That is the Big question. A lot of people are waiting for what Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the ADC will do next. As it is, the APC has blocked all his moves and he has effectively been crippled. The last straw was the defection of Adamawa State Governor, Ahmadu Fintiri from the PDP to the APC last Friday. Fintiri is the governor of Atiku’s home state. And they were formerly political allies.
Reacting to the defection of Adamawa State Governor, Ahmadu Fintiri, Atiku said political realignments are not new.
“Every politician is free to choose a path. He respects that right”.
“He added that even his children are free to take independent political positions. However, anyone — including his son — who chooses to stand with Nigerians rather than the APC is standing on the side of patriotism”.
Atiku warned that the wave of defections by opposition governors is not a sign of APC strength, but evidence of pressure and intimidation. He accused the Tinubu administration of weaponizing state institutions to bully political opponents in a desperate bid to turn Nigeria into a one-party state.
“This government fears accountability. It fears credible elections. It fears the people,” he said.
According to him, no amount of coercion can erase the daily hardship Nigerians face — rising hunger, crushing poverty, worsening insecurity, and mass unemployment caused by failed economic policies.
“Governors may defect for personal survival. Nigerians are defecting in their millions because they want survival.”
Atiku urged citizens not to confuse political cross-carpeting with popularity.
He sounded very tough. What many don’t know is that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is an incurable optimist. Like most politicians, he doesn’t love giving up so easily. Despite all the wave of decamping of PDP governors to APC one after the other, Atiku is not bothered. He is a seasoned politician. He does not believe that the decamping of governors can lead to automatic votes for Pres. Tinubu and the APC.
He feels if the coalition members follow his game plan, they will defeat Pres. Tinubu in the forthcoming 2027 elections. Atiku’s strategy is simple: Let all the opposition leaders come together under ADC and contest against Tinubu. Like Atiku, many in the opposition camp have come to the realisation that only one candidate can’t defeat Tinubu.
Atiku’s plan is to run for Presidency with Peter Obi. He sees that joker as the sure-fire solution to victory.
But there is a problem. Peter Obi is reluctant to be running mate to Atiku. He also wants to run for Presidency. Atiku and his camp believe that only a Northern Muslim candidate like Atiku running with a Southern Christian like Peter Obi can defeat Tinubu.
ADC Chieftain, Bashorun Dele Momodu echoed that view a few weeks back, that coalition leaders should back a Northern candidate.
But the Obidient Movement has insisted that Peter Obi will not play a 2nd fiddle to anyone.
Atiku actually believes his strategy is the best for now. He says it is borne out of serious strategic thinking.
He also believes that of all the political players on the scene right now he is the most experienced.
Don’t forget that he has been at it since 1993 and he has survived all the tupsy-turvy nature of politics in Nigeria. He is a veteran.
Alhaji Atiku Abubakar served as the Vice President from 1999 to 2007 during the presidency of Olusegun Obasanjo. He ran for Adamawa governorship in 1990 and 1996 unsuccessfully, but won in 1998. Before he was sworn in, he was selected as running mate to former military leader, Olusegun Obasanjo, during the 1999 presidential election and was re-elected in 2003.
It is on record Atiku Abubakar ran unsuccessfully for President 6 times namely in 1993, 2007, 2011, 2015, 2019, and 2023. And he hopes to run again in 2027. He ran in the Social Democratic Party presidential primaries in 1993, but lost to Chief Moshood Abiola and Amb. Baba Gana Kingibe. He was a presidential candidate of the Action Congress in the 2007 presidential election coming in third to late Umaru Yar’Adua of the PDP and Muhammadu Buhari of the ANPP. He contested the presidential primaries of the People’s Democratic Party during the 2011 presidential election losing to incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan.
In 2014, he joined the All Progressives Congress ahead of the 2015 presidential election and contested the presidential primaries losing to Muhammadu Buhari. In 2017, he returned to the Peoples Democratic Party and was the party presidential candidate during the 2019 presidential election, again losing to incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari.
In May 2022, he was chosen as the Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate again, this time for the 2023 general election after he defeated Nyesom Wike, the former Governor of Rivers State, in the primaries. He came in second in the general election, being defeated by Bola Tinubu, though Abubakar joined other opposition candidates in demanding a revote.
Abubakar’s first foray into Politics was in the early 1980s, when he worked behind-the-scenes on the governorship campaign of Bamanga Tukur, who at that time was managing director of the Nigeria Ports Authority. He canvassed for votes on behalf of Tukur, and also donated to the campaign.
