By Okoi Obono-Obla
The English poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, in his poem The Masque of Pandora (1875), said: “Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad.”
This aptly fits the utter maelstrom, miasma, confusion, contradictions and controversy in which Atiku Abubakar’s presidential campaign has become embroiled and enmeshed from the very first day of its kickoff.
The confusion is hinged on three contradictory statements made by Atiku Abubakar and his two aides, who publicly fought themselves over the position of the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) on the retention of fuel subsidy or its reversal.
The former Vice President canvassed two seemingly conflicting options in separate statements by his media aides, Paul Ibe and Phrank Shaibu. Many Nigerians were taken aback as the two aides clashed over the position. In a statement by Ibe, Atiku said he would restore subsidy if elected President in 2027 and phase it out later. In another statement by Shaibu, he said there was no going back on reversing fuel subsidy removal, stressing that he would support domestic refining and production, with measurable performance-based exit conditions built in from day one.
When the campaign faced a backlash over such a faux pas, it impetuously and hurriedly tried to scramble something together to wriggle out of the cul-de-sac it had put itself into, in a thoughtless bid to use populism and sentiment to give its campaign a leap.
This is happening in the face of the equally disorderly and legal uncertainties in which its platform, the African Democratic Congress (ADC), has found itself since Atiku Abubakar and his horde of political nomads and peripatetic politicians tried to hijack it as a special-purpose vehicle to contest the 2027 general elections under the much-vaunted coalition, which has turned out to be a hoax.
In conclusion, the subsidy flip-flop has exposed a campaign driven more by desperation and opportunistic populism than by coherent policy. A candidate and his own spokesmen contradicting each other on a critical national economic issue on day one does not inspire confidence, but rather confirms a state of disarray. If the ADC coalition cannot manage its own messaging and legal identity, it can hardly be trusted to manage a complex economy like Nigeria.
