Meet the top 4 candidates in Nigeria’s upcoming presidential election

Atiku Abubakar (PDP)

Atiku was born on November 25, 1946. He is a Nigerian businessman, politician, and two-term Vice President of Nigeria (1999 – 2007). He attended Jada Primary School, Adamawa Provincial Secondary School, Nigeria Police College (briefly), and the School of Hygiene in Kano State. He graduated with a diploma in law from the Ahmadu Bello University Institute of Administration. In 2021, he earned a Master’s degree in International Relations from Anglia Ruskin University, United Kingdom.

Atiku worked in the Nigeria Customs Service for twenty years and retired in April 1989 as the Deputy Director. He ventured into a full-time business with interests in real estate, agriculture, commodity marketing, and logistics (Intel’s Nigeria). He is the Founder of the American University of Nigeria.

He began politics in the early 1980s. On May 29, 1999, he was sworn in as the Vice President of Nigeria to President Olusegun Obasanjo. His second term as the Vice President was marked by a sour relationship with President Olusegun Obasanjo. He fell out with Obasanjo, Joined the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in 2006, contested for the presidential seat under the Party, and lost to Umaru Musa Yaradua of PDP.

After the 2007 election, he left ACN and returned to PDP. He contested for the presidential ticket of the PDP and lost in the primaries to Goodluck Jonathan. He left PDP again with his associates and joined in the formation of APC. He lost the presidential ticket in the primaries to Muhammadu Buhari. He returned to PDP again and won the PDP ticket for the 2019 presidential election, which he lost to Muhammadu Buhari of APC. He has unsuccessfully run five times (1993, 2007, 2011, 2015, and 2019) for the office of the President of Nigeria. Atiku again won the PDP presidential ticket for the upcoming 2023 General Election.