Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has said he does not know if he will run for president again but hinted that if there is a viable platform, he might have a change of mind.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Atiku said this in an exclusive interview with Arise TV’s correspondent, Adesuwa Giwa-Osagie, aired on Wednesday.
“I don’t know,” Atiku said when asked if he was going to run for president in 2027, adding: “there has to be first of all a viable platform”.
He went further to say: “More than any other time in the political history of this country, particularly since the return of democracy, I have not seen Nigeria in dire need of an experience and credible leadership than this time”.
TNG reports the former presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), who has run for the presidency a record six times, also spoke on the recent formation of a coalition of opposition leaders to wrest power from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2027.
“We had a similar, you know, what would I say, merger in 2014. About four of us or is it three? We all ran for president and one of us emerged, and we all supported the one who emerged, and he won,” Atiku said.
Why I rejected Okonjo-Iweala, Soludo as running mate in 2019, picked Okowa over Wike in 2023 – Atiku
Speaking further, the former Vice President disclosed he did not pick Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala or Prof. Charles Soludo as running mate in 2019 because they were not members of the PDP.
For 2023, Atiku said the decision to pick Dr Ifeanyi Okowa over Mr Nyesom Wike and Mr Udom Emmanuel was decided by a committee set up by the party.
“In 2019 when I won the ticket in Port Harcourt, and I came back here, then went straight to Abeokuta to meet my boss, former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
“I told him, Mr President, I have bought the ticket. He asked me, from where is your running mate going to come from. I said of course it is either South-East or South West.
“He said no, leave South West, because I was there for 8 years. Go to South East. Okay sir, do you have anybody in mind? He said yes.
“The first person he suggested was Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. So, I told him Ngozi was not a member of our party. I believed if I forwarded the name to the party, they will reject.
“He said okay. He said what about Soludo? I said Soludo too is not a member of our party. They will not accept. He now said what about Peter Obi? I said Peter Obi is a member of the party. He said okay take him. I said okay sir. And that was it.
“I came back here, I summoned a meeting of the party leaders, then was headed by Uche Secondus and others, including Wike himself, Tambuwal, I remember about 7 of them.
“I said I have been to my boss and then this is what he said. Do you have any objection? You are leaders of the party and leaders of the Governors Forum. They said no, we don’t have objection. I said okay, go and announce.
“Now, I came under a lot of criticism after that. They said I did not consult with the party enough,” Atiku said.
Speaking further, he said: “So, in 2023, I threw the whole thing to the party. I said okay, set up a committee and recommend three people for me to pick as running mate.
“And they set up a committee and they came with a recommendation number 1, number 2 and number 3. So, I picked number 1. Number 1 was Okowa, number 2 was Wike and number 3 was Udom Emmanuel”.