Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has reportedly told a close aide that he will run for president in the 2027 general election. He reportedly said his aim is to rescue Nigerians from poverty.
Tunde Olusunle, a spokesperson for Atiku during the 2023 presidential election, told journalists that Atiku declared his ambition to him.
“I will run in 2027. Nigeria needs to be decisively rescued from the intensive care unit it has been consigned. The degeneration in our country, the level of poverty and pain, the anguish, is unacceptable,” Mr Olusunle quoted Atiku as saying.
Mr Olusunle spoke in an interview with ThisDay newspaper on Sunday.
“The accompanying deceit, the loss of values, the mega-scale, unimpeded thievery and the absolute lack of accountability must disturb every concerned patriot. I will be offering myself to lead the reclamation and reconstruction of our traumatised homeland,” Mr Olusunle further quoted the former vice president as saying.
The announcement comes against the backdrop of doubts about whether the former vice president, a key promoter of the ADC opposition coalition, would throw his hat in the ring again.
Some of his allies had previously claimed that Atiku might be taking a step back from the election.
Recently, Ola Olateju, a professor who represented Atiku at an ADC event in Lagos to receive defectors into the coalition, hinted that the former vice president was no longer interested in contesting. This had generated speculations that Atiku might play a backseat role in brokering unity within the opposition rather than actively pursuing the presidency.
The former vice president lost the 2023 presidential election to President Bola Tinubu.
PREMIUM TIMES reported that Atiku’s presidential interest is expected to complicate ongoing negotiations within the ADC, which is struggling to balance regional power demands and the ambitions of its leading members.
While the former vice president, from Adamawa State, is positioning himself to be the coalition’s candidate, former Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi, and ex-Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, both of whom have declared their interest in contesting, are pushing for the presidential ticket to be zoned to the South.
Mr Obi, who contested under the Labour Party in 2023, has promised to deliver “competent, capable, and compassionate leadership” if given the mandate.
He has also indicated a willingness to serve only a four-year tenure as part of a rotational arrangement that would return power to the north thereafter.
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Mr Amaechi, who lost the 2022 APC presidential primary to President Bola Tinubu, has also revived his ambition and is banking on the coalition to provide a platform for his comeback.
Atiku, however, is expected to resist any zoning arrangement that sidelines him, particularly given his presidential ambition that dates back to 1993.
His determination to run again may likely ignite a crisis within the coalition over both zoning and succession agreements.