Towards the end of his Customs career, he met General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, who had been second-in-command Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters between 1976 and 1979. Abubakar was drawn by Yar’Adua into the political meetings that were now happening regularly in Yar’Adua’s Lagos home, which gave rise to the People’s Front of Nigeria. The People’s Front included politicians such as Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, Baba Gana Kingibe, Bola Tinubu, Sabo Bakin Zuwo, Rabiu Kwankwaso, Abdullahi Aliyu Sumaila and Abubakar Koko.
In 1989, Abubakar was elected the National Vice-Chairman of the Peoples Front of Nigeria in the build-up to the Third Nigerian Republic. Abubakar won a seat to represent his constituency at the 1989 Constituent Assembly, set up to decide a new constitution for Nigeria. The People’s Front was eventually denied registration by the military government (none of the groups that applied was registered), and merged with the government-created Social Democratic Party (SDP).
On 1 September 1990, Abubakar announced his Gongola State gubernatorial bid. A year later, before the elections could hold, Gongola State was broken up into two – Adamawa and Taraba States – by the Federal Government. Abubakar fell into the new Adamawa State. After the contest he won the SDP Primaries in November 1991, but was soon disqualified by the government from contesting the elections.
In 1993, Abubakar contested the SDP presidential primaries. The results after the first ballot of the primaries held in Jos was: Moshood Abiola with 3,617 votes, Baba Gana Kingibe with 3,255 votes and Abubakar with 2,066 votes. Abubakar and Kingibe considered joining forces combining 5,231 votes to challenge Abiola. However, after Shehu Yar’Adua asked Atiku Abubakar to withdraw from the campaign, with Abiola promising to make him his running mate. Abiola was later pressured by SDP governors to select Kinigbe as his Vice-presidential running mate, in the June 12 presidential election.
After the 12 June and during the General Sani Abacha transition, Abubakar showed interest to contest for the Gubnetorial seat of Adamawa State under the United Nigeria Congress Party, the transition program came to an end with the death of General Abacha. In 1998, Abubakar joined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and later secured nomination for Governor of Adamawa State, winning the December 1998 governorship elections, but before he could be sworn in he accepted a position as the running mate to the PDP presidential candidate, former military head of state General Olusegun Obasanjo who went on to win the 1999 presidential election ushering in the Fourth Nigerian Republic.
On 29 May 1999, Abubakar was sworn in as Vice President of Nigeria.
Abubakar’s second term as Vice President was marked by a stormy relationship with President Obasanjo. In 2006, Abubakar was involved in a bitter public battle with his boss, President Olusegun Obasanjo, ostensibly arising from the latter’s bid to amend certain provisions of the constitution to take another shot at the presidency (Third Term Agenda).
On 25 November 2006 Abubakar announced that he would run for president. On 20 December 2006, he was chosen as the presidential candidate of the Action Congress (AC).
According to official results, Abubakar took third place, behind PDP candidate Umaru Yar’Adua and ANPP candidate Muhammadu Buhari, with approximately 7% of the vote (2.6 million votes). Abubakar rejected the election results and called for its cancellation, describing it as Nigeria’s “worst election ever.”
Following the 2007 elections, Abubakar returned to the People’s Democratic Party. In October 2010 he announced his intention to contest for the Presidency. On 22 November, a Committee of Northern Elders selected him as the Northern Consensus Candidate. In January 2011, Abubakar contested for the Presidential ticket of his party alongside President Jonathan and Sarah Jubril, and lost the primary.
On 2 February 2014, Abubakar once again left the Peoples Democratic Party and became a founding member All Progressives Congress, with the ambition of contesting for the presidency ahead of the 2015 presidential election. The results of the APC presidential primaries results held in Lagos was: Muhammadu Buhari with 3,430 votes, Rabiu Kwankwaso with 974 votes, Atiku Abubakar with 954 votes, Rochas Okorocha with 400 votes and Sam Nda-Isiah with 10 votes. On Friday, 24 November 2017, Abubakar announced his exit from the All Progressives Congress (APC), and returned to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on 3 December 2017. He said he decided to ‘return home’ to the PDP now that the issues which made him leave the party had been resolved.
In 2018, Abubakar began his presidential campaign and secured the party nomination of the PDP in the presidential primaries held in Port Harcourt on 7 October 2018. He defeated all the other aspirants.
Atiku Abubakar emerged as the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party for 2023 election after he defeated 12 other candidates in a keenly contested presidential primary held at the Moshood Abiola Stadium in Abuja on 28 May 2022.
After he lost the 2023 elections, Atiku recently decamped PDP for ADC together with other members of the coalition.
