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By *Ehichioya Ezomon*
Is former Vice President Atiku Abubakar serious and sincere about the 2027 General Election being his “last outing” for the presidency he’s contested in 2007, 2019 and 2023, and came short, respectively? Did he look at the camera and tell Nigerians to hold him to that declaration in an interview on Arise Television’s ‘Prime Time’ on Wednesday, April 15, 2026? Time will reveal!
There’re several readings to the viral sit-down in which Alhaji Abubakar, simply called “Atiku,” addressed questions on unity within his African Democratic Congress (ADC), the selection of the party presidential candidate, and his chances amid concerns over his age, as he’ll be 80 plus on Election Day on January 16, 2027.
Having primaried six times under three different parties in 1993, 2007, 2011, 2015, 2019 and 2023, and contested for President three times under two different parties in 2007, 2019 and 2023, Atiku will be vying the fourth time in 2027 if he picks the ticket of the self-styled “main oppostion” ADC – whose members have pledged to field a “formidable candidate” to challenge and “remove from power” President Bola Tinubu and his All Progressives Congress (APC) administration in 2027.
The interview comes on the heels of a national convention held by Atiku’s faction of the crisis-ridden ADC in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city, on Tuesday, April 14, and on the assumption that due to his pedigree in politics, he’s the ADC’s “formidable candidate” to make Tinubu a one-term president (OTP).
Atiku’s the experience; political structure; personal, social and business connections; a campaign warchest; and he displays a body language that he owns, and took members of the Coalition of Opposition Politicians (COP) to the ADC, which I’ve rightly tagged “Atiku Democratic Congress (ADC)”!
During the interview, Atiku’s asked if, in the interest of unity in the coalition, he’d step aside if a consensus candidate, including the 2023 candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, were to emerge, and he answered in the affirmative, but with a caveat!
Noting that the focus should be on support rather than withdrawal, Atiku said, “It’s not the issue of stepping aside, rather would I support (the ADC candidate pick)?” He went on to explain the process of choosing the candidate, as in the party rulebook.
“In the coalition, the first option would be to work out a consensus. If that doesn’t emerge, then we go for direct primary and I will support anybody who emerges,” Atiku said, stressing that, “Consensus is the first option, as far as the party is concerned. We will aim at consensus, (but) if we don’t get it, then we go for election.”
Atiku’s evasive when asked specifically if he’d step aside for Obi if he’s considered more popular, saying, “I will step aside for any winner” of the primary, ignoring the direct reference to Obi. Pressed further on whether that would include Obi, Atiku responded, “Of course! If he is a contender, why not?”
That response, “If Obi is a contender,” is pregnant with meanings, most starkly that first, Obi might not be a presidential contender in the ADC, taking into account his hints about dumping the party if the primary “is compromised” – a similar alibi he conjured in June 2022 to defect to the LP, as he sensed he stood no chance against Atiku snatching the PDP ticket.
And second, Atiku may, on the surface, dismissively think Obi isn’t his match at the primary (just as he’s remarked about former Governors Aminu Tambuwal (Sokoto State), Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso (Kano State) and Nasir el-Rufai (Kaduna State) not getting his kind of bloc votes in the North).
Obviously reading him, the AriseTv interviewer specified Obi as the strongest ADC competitor to Atiku, whom his handlers – mostly former presidential aspirant, journalist and publisher, Chief Dele Momodu – want to ingratiate, to allow Atiku secure the primary and pick him (Obi) as his running mate, as he did in 2019.
On being more popular and receiving more bloc votes than Tambuwal, Kwankwaso and El-Rufai, Atiku declared: “I’m more popular than all of them. Can you tell me among the current leaders in the North who has secured more votes than I have? I mean, you are talking of people like Tambuwal, Kwankwaso, and El-Rufai, and also the emerging political figures; none of them has got that kind northern bloc votes as much as I have got.”
Even as he acknowledged Kwankwaso’s political stature, which might affect his (Atiku’s) votes in Kano, Atiku noted that the Kwankwaso support base is now divided between him and Kano Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf. “Kwankwaso only got votes from Kano, and we respect that; that is why he is a leader in the coalition,” Atiku said, adding, “But even Kano itself is now split between him and his own governor.”
