#NigeriaDecides2023: Will fortune smile on Atiku on his third presidential bid?

Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar made his first attempt to run for the presidency in the build-up to the 1993 general election – but he lost the Social Democratic Party’s ticket to Moshood Abiola, business mogul and presumed winner of the election.

Since then, he has contested six times for presidential tickets and this would be his third time participating in a presidential election as a candidate.

He ran for the office of the president in 2007 on the platform of now defunct Action Congress (AC) — a party Bola Tinubu, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), played a key role in founding.

The former vice-president ran for office for the second time in 2019 on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) but lost to incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari.

Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), was his running mate at the time.

Not giving up, Abubakar secured the PDP’s presidential ticket in May 2022 and is on track to contest a third time at the polls on Saturday.

POLITICAL HISTORY

The former vice-president first ventured into politics in the 1980s when he campaigned for Bamanga Tukur, a former governor of old Gongola.

But he would later establish himself in the “business” when he met with the late Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, a retired army general and politician.

In 1989, Atiku was elected the national vice-chairman of the Peoples Front of Nigeria, a party founded by Rabiu Kwankwaso, presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Tinubu, and Baba Gana Kingibe, a former secretary to the government of the federation (SGF), among others.

Atiku later declared a governorship bid for Gongola in 1990, but the state was divided into Adamawa and Taraba state in 1991.

Though he won the SDP ticket for Adamawa, he was disqualified from running.

It was then his ambition to run for the office of president was birthed in 1993, but he ended up as vice-president to former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999.

VYING FOR ASO ROCK AGAINST ALL ODDS 

One thing Atiku, 76, is easily accused of is being desperate for office owing to how many times he has tried to become president of the country.

In the build-up to the 2019 election, Atiku said he was not desperate for power.

“If I am desperate, I wouldn’t have stepped down for M.K.O Abiola in the 1993 presidential race,” he told BBC Hausa in 2018.

“In 1993, I contested with M.K.O Abiola. I later withdrew from the race. In 1999, I was elected a governor of Adamawa state, then invited to be Nigeria’s vice president under Olusegun Obasanjo.

“All the times I have been contesting for the presidency, I have been opportune only once to be presented to Nigerians as a candidate.

“I could have become Nigeria’s president in 2003 when virtually all the state governors then rallied support for me to contest, which I declined. I am not desperate to be president as some Nigerians view it.”

The southern governors had met and resolved that power must shift to the south after eight years in the north, a resolution now known as the “Asaba accord”. Atiku’s emergence as the PDP standard bearer in 2022 unsettled some members of the party who believed they should have presented a southern candidate since the outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari is from the northern region as Atiku.

This polarised the party as some members shied away from its campaign activities. The G-5 governors — made up of Nyesom Wike of Rivers, Samuel Ortom of Benue, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu, Seyi Makinde of Oyo, and Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia — began the move to unseat Iyorchia Ayu as the party’s chairman. The governors said Ayu and Atiku cannot come from the same region.

But this didn’t deter Atiku from pursuing his ambition. He got the party’s ticket and began a vigorous campaign to become the nation’s number one citizen.

The former president had repeatedly said there is no provision for zoning political offices in Nigeria’s constitution, hence anyone can run for president.

In his final campaign speech in Yola, capital of Adamawa state, Atiku told the residents that the election is a golden opportunity to elect him as president.

“Let me promise Nigerians that we shall never disappoint you. If you give us your mandate, we promise to live by our promises to make sure that we have a united and peaceful country,” Atiku said

Despite the unresolved crisis rocking the party, a number of polls have predicted that Atiku will be elected president on Saturday.

However, many people have misgivings about such polls, arguing that the scientific parameters of how the results are arrived at are questionable.

Though it appears to be a two-horse race between Tinubu and Atiku, the participation of Obi and Kwankwaso in the race has made it difficult to call the elections – with everyone pulling their weights.

But will fortune smile on him this time around?