Politics Runs Deep: Atiku’s son fires back Bauchi governor’s son

Mohammed Atiku, a son of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, has said Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, never supported his father, in both his 2019 and 2023 presidential election races.

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The junior Atiku is responding to Shamsu Bala, the Bauchi governor’s son, who accused the former vice president of working against the governor’s reelection in 2023. On Saturday, Mr Bala said Atiku was unwilling to reconcile with his father ahead of the 2027 election.

But Mr Mohammed, who is also Chairman of Atiku Support Organisation (ASO), said at no point did Shamsu’s father support Atiku in his political career.

“The only difference now is that Shamsu has removed the mask, and now we do not have to worry about the feigned impression of any support from his father,” he said in a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES on Monday, stressing that the Bauchi State Governor worked against his party in 2023.

According to the statement signed by the junior Atiku, Mr Bala’s comments reek of arrogance and an exaggerated sense of relevance.

“Let it be known to Shamsu that never has Atiku dissipated an ounce of energy towards his father’s political travails. This is simply because Atiku’s politics transcends such shenanigans, and he has consistently remained above the bar. Moreover, whatever conflict Bala Muhammed may have had with politicians in Bauchi in the lead to the 2023 elections had nothing to do with Atiku Abubakar. It was purely a local affair.

“In case Shamsu has been off the news reel, we wish to refer him to a recent remark by his father’s political mentor, the Minister of FCT, Nysome Wike, who revealed how the Bauchi State Governor orchestrated plans to ensure that Atiku did not win in the 2023 election.

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“It is noteworthy to mention that Governor Bala Mohammed’s presidential ambition is the reason for his poor management of the PDP Governors Forum, where he couldn’t command the respect and control of his colleagues. We are also not unaware of his secret hobnobbing with Tinubu’s Government,” Mr Mohammed said.

In a social media post, Mr Bala had said Atiku worked for Air Marshal (the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Abubakar Sadiq). He added that Atiku deployed elites in Bauchi to “fight us, and we narrowly won the election.”

Mr Bala did not mention the names of the Bauchi elites who teamed up against his father.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that Governor Mohammed, in the build-up to the 2023 election, in January 2023, directed the Bauchi emirate council to strip an elder statesman, Bello Kirfi, of his traditional title of Wazirin Bauchi for alleged ‘disloyalty and disrespect’ to him.

Mr Kirfi served as Minister of State Foreign Affairs under President Shehu Shagari and also Minister of Special Duties during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. He is a political ally of Atiku and is probably among the elites the governor’s son said worked against his father’s reelection.

Also, another Bauchi chieftain of the PDP at that time and former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, worked for Atiku in the presidential election but worked against Mr Mohammed in the governorship election.

Atiku won in Bauchi

Despite the frosty nature between Atiku and Mr Mohammed, the PDP candidate won in Bauchi with over 100,000 votes more than his closest rival, APC’s Bola Tinubu.

Atiku defeated Mr Tinubu with a vote margin of 109,913. He polled 426, 607 votes while Mr Tinubu got 316,694 votes in the North-eastern state.

Mr Bala’s comments on Twitter followed Atiku’s visit to former President Muhammadu Buhari in Kaduna, which political observers said was part of Atiku’s effort to build a coalition against the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for the 2027 election.

READ ALSO: UPDATED: ‘You worked against my father,’ it’s time for revenge, PDP governor’s son tells Atiku

Governor Mohammed challenged Atiku and others in the PDP presidential primaries in 2022 before returning home to take part in the party’s rerun governorship primaries, which allowed him to run for a second term in 2023.

The governor is speculated to retain his presidential ambition and could challenge Atiku again for the party’s 2027 presidential ticket. As the chairperson of the PDP’s governors’ forum, he is one of the major power brokers in the party.