Aare Amerijoye DOT.B.

There are men who are sustained by propaganda. And there are men whose reputations are forged in the furnace of real political battles. Atiku Abubakar belongs to the latter category. He was not manufactured in a media studio. He was shaped in contests where defeat was possible, where pressure was relentless, and where only endurance separated survivors from spectators. In a nation searching for tested capacity ahead of the 2027 presidential contest, such pedigree is not ornamental. It is essential.

Onyeama Ugochukwu, who served as Director of Publicity in the Obasanjo administration, once delivered a striking testimony about Atiku’s political character. His words were neither casual nor ornamental. They were grounded in lived experience. “We used to call Atiku the bulldozer,” he recalled. “He was not afraid to take risks. If there was something to be done, he would go ahead and do it, clearing the obstacles. His arrival, after winning his governorship election, strengthened and reinvigorated the campaign in terms of funding, decision-making, and campaign organisation.” That is not applause from a distance. That is testimony from inside the engine room of power. It is also a reminder that when Nigeria faces defining political moments, leadership is measured by capacity, not sentiment.

That single description dismantles the shallow narrative that attempts to recast Atiku as timid or politically hesitant. A bulldozer does not hesitate before resistance. It does not retreat at the sight of barriers. It advances, reshapes terrain, and creates passage where none existed. It absorbs shock and keeps moving. That was how insiders saw him. That was how colleagues described him. That was how campaigns were revived, stabilised, and fortified under his influence. When structures were shaky, he steadied them. When momentum slowed, he accelerated it. A country confronting economic strain, institutional fatigue, and public frustration requires precisely that kind of forward force in 2027.

Atiku’s political journey has never been defined by convenience. It has been defined by audacity anchored in conviction. Risk-taking in politics is not recklessness; it is courage guided by calculation. It is the willingness to step forward when others calculate excuses. When difficult decisions had to be made, he made them. When funding gaps threatened momentum, he mobilised resources. When campaigns drifted without structure, he imposed order. When morale weakened, he restored direction and discipline. He did not watch from the sidelines. He entered the arena. Nigeria, standing at another crossroads in 2027, cannot afford spectators. It requires a participant with proven nerve.

It is therefore astonishing that some of his present followers and sympathisers, particularly those who joined the movement in later years, remain unaware of this depth. A generation that did not witness the internal architecture of earlier campaigns sometimes mistakes patience for weakness and strategic restraint for nervousness. That misreading ignores history. It confuses silence with surrender. It confuses calculation with fear. And in politics, such confusion is costly. When ballots are cast in 2027, the choice will not be between noise and calm. It will be between tested capacity and uncertain experimentation.

Political steadiness is not fear. Reflection is not fragility. Calmness under pressure is not nervousness. A man who has navigated decades at the highest levels of Nigerian politics, survived internal party tempests, contested relentlessly, and remained relevant across shifting political climates is not politically nervous. He is politically seasoned. He is battle-tested. He understands timing. He understands terrain. He understands the anatomy of power. He knows when to speak and when to strike. Those are not optional traits in a presidential year. They are prerequisites.

Atiku’s resilience is not abstract rhetoric. It is etched into Nigeria’s contemporary political history. His organisational imprint was evident in how alliances were constructed, how operational systems were strengthened, and how campaign structures were energised. His contribution was measurable in funding coordination, decision-making clarity, and disciplined mobilisation. These are not the qualities of a myth. They are the qualities of a tested leader who comprehends machinery, momentum, and movement. They are the qualities ordinary supporters feel when a campaign suddenly regains life. They are also the qualities that define a credible option for national leadership in 2027.

Attempts to reduce such a figure to caricature collapse under scrutiny. Myths are sustained by fantasy. Tested leaders are sustained by record. Myths evaporate under pressure. Tested leaders are refined by it. Myths exist in stories. Tested leaders exist in history. One survives on imagination. The other survives on evidence. And when a nation must decide its direction in 2027, evidence must outweigh illusion.

Atiku Abubakar is not a symbolic ornament of nostalgia. He is a political force shaped by contests, sharpened by setbacks, strengthened by endurance, and proven by experience. He has stood in storms that would have scattered lesser ambitions. He has endured criticism that would have silenced weaker resolve. And he has remained standing. In a decisive presidential cycle, endurance is not merely admirable. It is strategic.

History does not remember men for the noise around them. It remembers them for the obstacles they cleared and the structures they built. It remembers who moved the machinery when others hesitated. It remembers who stepped forward when retreat was easier. As 2027 approaches, Nigeria will again be called to choose between rhetoric and record.

Atiku is not a myth. He is a tested leader. He has been tested by opposition. He has been tested by allies. He has been tested by time. And he has endured. For a nation seeking stability, courage, and experienced direction in 2027, that endurance is not incidental. It is decisive.

Aare Amerijoye DOT.B
Director General,
The Narrative Force