Atiku declares 2027 presidential bid, says Nigeria must be rescued from ICU

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has declared that he will run for president in the 2027 general election.

This is just as Atiku disowned comments made on his behalf by a professor at the Achievers University in Ondo State, Ola Olateju.

Olateju had, at a ceremony to welcome defectors from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP) into the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in Lagos on Saturday, said Atiku is not desperate to be Nigeria’s president.

The professor, who presented Atiku at the event, stressed that the former vice president is more interested in a better Nigeria than being president.

Speaking in a telephone interview with THISDAY on Sunday night, the PDP presidential candidate in the 2023 election disowned Olateju’s comments, adding that he will run for the nation’s top seat in the 2027 election.

Atiku, who is currently in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), spoke through his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Prof. Tunde Olusunle.

Olusunle quoted Atiku as saying: “I did not issue that statement. When people stand in for me at events, we preview my thoughts on the instant subject and what my contribution or intervention will be, so we are on the same page.

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“In this particular instance, there was no engagement with me to distil my thoughts. Prof Olateju was not speaking for me.

“I will run in 2027. Nigeria needs to be decisively rescued from the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) it has been consigned to. The degeneration in our country, the level of poverty and pain, the anguish, is unacceptable.

“The accompanying deceit, the loss of values, the mega-scale, unimpeded thievery, 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.”

He added that the coalition will shock the world in the 2027 presidential election, despite efforts by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to ridicule the ADC.

“ADC is leading a potent mass movement which will shock the world. We will upstage the status quo in a way which will leave doubters dumbstruck,” Atiku said.

78-year-old Atiku had, in May 2024, said he would “keep contesting” for the Nigerian presidency as long as he is hale and hearty.

The former vice president will be 81 during the 2027 election.

Atiku, who deputised former President Olusegun Obasanjo between 2009 and 2007, has run for the number one office six times, but has been on the ballot as a presidential candidate on three occasions – 2007, 2019, and 2023.

The Star