{"id":40091,"date":"2017-12-11T14:08:04","date_gmt":"2017-12-11T13:08:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/?p=40091"},"modified":"2017-12-11T14:32:33","modified_gmt":"2017-12-11T13:32:33","slug":"unveiling-man-taught-atiku-b-c-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/unveiling-man-taught-atiku-b-c-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"Unveiling The Man Who Taught ATIKU The A.B.C Of Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><strong>The Story Of Their 20yr Relationship<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If a list of top politicians in Nigeria is drawn up, one name that will feature prominently on it is that of former <strong>Vice-President Alhaji Abubakar Atiku<\/strong>. Its Not only because he has been the No. 2 man in Nigeria before, but because he has been able to build a formidable political structure that is big, strong and reliable. He was once the governor of Adamawa. And he has considerable influence across the North.<\/p>\n<p>He has been actively involved in politics for about 28yrs.<\/p>\n<p>Atiku\u2019s first foray into politics was in the early 1980s, when he worked behind-the-scenes on the governorship campaign funds of Bamanga Tukur, who at that time, was the Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority. He canvassed votes on behalf of Tukur, and also donated to the campaign. Towards the end of his Customs career, he met Alhaji Shehu Musa Yar\u2019Adua, who had been the second-in-command of the military government that ruled Nigeria between 1976 and 1979. Atiku was drawn by Yar\u2019Adua into the political meetings that were then taking place regularly in Yar\u2019Adua\u2019s Lagos home. In 1989, Atiku was elected a National Vice-Chairman of the People\u2019s Front of Nigeria, a political association led by Yar\u2019Adua, to participate in the transition programme initiated by the then Head of State, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida.<\/p>\n<p>Atiku won a seat to represent his constituency at the 1989 Constituent Assembly, set up to decide a new constitution for Nigeria. The People\u2019s Front was eventually denied registration by the government (none of the groups that applied was registered), and Atiku found a place within the Social Democratic Party, one of the two parties decreed into existence by the regime.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>FIRST GOVERNORSHIP\u00a0RUN (1990)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>On 1 September, 1990, Atiku announced his Gongola State gubernatorial bid. A year later, before the election could hold, Gongola State was broken up into 2 \u2013 Adamawa and Taraba States \u2013 by the Federal Government. Atiku fell into the new Adamawa State. After an acrimonious contest, he won the SDP Primaries in November 1991, but was soon disqualified by government from contesting the election.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>FIRST PRESIDENTIAL RUN (1992)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A similar fate \u2013 disqualification by the military \u2013 would befall Shehu Musa Yar\u2019Adua, Atiku\u2019s friend and political mentor, in his 1992 bid for the presidential primary of the SDP. With no chance of contesting for the presidency, Yar\u2019Adua decided to push Atiku forward as the focal point of SDP\u2019s ambitions. Atiku came third in the convention primary. But because MKO Abiola, the winner, had won by only about 400 votes a run-off was due. Atiku stepped down for Abiola, asking his supporters to cast their votes for him, with an unwritten agreement that Abiola would announce Atiku as his running mate. Abiola won the SDP ticket, and announced Babagana Kingibe, the runner-up, as his running mate.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>SECOND GOVERNORSHIP\u00a0RUN (1998)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In 1998 Atiku launched a bid for the governorship of Adamawa State on the platform of the People\u2019s Democratic Party. He won the December 1998 election, but before he could be sworn in, he was tipped by the PDP\u2019s presidential candidate, a former Head of State, Olusegun Obasanjo, as his vice-presidential candidate. The Obasanjo-Atiku ticket won the 27 February 1999 presidential election with 62.78 percent of the vote.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>VICE PRESIDENCY (1999\u20132007)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Atiku Abubakar was sworn in as Vice-President of Nigeria on 29 May, 1999. He presided over the National Council on Privatisation, overseeing the sale of hundreds of loss-making and poorly managed public enterprises.<\/p>\n<p>In 1999, he, alongside South African Deputy President, Jacob Zuma, launched the South Africa Nigeria Binational Commission.<\/p>\n<p>In 2006, Atiku was involved in a bitter public battle with his boss, President Olusegun Obasanjo, ostensibly arising from the latter\u2019s bid to amend certain provisions of the constitution to take another shot at the presidency (for the third consecutive time).<\/p>\n<p>In a November 2013 interview Atiku was quoted as saying, regarding Obasanjo\u2019s alleged attempts to justify his third term bid: \u201c[He] informed me that \u2018I left power twenty years ago, I left Mubarak in office, I left Mugabe in office, I left Eyadema in office, I left Umar Bongo, and even Paul Biya and I came back and they are still in power; and I just did eight years and you are asking me to go; why?\u2019 And I responded to him by telling him that Nigeria is not Libya, not Egypt, not Cameroun, and not Togo; I said you must leave; even if it means both of us losing out, but you cannot stay.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The debate and acrimony generated by the failed constitutional amendment momentarily caused a rift in the People\u2019s Democratic Party. The Nigerian National Assembly eventually voted against any amendments, allowing Obasanjo to run for another term.<\/p>\n<p>The Atiku-Obasanjo face-off damaged the personal relationship between both men.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>SECOND PRESIDENTIAL RUN (2006\u20132007)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>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).<\/p>\n<p>On 14 March 2007, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) released the final list of 24 candidates for 21 April, presidential election. Abubakar\u2019s name was missing on the ballot. INEC issued a statement saying that Abubakar\u2019s name was missing because he was on a list of persons indicted for corruption by a panel set up by the government. Abubakar headed for the court on 16 March, to have his disqualification overturned. The Supreme Court unanimously ruled on 16 April, that INEC had no power to disqualify candidates.