EXCLUSIVE: ATIKU ABUBAKAR: THE TRUTH NIGERIANS MUST KNOW

 Abuja, Nigeria - November 10, 2025

Nigeria, Africa's most populous country has continued to face daunting challenges of insecurity, ethno-religious crises, and lots more due largely to the failure of government to tackle the country's problems headlong as done by other countries of the world, leaving citizens crestfallen, disconsolate and lacking the patriotic zeal to contribute their quota to help put the country on the path of progress.  

The citizens wake up every day to one failed policy or the other, unleashing hardship upon hardship upon them without corresponding safety nets to cushion the effects of such policies. This has resulted in a massive exodus of citizens to other countries where leaders think with their heads instead of their feet.  Isn't it surprising that a country with over two hundred million people has continued to grow south in every aspect of life? 

The answer is very simple: we have failed to select leaders based on their capabilities and who have the patriotic zeal and innate abilities to berth the country's ship of statecraft safely ashore simply because of unbridled hatred, orchestrated by unsubstantiated falsehoods levelled against them, one of whom is former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar.

As one who has studied the country's evolution from her formative years till date, I can speak without the fear of equivocation that Nigeria has continued to fail as a nation, not because it lacks men and women who can successfully pilot her affairs, but because we have not given opportunities to those genuinely interested in governing this country to do so. 

Evidence abounds where persons were forcefully given the mantle of leadership either as political patronage or compensation. To date, their failure still stares us in the face because we continue to chase shadows while failing to address the factors responsible for our sluggish growth.

There are arguments that the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar is being denied the opportunity to become president because he allegedly sold the nation's assets such as the Aluminum Smelter Company of Nigeria, ALSCON, in Ikot Abasi, Ajaokuta Steel Rolling Mill, among others during his time as Vice President. But you and I know that a vice president is merely one who assists the president in the discharge of his duties and not the de-facto leader whose seal of authority turns every decision into law.

Given that Atiku Abubakar was Chairman of the National Economic Council and Head of the National Council on Privatisation, just like other vice presidents, namely H.E Osibanjo, H.E Namadi Sambo and H.E Kashim Shettima, an agency saddled with the responsibility of selling poorly managed public enterprises, it should be understood that he worked along with others who gave inputs which were finally submitted to the president for his assent. 

Let me place on record too that if anyone was to be held liable or accountable, it should be the President, and not Atiku Abubakar, who only played an advisory role, as it was the prerogative of the President to deny assent to advise to sell those assets if, in his opinion, he considered them not in the country's interest.

But what do we have? - a president walking in freedom, while the one who merely played an advisory role is being tagged "the villain" and shunned as one with leprosy. This is fatally wrong and will continue to have catastrophic consequences, as long as this injustice remains uncorrected. Unless the nation rectifies this, it will continue to languish in indignity rather than emerge from the abyss as a backwater entity.

His sin is that he stood out as the lone vowill continue to have catastrophic consequences, as long as this injustice remains uncorrected. Unless the nation corrects this injustice, it will continue to wallow in indignity rather than break free against his principal's third term bid, vehemently

rejecting all entreaties from the top echelon of government to back the move, citing the constitution, which forbade such. Shouldn't that sort of man be celebrated rather than vilified?

With the clock ticking so fast, Nigerians have this golden opportunity to make things right by giving this man of excellent spirit, a born philanthropist, an astute stateman,  and an acclaimed business mogul, the nod to pilot the affairs of this country and watch how the country dances back to prominence and takes its rightful place in the comity of nations.

Let's join hands and make Nigeria great again!

Chief Anthony Onwuka Ph.D 

Writes from Abuja

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