Then came the question, which led to Atiku’s bombshell of, “The 2027 election will be my last outing” for president. Asked whether turning 80 by 2027 would make the stakes higher for him, Atiku said it would. “Certainly yes, because the stakes are higher and I believe that will be my last outing,” he said.
Reminded that he represents an older political order, Atiku said his experience remains relevant, as he “represents both the past and the future,” arguing that younger leaders require mentorship and guidance from more experienced politicians to succeed.
Claiming that, “Nigeria has a leadership problem,” and that his experience as a former vice president and “military governor” of a state set him apart from President Tinubu, Atiku said: “There is a clear and stark difference. Take the cases of state governors in a number of states being headed by relatively young people; they are failing woefully simply because at the apex (presidency), they do not have (a) capable and (an) experienced president to guide and give them the benefit of his experience.
“That’s why we have been having a number of woeful leadership in a number of states because they are being headed by inexperienced young men,” adding that there’s inexperienced leadership in the presidency during the administration of Dr Goodluck Jonathan (2010-2015).
“Jonathan’s inexperience contributed to the problems Nigeria faced under his administration,” Atiku said, and recommended “leadership training for young Nigerians” as a necessity for the country’s democratic growth and development.
The question: Was Atiku ever a civilian governor, or a “military governor,” as he claimed in the AriseTv interview? Definitely not! Atiku’s an officer in the Nigeria Customs Service, where he, like many Nigerians, took advantage of the system, retired into business and politics, and contested in the primary of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) for the June 12, 1993, presidential election.
Businessman-turned politician, Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola, who secured the primary, also won the presidential poll, but was denied the victory and position by the very Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida junta that organised the ballot!
In 1999, Atiku’s elected Governor of Adamawa State, but wasn’t sworn in before he’s tapped as running mate by then-candidate of the PDP, Chief Obasanjo, for the 1999 presidential poll, which they won, and were re-elected in 2003 for the term limit eight-year tenure (1999-2007).
Atiku also addressed rotation of power between Northern and Southern Nigeria. As he did in 2023, he doesn’t reckon with the unwritten agreement for the 2027 poll, in which two Southern aspirants, Obi and former Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, should be allowed to duke it out for the ADC ticket.
Rather, Atiku rationalised why the North should distort the power rotation, saying the South’s held office longer than the North since Nigeria returned to democracy in 1999. “If we are talking about the zoning formula in the PDP, the South has governed for 18 years and the North has governed for 10,” Atiku said. “So, who is in a deficit if you want to be fair?”
Did Atiku deliberately mix the number of years Northern and Southern presidents ruled Nigeria since 1999? Whereas the South, via Obasanjo (eight years), Jonathan (five years) and Tinubu (three years so far) has ruled for 16 years; the North, through the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua (three years) and President Muhammadu Buhari (eight years) has governed for 11 years – totalling 27 years, and not the 28 years that Atiku stated.
As PUNCH reported on April 16, 2026, Atiku, dismissing claims of a national agreement on power rotation, said, “No, I think this is an error and a mistake to say that there is an agreement on the issue of zoning in Nigeria,” and lectured his interviewer on the origin of a formalised zoning in the system.
“Let me tell you, the only political party that has a zoning provision in its constitution is the PDP. All the rest don’t have it,” Atiku said. “So, if anything, all the other political parties are borrowing or learning from PDP’s zoning formula,” he added, even as he claims to support the principle of rotation.
All said, Atiku needs to remove any ambiguity in his declaration that the 2027 poll will be his “last outing” for president. He’s stated he’d spend only four years if elected president in 2027, but that’s a vote-catching gimmick – an easier-said-than-done rhetoric from Atiku, who’s gunned for President since 1992.
To gain their sympathy and support for power at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja, Nigerians will hear more from Atiku about his vying for office for the “last time” in 2027. It’s left for them to decipher the genuineness of that pledge, and do the needful at the ADC primary, and at the presidential poll on January 16, 2027!
• _Mr Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria. Can be reached on X, Threads, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp @EhichioyaEzomon. Tel: 08033078357_ .
