-builders, but with loyalists ready to compromise anything for power.
Atiku Abubakar is not the future of Nigeria. He is a relic of the worst parts of its past—a past of compromised values, godfather politics, and ambition without morality. His continued desperation to lead, after decades of failing to inspire genuine trust, is not only tragic—it is dangerous.
Nigeria deserves better. And it certainly deserves more than Atiku Abubakar.
*Tayo Mabeweje, Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Media
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