By Ismail Omipidan, Abuja
It was long foretold. Many Nigerians have been expecting the news. And by Wednesday, July 16, 2025, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), formally resigned from the party.It is the third time he would be resigning from the party.
Apart from his latest resignation, he had resigned in the build up to the 2007 presidential election to join the defunct Action Congress (AC), and in the build up to the 2015 presidential election to join the All Progressives Congress (APC).His resignation was announced by his media aide, Paul Ibe.“I am writing to formally resign my membership from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) with immediate effect.“I would like to take this opportunity to express my profound gratitude for the opportunities I have been given by the party. Serving two full terms as Vice President of Nigeria and being a presidential candidate twice has been one of the most significant chapters of my life. As a founding father of this esteemed party, it is indeed heartbreaking for me to make this decision.“However, I find 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. It is with a heavy heart that I resign, recognising the irreconcilable differences that have emerged.“I wish the party and its leadership all the best in the future. Thank you once again for the opportunities and support,” his resignation letter reads
.Although he did not make his next destination known in the letter, speculations are however rife that he would be heading to the African Democratic Congress (ADC). About three weeks ago, Atiku had teamed up with the 2023 presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, ex-Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, and former Senate President, Senator David Mark among others to form a coalition on the platform of the ADC, with the sole intention to dislodge President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the APC from power in 2027.
Daily Sun however gathered that the only other option available to the former vice president is to withdraw from the race, while remaining a strong pillar of support for the coalition, where he would automatically emerge as the rallying point for the opposition.But where he heads to the ADC, and runs for the presidential ticket there, he is most likely going to pick the ticket, considering his political antecedents and exposure. If he picks the ticket, it will be the fourth time Atiku will be on the ballot for the presidential contest. The first time was in 2007. But he was only cleared to run barely 48 hours to the contest. His performance was abysmal. Since then, he had made two other unsuccessful bids to be on the ballot, until his emergence as candidate in 2019 and 2023 respectively.In 2019, he slugged it out with a fellow Muslim, a fellow Fulani man from the north, former president, the late Muhammadu Buhari. Buhari was APC’s presidential candidate.
Buhari defeated him. In 2023 again, he ran against the incumbent, a Yoruba and a Muslim from the South-West. Again, he was defeated.Considering his age, he is most likely to want to give the presidential contest another shot. If he gets the ticket, considering that he had ran in the past with an Igbo man from the South-East and South-South respectively on three different occasions – 2007 (Ben Obi), 2019 (Peter Obi) and 2023 (Ifeanyi Okowa), he is most likely to want to try a Yoruba running mate this time around. But for the strong resentment for a Muslim-Muslim ticket within their cycle, there are some of the chieftains of the coalition who believe that a Muslim-Muslim ticket for them could as well be a game changer.
Daily Sun investigations reveal that the 2027 presidential election will be about religion, ethnicity, character, personal integrity and antecedents of the candidates. But character and personal integrity alone may not be enough to win the support of the electorate in 2023, as religion and ethnicity will play a decisive role in the election.In the build up to the 2015 elections, one of APC’s major backers was former president, Olusegun Obasanjo.
He single-handedly de-marketed former president, Goodluck Jonathan in the international community. He contributed to undermining the fortunes of the PDP.Today, he is yet to say anything like he did to Jonathan before the contest in 2015 and the late Buhari, before the 2019 contest that they should not to run. Jonathan defied him, he lost. But Buhari defied him and won. Also, he did not support Tinubu in 2023. However, the opposition was not as ferocious as the ones against Jonathan and Buhari respectively. So, for 2027, Obasanjo will have to decide who to back.If the ADC’s ticket goes North, Atiku picks it, and goes ahead to settle for a South-West person as his running mate, the race will become tight for the APC.
But if the APC maintains its current ticket, and with its inroad in the South-South, with Bayelsa and Rivers states most likely to fall soon, the party will still enjoy the support and backing of most states in the South, as the South still believes that the presidency should remain in the region till 2031.Like every party in power, the APC, which made history in Nigeria in 2015 as the first opposition party to dislodge a ruling party, would no doubt be desirous of retaining power beyond 2027.
But the opposition too, on the platform of the coalition and the PDP which until 2015 was in power for 16 years, beginning from 1999, appears to be making frantic efforts to return to power in 2027.In most parts of Nigeria, politics is like war. And in prosecuting it, religion and ethnicity play a major role. But in the North, once the leadership gives one their word, one can take it to the bank.
This was why they were able to deliver a Southern presidential candidate and a Christian twice ahead of their own in 2003 and 2011 respectively, before delivering a Muslim and another Southerner in 2023.How APC made it in 2015: Historical PerspectivesLess than a year after Jonathan emerged as the president in 2011, politicians began re-aligning ahead of the 2015 polls. The major opposition parties in the country at the time all came together, two clear years before the polls to form the APC, with a view to forming a formidable front to battle with the PDP.With the emergence of the APC then, cumulatively, the opposition party’s states rose to 11; one each in the South-East and South-South; five in the South-West, one each in the North-West and North-Central, and two in the North-East. But shortly before the elections, the tally increased to 16, as five other governors from the PDP joined the opposition APC.APC went into the polls with South-West and North -West as its strongholds, thus making the presidency a done deal for it, even before the contest. And in the end, it ended PDP’s 16 years hold on Nigeria. It also became the first win for the opposition in the country’s entire political history.To make it possible, all the South- West states, but one, were delivered to the APC. T
he party also won in all the seven states in the North -West, with Kano posting the highest figure of about two million votes. APC also made a surprise inroad into the Christian-dominated states of Benue and Plateau in the North -Central.In the South-East, the late Buhari scored 198, 248 votes, Jonathan polled 2,464,906. In the South-South, Buhari had 418, 590 votes, Jonathan had 4, 714,725 votes. In South-West, Buhari had 2,433,193 votes, Jonathan scored 1, 821,416. In the North-Central, Buhari polled 2,411,013 votes, Jonathan recorded 1,715,818 votes. In the North-East, Buhari polled 2,848,678 votes, Jonathan had 796,580 votes and in the North-West, which is Buhari’s base, and where he enjoys a cult-like following, he polled 7,115,199 votes, and Jonathan managed to poll 1,339,709 votes.
-Culled From The Sun
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