Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, has revealed the names of people who deceived Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and gave him a false of hope that he will become President in the 2019 presidential election.

In an article titled: ‘Atiku: They Gave Him A False Sense Of Hope’, Adesina likened Atiku’s case to Macbeth, a character in William Shakespeare’s play, who was deceived by three witches who predicted that no man born of woman could ever kill him, and that he could not be defeated in any battle “till Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane.”

He listed former President Olusegun Obasanjo, some Nigerians who referred to themselves as Atikulators, marabouts, pastors and some witches and wizards as some of those who gave false messages and made Atiku believed that he was already President even before the election was conducted.

According to Adesina, “Who were those that paltered with Atiku in a double sense? Who were the people that lured him into a losing battle? Who were those who told him he was on a giant horse, not knowing that he was riding on a cockroach? Let’s do a checklist.

“Olusegun Obasanjo, and his foreign cohorts. The former president was the one that ruined Atiku Abubakar most, when they fought a bitter battle as they served together in government.

“Obasanjo wrote books, granted interviews, where he poured vitriol on his former deputy. He described him in words that won’t make you buy Atiku for ten kobo. In fact, he said God should punish him if he ever supported Atiku for president. And that lasted for about ten years.

“Suddenly, with just months to the 2019 election, Obasanjo came singing another tune. He said he had forgiven Atiku, and started calling him “my President in waiting.” Were Nigerians fools?

“Can you approbate and reprobate at the same time? Can you strip a man naked in the marketplace, and cover him up in the bedroom? The damage would already be done. And so it was with Atiku.

“Yes, Obasanjo has some clout, particularly internationally. He swung into action, trying to mobilize the international community behind his candidate. Some people followed him, and Atiku thought the deed was done.

“But they didn’t reckon with the hurricane called Muhammadu Buhari. The cyclone force was too strong, and it simply cleared everything in its path. It was a bitter lesson that the challenger learnt too late.

“Obasanjo had always decided who should, and shouldn’t be President, right from the first time he left power as a military ruler in 1979. He was instrumental in some ways to the emergence of Shehu Shagari, Umaru Yar’Adua, and Goodluck Jonathan, as presidents.

“He also contributed to pulling them down later with his mouth. By this year, Nigerians were simply tired of the overbearing attitude of the Otta chicken farmer. They thus refused to buy the candidate he had earlier rendered toxic, and was selling to them in borrowed robes.

“Who fooled Atiku again? The Atikulators. And who are they? People who flocked after the candidate for many reasons, none of them altruistic. They were those who didn’t like Buhari, either because of ethnicity, language, religion, or the man’s aversion for corruption.

“They wanted business as usual, and it should be anybody but Buhari. So, they followed Atiku, not because they loved him, but they would have also followed a goat, if they had been told that the animal could get Buhari out of power. They put their money on the wrong horse, gambled, and lost.

“Before the election, you saw and heard the Atikulators everywhere, boasting of how they were going to wrest power in the country. They were all over the place. In offices, marketplaces, churches, mosques, schools, television, radio, newspapers, almost in all traffic lanes of life. And they fooled their principal. He backed them up with piles and tons of cash, in major currencies of the world.

“To quote President Buhari, ‘They spent so much dollars, that the currency became devalued’.

“For Atiku, anything that money cannot do is not doable. Money answereth all things. He threw in more and more. But for the Buharists, it is not about money, not even a bottle of soft drink or water.

“It is about conviction. It is about integrity and accountability. It is about building a new country, devoid of greed and rapacity. So we followed the Mai Gaskiya (honest man) all the way. Nothing could be articulated against him. Not possible.

“Again, the marabouts, prophets, some pastors and preachers. Yes, let me group them together, including the witches and wizards. They formed a confederacy, and said Atiku would win. Who is it that says anything when the Lord has not spoken? The marabouts collected money handsomely, and pronounced Atiku king. They did not tell him he would be king on an empty throne.

“The preachers, across the major religions, because of personal hatred, and possibly inducement, gave evil and false messages. They began to proclaim that Atiku was the messiah, when God had not said so. And the PDP candidate believed them. He felt there was no way he could ever lose the election.

“But he didn’t know that lying tongues were in action. The preachers had become inhabited by lying spirits, modern day Zedekiahs , who prophesied falsehood (1 Kings 22:11). They led Atiku to political perdition.

“The social media. Populated by people with exaggerated sense of worth, they think they can do and undo. I call them the vocal minority. If you followed only the social media before the elections, you would think the All Progressives Congress (APC) government at the center was gone.

“They filled the landscape with so much wailing, till they became wailing wailers. We will do this, we will do that. Mere shooting of breeze. Superfluity of nothingness. Arrogant impertinence. The Buhari people simply kept their peace, while online warriors, most of who had no permanent voters cards (PVCs) continued to fire blanks”.
https://www.independent.ng/2019-how-obasanjo-atikulators-marabouts-pastors-deceived-atiku-on-becoming-president-adesina/

To some Nigeria politicians, losing a child is far better to them than losing an election .

How can you be in pain and still be adding salt to the injury..

Before 2023 Pdp would have been decayed

What of RSTC, Christian North, Meles Zenawi, Zombie punisher etc

Atiku was a fool
Oliza agbakoba told him not to go to court Ozhekoma is several dollars rich now

Some fools are not supposed to be public leaders, imaging rubbish coming out from this afonja man mouth.

One of the wailers the writer talked about is right here above me. Crying is their hobby

This man exhibits standards well below that expected from a public officer paid by taxpayers whom he likes to talk to in a condescending manner

You couldnt have got it better than this.

How can this sort of rubbish come from a presidential spokesperson?

I like the way obasanjo is ignoring all this useless APC people now. They are trying to create hatred for obasanjo in the north