<\/p>\n<p>The ruling allowed Abubakar to contest the election, although there were concerns that it might not be possible to provide ballots with Abubakar\u2019s name by 21 April, the date of the election. On 17 April, a spokesman for the INEC said that Abubakar would be on the ballot.<\/p>\n<p>According to official results, Abubakar took third place, behind PDP&#8217;s candidate, Umaru Yar\u2019Adua and ANPP&#8217;s 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\u2019s \u201cworst election ever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He stated that he would not attend Umaru Yar\u2019Adua\u2019s inauguration on 29 May, owing to his view that the election was not credible, saying that he did not want to \u201cdignify such a hollow ritual with my presence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>POST VICE-PRESIDENCY,\u00a0THIRD PRESIDENTIAL RUN (2011)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Following the 2007 elections, Atiku returned to the People\u2019s Democratic Party. In October 2010, he announced his intention to contest the Presidency. On 22 November, a Committee of Northern Elders selected him as the Northern Consensus Candidate, over the former Military President, Ibrahim Babangida, former National Security Adviser Aliyu Gusau and Governor Bukola Saraki of Kwara State.<\/p>\n<p>In January 2011, Atiku contested for the Presidential ticket of his party alongside President Goodluck Jonathan and Sarah Jubril, and lost the primary, garnering 805 votes to President Jonathan\u2019s 2,736.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>RELATIONSHIP WITH PRESIDENT OBASANJO<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>On 30 March, 2014, Nigerian media reported that a delegation from the Northern Youth Leaders Forum visited Obasanjo at his home in Abeokuta and pleaded with him to \u201cforgive your former Vice-President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, of whatever political sin or offence he might have committed against you.\u201d In response, Obasanjo was quoted as saying that \u201cas a leader and father, I bear no grudge against anybody and if there is, I have forgiven them all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTowards the end of his Customs career, he met Alhaji Shehu Musa Yar\u2019Adua, who had been the second-in-command of the military government that ruled Nigeria between 1976 and 1979. Atiku was drawn by Yar\u2019Adua into the political meetings that were then taking place regularly in Yar\u2019Adua\u2019s Lagos home\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>PEOPLE&#8217;S DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT (PDM)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In August 2013, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) registered 2 new political parties. One of them was the People\u2019s Democratic Movement. Media reports suggested that the party was formed by Atiku as a back-up plan in case he was unable to fulfill his rumoured presidential ambitions on the PDP&#8217;s platform. In a statement, Atiku acknowledged that the PDM was founded by his \u201cpolitical associates\u201d, but that he remained a member of the PDP.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>FROM APC BACK TO PDP<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>On 2 February, 2014, Atiku left the People&#8217;s Democratic Party to join All Progressives\u2019 Congress (APC), a platform on which he sought to contest for the presidency in 2015, but lost at the primaries. He recently returned back to the PDP.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Story Of Their 20yr Relationship If a list of top politicians in Nigeria is drawn up, one name that will feature prominently on it is that of former Vice-President&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":34392,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[11137,1310],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/atiku-abubakar.jpg?fit=1056%2C748&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":158444,"url":"https:\/\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/alhaji-atiku-abubakar-visits-alhaji-bamanga-tukur-on-the-death-of-prof-mahmood-tukur-photos\/","url_meta":{"origin":40091,"position":0},"title":"Alhaji Atiku Abubakar Visits Alhaji Bamanga Tukur On The Death of Prof Mahmood Tukur [PHOTOS]","author":"Reporter","date":"June 24, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/tk1.jpg?fit=1080%2C511&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/tk1.jpg?fit=1080%2C511&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/tk1.jpg?fit=1080%2C511&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/tk1.jpg?fit=1080%2C511&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/tk1.jpg?fit=1080%2C511&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":174380,"url":"https:\/\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/how-atiku-tinubu-became-friends-in-1992\/","url_meta":{"origin":40091,"position":1},"title":"How ATIKU &#038; TINUBU Became Friends In 1992","author":"City People","date":"August 1, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"\u2022The Story Of Their 30-Year Friendship \u2022What No One Will Tell You Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu & Alhaji Atiku Abubakar are very good friends. Not many people know that. 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Up until the postponement of the presidential elections last Saturday, the APC Presidential candidate, Pres Muhammadu Buhari and his team underrated the capacity of the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar to spring surprises and to give them a good fight. From\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Politics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/news\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Atiku, Buhari, APC, PDP,","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Atiku-Buhari-APC-PDP.jpg?fit=796%2C1185&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Atiku-Buhari-APC-PDP.jpg?fit=796%2C1185&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Atiku-Buhari-APC-PDP.jpg?fit=796%2C1185&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Atiku-Buhari-APC-PDP.jpg?fit=796%2C1185&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":39446,"url":"https:\/\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/atiku-abubakar-wins-city-people-politician-year-award\/","url_meta":{"origin":40091,"position":5},"title":"ATIKU ABUBAKAR Wins City People Politician of The Year Award","author":"City People","date":"November 28, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"As Son Collects Award On His Behalf At the recently concluded 3rd City People Political Awards for Excellence, former Vice-President of Nigeria, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku who recently decamped from APC to PDP won the most prestigious award as the Politician of The Year Award at the colourful award ceremony. 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