Atiku Abubakar
Chuks Okocha
Strong indications have emerged that former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar is warming up to roll out his machinery for the 2015 presidential election.
His campaign office at Jabi district in Abuja, which was never really closed and had operated on a skeletal level, is now being renovated and put in good shape for the campaigns. .
The office is already taking a new shape as workers have been busy carrying out extensive renovations on the media office.
The renovation, THISDAY learnt, has been going on since the end of the public holidays to mark the end of the Muslim Ramadan fasting period.
It was learnt the media office is also being strengthened with more hands to promote Atiku’s fresh bid for power.
THISDAY investigation revealed that although President Goodluck Jonathan is yet to come out openly on the issue of 2015, some Northern political contenders like Atiku are not leaving things to chances.
Atiku is largely regarded as the strongest political contender in the PDP from Northern Nigeria.
His bid for the presidency dates back to the build-up to the annulled 1993 presidential election.
At that time, he vied for the ticket of the defunct Social Democratic Party in Jos but stepped down in the second ballot to pave way for the eventual winner, late Bashorun MKO Abiola.
He also contested for the presidency in 2007 and 2011, vying for the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the party’s convention in Abuja but lost on the two occasions.
He was the concensus candidate of the Northern Political Leaders Forum (NPLF), the group which unsuccessfully campaigned for the sanctity of the PDP zoning arrangement in the last April 2011 presidential election.