When it mattered most, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar kept the fire of political activism burning even when he was in government and for this reason, he became the symbol of the opposition.

However, the former vice president has found out that he is anything but a progressive and that may explain his speculated efforts to return to PDP. But this seems a tall order going by the brickbat that the party has hurled in his direction last week

Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the former vice president, was like the proverbial phoenix and from the ashes of defeat, he reinvented himself and bounced back to reckoning. Atiku, from 2004 to 2007, was the boy wonder of Nigerian politics. Wily, street wise and generous, his deep pockets oiled his political machinery and his media aides provided intellectual direction. Atiku, as vice president, became the opposition's rallying point, especially in the count down to 2007 elections.

Cool, calm and collected, his actions, words and body language were unsettling and President Olusegun Obasanjo, his hangers-on and retinue of aides got desperate. Unwittingly, Atiku was setting the agenda, defining politics, statecraft and the policy direction of government. Consequently, security and anti-graft agencies, including sundry others, were let loose on him. Get-Atiku-at-all-cost became the government's mantra and governance revolved around that credo. Significantly, the president and his deputy were inseparable and their relationship, according to Obasanjo, was made in heaven and "no woman can come between us." However, third term and politics of succession put them asunder.

In 2003, a small crevice appeared, it widened into a crack and before long, a gulf appeared on the wall of their relationship, defying plaster and cement. The relationship, according to reports, soured before the 2003 election. Obasanjo, after four years, wanted a second term but Atiku and his cohorts, citing a gentleman's agreement, wanted him out of office. Stories, to this end, were planted in the media, canvassing the "Mandela option". Obasanjo, like Nelson Mandela, should bow out after four years but the president, denying the agreement, sought for a second term in office. The die, from this point, was cast as Obasanjo and his henchmen decided to drop Atiku, should the president coast to victory.

In April 2003, Obasanjo formally declared his intention to seek re-election but Atiku's name and photograph were not on the programme of events. In fact, he was neither mentioned nor acknowledged on the occasion. Atku, from that time, saw the yellow card and his allies read the impending substitution, as Aliyu Mohammed Gusau, the National Security Adviser, was being touted to replace him. The governors, according to reports, supported Atiku at the primaries, urging him to run for president. The governors, as power centres, controlled the largest delegates and their support is crucial, especially in party primaries.

Out-witted, defeat stared Obasanjo in the face and tactically, the general retreated, re-worked his game plan and surrendered to Atiku. A quid pro quo was worked out and Atiku rested his speculated bid and pitched tent with Obasanjo at the primaries. The president, on his part, made Atiku his running mate, thereby securing his vice presidency. The poll, as controversial as ever, came and went and Obasanjo secured his second term in the general election. Thereafter, Obasanjo bared his fangs, moved against Atiku and his allies and the running battle impinged on governance.

Specifically, he sacked Atiku's aides, including Chris Mamma, Garba Shehu and Onukaba Adoniyi-Ojo, stripped him of his powers and hacked at his power base. In effect, Atiku was sidelined and sequestered from governance, neither chairing the National Council for Privatisation, nor the Federal Executive Council meetings, even in Obasanjo's absence. Down but not out, Nasir El Rufai, the FCT minister, Femi Fani-Kayode, the Senior Special Assistant-turn minister and Malam Nuhu Ribadu, the EFCC boss, took turns to pummel him but the vice president trudged on. Atiku, at a point, was without security details and a sponsored mob, on two occasions, embarrassed him and Obasanjo looked the other way.

Sidelined, the vice president became a figure head and in both politics and governance, his allies were being smoked out of the system. Audu Ogbe, PDP's national chairman, was forced to resign at gun point and Ahmadu Ali, a retired colonel and Obasanjo's man Friday, took over the party and recreated it in their own image. The duo of Ahmadu Ali and Ojo Maduekwe, the national secretary, unleashed garrison politics unto PDP as they embarked on a re-registration exercise, primarily to de-register Atiku's supporters.

Paradoxically, the media and the opposition, including most Nigerians, sided with Atiku and his continuous harassment earned him sympathies. Atiku, once powerful and venerated, had become an underdog and his political allies turn against him. However, in spite of this, Atiku's popularity soared and the opposition saw a rallying point in him. Turaki, as Atiku is known, lived up to that billing as he attacked government's policies, attended anti-government meetings and float a political platform. The Action Congress(AC) was formed as a counterpoise to PDP.

