By Ehichioya Ezomon
The adage – “If something occurs once, it’s happenstance; if twice, it’s coincidence; if thrice, it’s a pattern” (a slight variation from the most famous version, which is “Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action,” attributed to Ian Fleming’s James Bond novel ‘Goldfinger’) – is a popular saying, that “a single occurrence might be accidental, a second might be a random chance, but a third event suggests a pattern or even an intentional act.”
How many times will former Vice President and leader of the Coalition of Opposition Politicians (COP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, deny statements ascribed to him regarding his 2027 run for President for the fourth time since 1999 – having contested in 2007, 2019 and 2023?
As many times in three months, Atiku’s refuted statements attributed to him by top aides or supporters, on the grounds that they didn’t seek or get his input in advance, to be on the same page on the subject matter, or that his statements were “misconstrued.”
Deploying words as disinformation, distortion, false, fabrication, inaccurate, mischief, misleading, misrepresentation, propaganda and unauthorised to categorise such statements, Atiku or his handlers – with no shred of evidence – would accuse the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as the mastermind to feather the re-election of President Bola Tinubu.
Atiku, the presidential candidate of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 and 2023 elections, quit the platform on July 14, 2025, and led the COP members into the African Democratic Congress (ADC), even as he’s yet to formalise his membership of the party.
In his resignation letter to the Chairman of PDP Jada Ward 1 in Adamawa State, Atiku said he found it necessary to part ways “due to the current trajectory the Party has taken, which I believe diverges from the foundational principles we stood for,” adding, “It is with a heavy heart that I resign, recognising the irreconcilable differences that have emerged.”
Since then, Atiku’s somehow embarked on a “one month, one denial” of statements credited or attributed to him, beginning with refutal of the bombshell by Prof. Ola Olateju of the Achievers University, Owo, Ondo State, that Atiku wasn’t “desperate to be President,” but that “his commitment to the evolution of a better Nigeria outweighs his quest to be President.”
As a stand-in for Atiku at the defection of some politicians to the Lagos State chapter of the ADC on August 23, 2025, Prof. Olateju declared: “Atiku Abubakar’s plan is to build a better Nigeria; it’s not about being President, it’s about establishing a government that works for Nigerians – that’s why some of us are with him, not because Atiku must be President at all costs.”
There’s no complication, confusion or obfuscation in Olateju’s statement indicating, suggesting or implying that Atiku won’t contest for President. But Atiku read it otherwise, and offered a prompt rebuttal through another intellectual.
Debunking the claim via a media scholar and his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity during the 2023 poll, Prof. Tunde Olusunle, Atiku said he would be offering himself “to lead the reclamation of Nigeria,” reports The Nation on August 25.
Atiku, speaking on the telephone from his holiday home in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with Olusunle, said: “I did not issue that statement. When people stand in for me at events, we preview my thoughts on the instant subject and what my contribution or intervention will be, so we are on the same page.
“In this particular instance, there was no engagement with me to distill my thoughts; Prof. Olateju was not speaking for me. 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.
“The accompanying deceit, the loss of values, the mega-scale, unimpeded thievery, 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.”
One month later on September 24, Atiku dismissed a statement that, if elected president in 2027, he’d “prioritise the interests of the Yoruba” of the South-West (he claims as a “second home” due to his marriage to a Yoruba, Titi), where he and the ADC bank on massive votes in 2027.
Atiku didn’t bat an eyelid denying the identity of the conveyor of the “particularly offensive” claim, one Kola Johnson, described as his “media consultant,” for suggesting that “an Atiku administration would be dominated by one ethnic group.”
As Daily Post Nigeria reported on September 25, Atiku’s media adviser, Paul Ibe, denying that Atiku “ever engaged Mr Johnson in any capacity,” described the report as false and misleading. “Our findings point directly to the Presidency, which in its desperation to smear opposition leaders, has resorted to hiring faceless mercenaries to fabricate fake stories and circulate unauthorized statements on Atiku,” Chief Ibe said.
Labelling “such disinformation as part of a wider propaganda effort,” Ibe said that any communication from Atiku “can only be considered authentic if issued by the Atiku Media Office and signed either by him or the former vice-president’s special assistant on public communications.”
The latest in Atiku’s string of denials of statements he made or on his behalf came on October 2, as he soured on media reports purporting he planned to step down from the 2027 presidential race for a younger ADC aspirant.
In an interview with BBC Hausa on Wednesday, October 1, Atiku, as reported by Vanguard on October 2, said: “If I run for office, and a young man defeats me (at the primary), I will accept that. The party (ADC) we have joined now prioritises youth and women,” adding that, it’s too early to confirm whether he’d contest, but that the “priority is to establish the party and gain a strong following.”
But dismissing the reports as “based on a distortion” of Atiku’s recent interview with the BBC, Chief Ibe said in a statement on October 2 that Atiku’s comment that he’d support any young candidate that defeats him in the primary “is being misconstrued.”
“After a thorough review of both the video and transcripts of the interview – in the original Hausa and the English translation – it is evident that at no point did the former Vice President expressly state, suggest, or even imply that he intends to step down for anyone,” Ibe said.
“What Atiku Abubakar clearly and unambiguously said was that young people, as well as other prospective presidential aspirants, are free to enter the contest… That if a young candidate were to emerge through a competitive primary, he would readily support such a candidate without any hesitation.”
Ibe added: “While interpretative journalism is a legitimate aspect of reporting, stretching interpretation to the point of mischief is unacceptable and must not be encouraged. For the record, therefore, the insinuations attributed to the Waziri Adamawa from his BBC Hausa interview are inaccurate and do not reflect what he actually said.”
Many will praise Atiku for putting the record straight regarding statements ascribed, attributed or credited to him that he felt weren’t representing his thoughts or position on the subjects. Yet, what does his rush to dissociate from his representatives’ claims, and even deny their persons, indicate?
It’s a clear and an unambiguous sign of desperation by Atiku to be President (in 2027) – a streak he’s demonstrated, in words and in actions, for over 32 years when he first primaried for the annulled June 12, 1993, presidential election won by the late Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola (GCFR)!
As the clock ticks down towards 2027, and more politically-hurting or damaging statements are made by him or on his behalf, so will Atiku’s urge to deny and/or mask them as misconstrued, misleading, misrepresentation, disinformation, or outright fabrication, mischief, propaganda and unauthorised, and push the messengers under the bus, as he did to Prof. Olateju and Mr Johnson.
Such responses would no longer be happenstance or coincidence, but a pattern or an intentional act by the former Vice President. Nigerians wait and see!
* _Mr Ezomon, Journalist, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.
