NIGERIA: Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has finally laid to rest insinuation that he might not contest the presidential poll two years from now, stressing that he will run for the nation’s top job in the next election cycle.
Atiku’s position was made public through his long-time associate and spokesperson during the 2023 elections, Tunde Olusunle, during an interview with ThisDay last night.
Atiku’s recent declaration follows reports that he may reconsider his presidential bid after Prof. Ola Olateju from Achievers University suggested that Atiku is more focused on improving Nigeria than on the presidency itself.
In response, Atiku distanced himself from Olateju’s comments, stating from his holiday home in the UAE that the remarks were unauthorised.
“When people stand in for me at events, we preview my thoughts on the instant subject. In this particular instance, there was no engagement with me to distill my thoughts. Prof. Olateju was not speaking for me,” Atiku was quoted as saying.
“I will run in 2027. Nigeria needs to be decisively rescued from the intensive care unit it has been consigned to. The degeneration in our country, the level of poverty and pain, the anguish, is unacceptable,” he said
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate in the 2023 general election also calmed the frayed nerves of teeming supporters, assuring that the coalition will shock the world in the 2027 presidential election despite efforts by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to ridicule it.
He criticised what he referred to as the unprecedented “theft” under the current administration, emphasising the urgent need to “rescue” the country from its leaders.
He noted that the ADC will mobilise Nigerians to challenge the status quo in 2027, stating that he plans to put his name forward for election.
“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,” Olusunle quoted Atiku as having said, after conferring with him.