Atiku, House Speaker Aminu Masari, Senate President Ken Nnamani and the civil society, as well as media vigilance, thwarted Obasanjo's tenure elongation plan. Selfishly, Obasanjo and the state governors, except Attahiru Bafarawa, the governor of Sokoto state, stood to get a third term following a constitution amendment. Atiku, most Nigerians and the 2007 Movement, a coalition of legislators, put everything on the line to oppose the plot and third term collapsed. Atiku, from then onwards became a patriot, a sentinel for democracy and something of a statesman. Obasanjo, smarting from defeat, turned his turret on the vice president and the pincer attack was ferocious.

First, his seat was declared vacant, following his defection to AC but the government, heeding legal counsel, recanted on that owing to uproarious condemnations. However, every obstacle was put between Atiku and his presidential ambition. Obasanjo, in this regard, inaugurated an administrative panel, comprising Ribadu, El-Rufai and Bayo Ojo, the minister of Justice, to look into the alleged PTDF scam, an agency which Atiku was supervising. The panel, not surprising, did a hatchet job and found the vice president guilty. Obasanjo seized upon that and issued a white paper, nailing Atiku's ambition. INEC took its cue from the president and excluded Atiku from the ballot.

Turaki, to seek redress, went to court and got a favorable judgment, a few days to elections. The court, in its verdict, restored Atiku onto the ballot but damage, in spite of the victory, had been done to the vice president. In summary, the white paper tethered him, the court action distracted him and INEC was anything but a neutral umpire. Atiku, on that note, contested election and the results as well as the court verdict that validated them, are now history.

However, since the court verdict, Atiku has been at a crossroads, especially about his place in history and that obsession, whether to revert to his former conservative, mainstream and power politician, or to continue as a latter day progressive, has been his dilemma . President Umaru Yar'adua, according to reports, have earlier reached out to him but Atiku refused his overtures. However, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, former Lagos governor, wanted AC to join Government of National Unity but other party members voted against it. Tinubu, a rough and ready politician, has consolidated his south west zone, expanded AC's reach and popularity, becoming its de facto leader in the process. The south west, at home with opposition politics, proved a natural haven for AC, a party borne out of protest. AC, right now, is controlled by a coterie of Awoists, with Tinubu on the driver's seat.

Significantly, almost single-handedly, Atiku founded AC, funded its activities and bankrolled most of its candidates but the party, in the last one year, has been slipping away and for Turakin Adamawa, it is time to leave. That decision, according to reports, informed his last visit to Obasanjo's farm house at Otta, on January 19. Atiku, Obasanjo and Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, the Osun state governor, met for over two hours and afterwards, reporters ambushed them. "It's a new year visit to my former boss", Atiku said and Obasanjo added that the visit was not political. Shock, anger and surprise greeted the visit and Nigerians, on this account, upbraided Atiku for visiting the oracle of Otta. However, his allies were too shocked for words, according to reports, as they read the visit only on pages of the newspaper.

Obasanjo, 69 days later, gave insight of what transpired in his farm and most Nigerians, like Atiku's visit, learnt of it through the newspaper. On March 30, Daily Trust exclusively reported that Atiku, according to Obasanjo, has been pestering him to return to PDP and he has sent emissaries to this effect. Point blank, Obasanjo asked Atiku, the ex president revealed, to reform his politics from a commercial enterprise to service delivery. Afterwards, Atiku should go to his ward and seek forgiveness. Right now, according to Obasanjo, PDP distrusts him and Atiku's actions and utterances are to blame. With this remark, Atiku's return is dicey.

Clearly, Atiku is caught in the middle, as he can neither return to PDP nor stay in AC and as a rear guard action, he has reverted to political activism, calling for electoral reform. Specifically, the former vice president, having lost ground, is seeking relevance and PDP, in a press statement, told him as much. The statement, signed by Professor Rufai Alkali, held Atiku this past. As vice president, Atiku has never given any suggestion, according to Alkali, about how to reform the electoral system and his present call is just opportunistic and a symptom of a drowning politician.

Surely, Atiku's was part of the same crowd that he is up in arms against. For eight years as vice president, Adamawa state, the north and indeed the entire country are still bedeviled by infrastructural decay, poverty, disease and squalor. Try as he can, Turakin Adamawa can not extricate himself from Obasanjo's locust years, neither can he shed the toga of a power politician who uses political office to dispense patronage to cronies, notwithstanding his thwarting of third term and deepening our democracy. This is the cross that Atiku has to bear