Atiku’s backers count losses

Vanguard

22 Jan 2011

Atiku’s backers count losses

*Ex-VP winds down campaign office
*Says: “I’m not a quitter; we shall reconvene”

No 1 Luanda Street, Wuse 11, Abuja easily ranked as one of the busiest offices in Abuja in terms of number of visitors and daily activities.

The entire street and the adjoining Adetokunbo Ademola Crescent
groaned under the weight of vehicular and human traffic that flowed there. There were as many prominent Nigerians as there were non prominent ones: party supporters, praise singers, and hangers on, coming in and going out, some of them hardly taking notice of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC office, located nearby.

Security men watching over the area were always under pressure trying to control the even ugly crowd. That used to be the world of the Atiku Campaign Organisation.

But all that began to evaporate penultimate Friday, just hours after delegates to the PDP National Convention delivered their verdict and picked President Goodluck Jonathan  as the party’s flagbearer in the April presidential election.

For thousands of Atiku’s supporters, it is simply hope dashed. Indeed, end of a carnival. Now the hundreds of praise singers and hangers on must look elsewhere for their daily bread.

But there are also the regular staff and temporary personnel that have to join the labour market.

When Saturday Vanguard visited the office on Thursday, it looked practically deserted. Only a handful of people were sighted with a few cars parked in the vicinity.

The security men manning the scanning machine at the office entrance now appeared friendly.

On the first floor of the office, the chairs at the reception have been removed, leaving only the furniture of the Secretaries.

Campaign support groups which were waiting to be paid were asked to come back, for their money.

Alhaji Atiku had a valedictory meeting with the staff yesterday to thank them for their support and a job well done.Some of the staff who wore long faces are disappointed that he failed to win primaries. Atiku’s neighbours will surely miss the ever bubbling atmosphere at the Campaign office.

No fewer than 5,000 – staff and volunteers – worked for the Atiku Campaign Organisation.

Why I lost

Alhaji Atijku at the meeting attributed his failure to become the party’s flagbearer to what he called absence of a level playing ground.

His defeat, he said, was not because the campaign Organization never prepared for the contest, but because its efforts were frustrated by the arrangements put in place. But he said, the defeat notwithstanding, ‘I’m not a quitter.