A fresh political storm erupted on Thursday after the Presidency and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) dismissed former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s emergence as the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate as inconsequential, describing the opposition coalition behind him as a gathering driven by grievances rather than ideas.
Atiku polled 1,846,370 votes to defeat former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi and economist Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, who secured 504,117 and 177,120 votes respectively.
The primary election had sparked controversy after both Amaechi and Hayatu-Deen rejected the conduct of the voting process across the 36 states. and that FCT, insisting that the exercise was flawed.
The duo subsequently boycotted the collation and declaration of results.
Reacting, the Presidency said Atiku’s candidacy posed no electoral threat to President Bola Tinubu in 2027, while insisting that Nigerians would judge the next election on performance and not opposition realignments.
The development also triggered backlash with opposition parties warning that Atiku’s renewed ambition could deepen tensions over Nigeria’s delicate power rotation arrangement between the North and South, which has remained a major but unwritten principle shaping presidential politics since 1999.
Although not enshrined in the Constitution, the principle has remained a stabilising factor in the country’s fragile federal structure, often invoked by political parties and elite coalitions to justify zoning of presidential tickets across regions.
Atiku’s emergence as the ADC flag bearer has reopened old wounds in Nigeria’s political architecture, particularly within opposition ranks already struggling with internal fragmentation, ideological incoherence, and competing ambitions ahead of 2027.
The Presidency was first to react, describing Atiku’s candidacy not as a political threat but as a continuation of what it termed a familiar and predictable pattern of presidential ambition that has defined the former Vice President’s political career for over three decades.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Temitope Ajayi, dismissed the coalition that produced Atiku’s candidacy as an alliance driven not by ideology or governance vision but by resentment and exclusion from political power.
He said the opposition bloc lacked a coherent developmental agenda and instead represented a gathering of politicians motivated by personal grievances.
Ajayi said, “Atiku is welcomed. It is a familiar terrain for him. He is a perennial contestant in our presidential race. He has been chasing this presidential ambition since 1992.
“He has been a candidate in three elections of AC in 2007, PDP in 2019 and 2023, and he was an aspirant in 2015, 2011 and 1992. He has been an aspirant thrice and a candidate thrice based on available record.
“By way of that, we can say he is a veteran of the presidential contest. But he doesn’t pose any threat to President Tinubu’s election.”
The presidential aide further argued that the coalition backing Atiku was already fractured before the primary, citing the withdrawal of key political actors such as Peter Obi and former Kano State Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso as evidence of its weakening structure.
He said the opposition alliance had collapsed under the weight of competing ambitions and lacked the ideological foundation necessary to challenge the ruling party.
“They were banking on building a major platform around all the main opposition figures, especially those dissatisfied in PDP, and a few elements in the APC. So, they were hoping to build a coalition around aggrieved politicians, those who left government years ago and still want to remain at the heart of everything.
“Their coalition was not built around any higher purpose goal, any manifesto about national development, but around the egos of aggrieved individuals who feel they should be at the centre of every government.
“They are not contesting anything with Tinubu on ideas, or philosophy, or developmental vision. It’s about: ‘Oh, I was supposed to be a minister or ambassador but I couldn’t, then Tinubu must go,’” Ajayi said.
He further dismissed comparisons between Atiku’s 2027 ambition and former President Muhammadu Buhari’s successful 2015 presidential bid, insisting that the political conditions that led to Buhari’s victory no longer exist.
Ajayi argued that Buhari benefited from a rare consolidation of opposition forces under a single platform, a unity that is absent in the current political landscape.
He said, “Buhari won the election on a unified opposition platform where everybody subsumed their personal ambitions and structures and interests under the collective. But that is not happening here.
“He doesn’t even command the Buhari support base in the North that could have propelled him. Atiku and Buhari are not the same. There is no indices to compare them.”
On internal opposition dynamics, Ajayi added, “With Obi and Kwankwaso gone, Amaechi is aggrieved because he said he rejected the result of the primaries that produced Atiku, who is remaining there? And Atiku is hoping to be a northern candidate. Nigerians are looking for a President of Nigeria, not a President of a region.”
He also criticised opposition narratives around Peter Obi’s political trajectory, arguing that the former Anambra State Governor had never independently secured a competitive party primary.
“That one (Obi) has never won a party (primary) but has always been coronated candidate or had the tickets donated to him. So, Obi cannot face an intra-party contest because he does not have the capacity to win a party primary.
“He ran for governor under PDP but couldn’t get the ticket and went to APGA, where APGA was handed to him based on Ojukwu’s popularity in Anambra State,” Ajayi said.
Atiku, 78, remains one of Nigeria’s most enduring political figures, having contested presidential elections and party primaries across multiple platforms since the early 1990s.
His political journey has spanned the Social Democratic Party era of the aborted Third Republic, the Action Congress in 2007, and the Peoples Democratic Party in both 2019 and 2023, where he lost to Muhammadu Buhari and President Bola Tinubu respectively.
Despite repeated defeats, Atiku has maintained a consistent presence in Nigeria’s presidential contests, positioning himself as a leading opposition figure and coalition builder across multiple election cycles.
His latest emergence under the ADC platform, however, has reignited long-standing debates over zoning, national unity, and political equity, particularly among opposition parties seeking to redefine their electoral strategy ahead of 2027.
The PUNCH