It’s no longer a secret that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is running for the Presidency in 2027. He previously contested but didn’t succeed. This time, he’s feeling optimistic and believes his chances are much better.
He plans to contest on the platform of PDP. He plans to get the PDP ticket.
But many political analysts say his chances are slim, going by the huge opposition to his candidacy.
Many PDP topshots believe he should not be the flagbearer of the party. They prefer a different person who is fresh. …CONTINUE READING
Those from the South believe that a Southern candidate is more preferable, to enable the South complete its 2 terms.
All these sentiments are being openly canvassed by stakeholders in the party.
Even the young members of the party prefer that a younger aspirant be fielded.
Some of the serving PDP governors don’t seem to support his candidacy. They recently had a meeting in Ibadan, Oyo State where they rejected the concept of Coalition, which Atiku & some other popular politicians like Mallam El-Rufai are rooting for.
But his biggest challenge is coming from the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike who does not even want to hear any talk of Atiku getting the PDP presidential ticket.
He is Atiku’s biggest problem because he was the one who put together the G5, made up of governors, who worked against Atiku last election.
They are determined to do same at the forthcoming elections.
How Atiku plans to get the PDP ticket being a Northern aspirant, when the view of many is that it would be better to have a Southern aspirant emerge, remains to be seen.
Chief Bode George, a founding father and Elder of the party has come out openly to say over his dead body will Atiku emerge as PDP’s presidential candidate.
A member of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Bode George, says the party will meet its end if former Vice President Atiku Abubakar secures the party’s 2027 presidential ticket.
“If he (Atiku) picks it (PDP’s ticket), that is the end of this party. If he picks it by manipulation which was what was done the last time, we will not accept it,” Bode George said on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Monday, April 14.
Atiku has been in a race to become Nigeria’s president for over three decades and has been the presidential candidate of different parties six times.
Atiku recently championed an inter-party alliance that birthed a coalition on Thursday, March 20, 2025. Atiku, alongside former Anambra Governor Peter Obi, ex-Kaduna governor Nasir El-Rufai, amongst others, announced the coalition as an attempt to oust incumbent President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
However, in a twist, PDP governors on Monday, April 14, 2025, rejected the coalition spearheaded by Atiku, ruling out any plan by the party for mergers or coalition. Speaking during the television programme on Monday, Bode George applauded the PDP governors for rejecting the coalition led by Atiku.
George said Atiku has not shown himself to be a leader of the party because he has not waded into the intra-party squabbles that have befallen the party in recent times.
Bode George said: “No, if he is the leader of the party, he would have waded into it (the crisis). “The fact that he was the presidential candidate of the party at the last election doesn’t mean he is a bonafide, fixated leader of the party. If he’s running for his private interest, it’s different from the interest of the party.”
Asked whether Atiku could be the flag bearer of the PDP in 2027, the PDP chieftain said, “He cannot be. This is what I am saying. There was 8 years in the North, there should be 8 years in the South. That is the dictate, that is the doctrine of the PDP. I can’t say he cannot contest; he can go to any party because it is his constitutional right but as far as we are concerned, he cannot be the candidate.”
“There are rules. Section 7, Sub-section 3C of our constitution. It states that once the presidential candidate has been in the South for eight years, it had to go to the North. And after another 8 years, it would come to the South. Is Atiku from the South-West, South-South or South-East?” George asked.
The PDP chieftain said he equally doesn’t want Tinubu to be re-elected in 2027, adding that he wants his party to win the next election with a southern candidate.
He is not the only one. Many Southern big wigs are opposed to Atiku’s choice.
Atiku himself is aware of this. And he actually has a Plan B.
Some have hinted that Atiku’s Plan B is to decamp to the SDP if he can’t get the PDP presidential ticket. He is said to have a collaborative relationship with the likes of Mallam El-Rufai, who many believe is holding forte for him. Some have gone ahead to suggest that when the time comes he is most likely going to be the place holder for Atiku in SDP. This is because Atiku and El-Rufai are working together towards the same goal of making sure Atiku becomes the next President of Nigeria.
As it is nobody can convince Atiku not to run. Alhaji Atiku Abubakar believes he is eminently qualified for the job. He has paid his dues.
Atiku Abubakar served as the Vice President of Nigeria from 1999 to 2007 during the presidency of Olusegun Obasanjo. He ran for the office of Governor of Adamawa State 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.
Atiku Abubakar has contested unsuccessfully for the President of Nigeria 6 times, in 1993, 2007, 2011, 2015, 2019, and 2023.
He ran in the Social Democratic Party presidential primaries in 1993, but lost to Moshood Abiola and Baba Gana Kingibe. He was a presidential candidate of the Action Congress in the 2007 presidential election coming in third to 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 out 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, at 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.
Atiku Abubakar is a Fulani born on 25 November 1946 in Jada, a village which was then under the administration of the British Cameroons. The territory later joined with the Federation of Nigeria in the 1961 British Cameroons referendum. His father, Garba Abubakar was a Fulani trader and farmer, and his mother was Aisha Kande. He was named after his paternal grandfather Atiku Abdulqadir who hails from Wurno, Sokoto State and migrated to Kojoli village at Jada, Adamawa State, his maternal grandfather called Inuwa Dutse migrated to Jada, Adamawa State from Dutse, Jigawa State he became the only child of his parents when his only sister died at infancy. In 1957, his father died by drowning while crossing a river to Toungo, a neighbouring village to Jada
Culled from citypeopleonline
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