Atiku: The president deserves respect

By Chiechefulam Ikebuiro

Sir: Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar is entitled to criticize President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He is entitled to challenge his policies, question his decisions and make the case that he would govern differently. Nobody expects otherwise from the leader of the opposition

But calling a sitting president simply “Bola” repeatedly, particularly in a formal national address, is another matter.

Atiku was vice president for eight years. He understands better than most that there is a distinction between the individual occupying an office and the office itself. When you address the President of Nigeria, you are not merely addressing the politician or the individual. You are addressing the person constitutionally entrusted with the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. SahelSecurity Report

That office represents Nigeria’s leadership.

This is why the lame double down that “Bola is the president’s name” misses the point. Protocol exists precisely because public office is bigger than the individual occupying it. You can disagree with the president without stripping away the institutional dignity attached to his office.

Interestingly, Akin Osuntokun, a former presidential spokesman and former director-general of Peter Obi’s 2023 campaign, made essentially the same argument. He said Atiku was entitled to criticize Tinubu however sharply, but objected to his repeated decision to call him “Bola,” describing it as a needless display of disrespect and an affront to the office.

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Atiku should know better. He knows what it means to occupy an office that carries the authority and dignity of the Nigerian state. I do not recall anyone addressing him in that manner when he was vice president and arguing that because “Atiku” was his name, there was nothing wrong with it.

There is also something particularly curious about this new political culture where disrespect is sometimes dressed up as authenticity or wokeness. Since when did basic decorum become a sign of weakness? Since when did respecting an office mean surrendering one’s right to criticize the person occupying it?

You can call out President Tinubu’s economic policies. You can question his decisions. You can demand accountability. You can even argue passionately that Nigerians should vote him out. None of these requires calling him “Bola” in a formal address.

Criticize the president for what it is worth. But respect the office.

Because when you disrespect the office of the president, you are not merely taking a swipe at the man occupying it. You are diminishing an institution that belongs to the Nigerian people.

And perhaps that is the irony of it all. An octogenarian former vice president, with decades in public life and a perennial ambition to occupy that very office again, should understand this better than most.

•Chiechefulam Ikebuiro,

chiechefulamikebuiro@gmail.com